●What is a watershed?

( with types)- kavya

●Importance of watersheds-kavya

●Watershed management-priya

●Factors affecting watershed management- priya

●Why is watershed management important(basically challenges of watersheds) -Rikshika

●Objectives of watershed management -rikshika

●Watershed management practices-juliana

●Approaches in the context of India with case studies-juliana

SLIDE 1
What is a Watershed?

Every body of water (e.g., rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, and estuaries) has a watershed. The watershed is
the area of land that drains or sheds water into a specific receiving waterbody, such as a lake or a river.
As rainwater or melted snow runs downhill in the watershed, it collects and transports sediment and
other materials and deposits them into the receiving waterbody.

Types of Watershed Management:

Watershed is classified depending upon the size, drainage, shape and land use pattern.

a. Macro watershed: 1000 -10,000 ha

b. Micro watershed: 100 -1000 ha

c. Mini watershed: 10 -100 ha

d. Mille watershed: 1 -10 ha

SLIDE 2
Why are Watersheds important?

Watersheds are more than just drainage areas in and around our communities. They are necessary to
support habitat for plants and animals, and they provide drinking water for people and wildlife. They
also provide the opportunity for recreation and enjoyment of nature.

Protection of the natural resources in our watershed is essential to maintain the health and well being of
all living things, both now and in the future.

SLIDE 3

SLIDE 4
SLIDE 5
Objectives of watershed management:
1. Improvement and restoration of soil quality and thus, raising productivity rates.

2. Supply and securing of clean and sufficient drinking water for the population.

3. Improvement of infrastructure for storage, transport and agricultural marketing.

4. To manage the watershed for beneficial developmental activities like domestic

water supply, irrigation, hydropower generation etc.

5. To minimize the risks of floods, droughts and landslides

6. To develop rural areas in the region with clear plans for improving the economy
of the regions.

7. Integrated Watershed Management (IWMP) an initiative by the state.

SLIDE 6
Problems of watershed management

A. Uncertain rainfall

B. Limited benefits for the weaker section.

C. Community based lands aren’t treated properly.

D. Conflict between different government ministries

E. lack of baseline data for monitoring and comparison of the current

conditions

F. tribal population lack facilities

Management plans are an important tool prior to commencing restoration
activity within a watershed because:

A .They identify degraded systems and highlight potential issues in the future,

B .They help to prioritize areas of restoration,

C .They help to secure funds for restoration work,

D .They help allocate available resources, and

E. They provide an important role for people to make positive changes in their
community.

SLIDE 7

Watershed Management Practices:

The practices of conservation and development of land and water are taken up
with respect to their suitability for peoples benefit as well as sustainability.
Various measures taken up for management include the following:

The watershed management measures can be grouped under following two

main categories:
1. Management purpose; and
2. Method and accomplishment.

1. In terms of purpose- management measures which are effective in

the following are considered:

 increase the infiltration rate- this is done to enhance the soil

moisture status. The practices to enhance the infiltration rate are the tillage
practices, cropping system, addition of organic materials etc.
 water holding capacity of the soil- The water holding capacity
develops overall effects on watershed behavior. It can be improved by
adding organic matters in the soil.
 prevent the soil erosion from watershed. The practices to be used for
 erosion control depends very much on the erosion intensity, soil features,
cropping practices, mainly.
If erosion intensity is not very high and land slope is in mild range then
agronomical measures could be significant to check the soil erosion. These
include:
(i) Strip cropping
(ii) Pasture farming
(iii) Fertilizing the crop land, and
(iv) Grass land farming etc.

On the other hand, when erosion rate and slope steepness of the area is very high
then mechanical measures such as bunding, terracing etc.,are very effective to
check the soil erosion.

Similarly, for gully erosion control a host of practice have been devised such as
drop structures, check dams, gabions etc., can be suitably used for watershed
management.

In watershed, if there is stream bank erosion problem, then it can be tackled by

using various methods such as spurs, gabions and agronomical measures .

2. Method and accomplishment- measures which are planned primarily for

the management of water flow. These include:

 The flood water retarding structures,

 stream/channel improvement to make their carrying capacity
sufficient,
 minor flood-ways, sediment detention in watershed etc

Water harvesting is also an important management measure in which proper

storage of water is done with the purpose of

 use in dry seasons in low rainfall areas; and

 moderation of floods.
Eg. In rainwater harvesting appreciable amount of precipitation, which
is generally lost as surface flow, can be harvested and stored for useful
purposes like drinking and providing supplemental irrigation to the
crops.

Public participation: People’s involvement including the farmers and tribals is the
key to the success of any watershed management programme, particularly the soil
and water conservation. The communities are to be motivated for protecting a
freshly planted area and maintaining a water harvesting structure implemented by
the government or some external agency (NGO) independently or by involving the
local people. Properly educating the people about the campaign and its benefits
or sometimes paying certain incentives to them can help in effective peoples
participation. Successful watershed management has been done at Sukhomajri
Panchkula, Haryana through active participation of the local people.

SLIDE 8
Watershed Management Programmes:

(i) Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP):

Year of start: 1970-71

Objectives: Area development programme through restoration of ecological

balance and optimum utilization of land, water, livestock and human resources
to mitigate the effect of drought.

(ii) Desert Development Programme (DDP):

Year of start: 1977-78

Objectives: Mitigate the effect of drought in the desert area and restore
ecological balance.
(iii) National Watershed Development Programme for Rainfed Agriculture
(NWDPRA):

Year of start: 1986-87

Objectives: To conserve and utilize rain water from both arable and non arable
lands on watershed basis. To increase the productivity of crops and to increase
the fuel, fodder and fruit resources through appropriate alternate land use
system.

(iv) Control of Shifting Cultivation:

Year of start: 1986-87

Objectives: Restoring ecological balance in hilly areas and improving socio-

economic conditions.

(v) World Bank Assisted Integrated Watershed Development Project:

Year of start: 1990

Objectives: To arrest the problems of environmental degradation and promote

sustainable increase in agriculture production and to enhance vegetative
technology of soil and water conservation for rain water conservation and for
increasing crop, forage, fuel wood and timber yield of the area.

SLIDE 9
ADDITIONAL SLIDES
Steps in Watershed Management:

Watershed management involves determination of alternative land treatment measures for, which
information about problems of land, soil, water and vegetation in the watershed is essential. In order to
have a practical solution to above problem it is necessary to go through four phases for a full scale
watershed management.

Programme:

a. Recognition phase.

b. Restoration phase.

c. Protection phase.

d. Improvement phase.
(i) Recognition Phase:

It involves following steps

(a) Recognition of the problem

(b) Analysis of the cause of the problem and its effect.

(C) Development of alternative solutions of problem.

(ii) Restoration Phase:

It includes two main steps.

(a) Selection of best solution to problems identified

(b) Application of the solution to the problems of the land

(iii) Protection Phase:

This phase takes care of the general health of the watershed and ensures normal functioning. The
protection is against all factors which may cause determined in watershed condition.

(iv) Improvement Phase:

This phase deals with overall improvement in the watershed and all land is covered. Attention is paid to
agriculture and forest management and production, forage production and pasture management, socio
economic conditions to achieve the objectives of watershed management.

Existing acts in the legal framework on water at the National

level -The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974 (amended 1988
& 1992)-The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act 1977(amended
2003)-

EPA(Environment Protection Act) is another relevant legislation

•SalientpointsoftheWaterCessAct-to provide for levy and collection of

a cess on water consumed by certain industries and by local authorities, to
augment the resources of the Central Board and the State Boards for the
prevention and control of water pollution constituted under the Water
(Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974-
TheWaterCessActalsomandatesthatalltheindustriesandlocalauthoritiesshallaffi
xametertomeasurethequantityofwaterbeingusedbythemforthecomputationofthe
cess-
Therateofcess(verylow)islinkedwithfulfillmentofconditionsrelatedtopollutionefflu
entstandardsandnotatallconcernedwiththequantityofwaterbeingused.Water

legislation and its focus in IndiaThe objective of the Cess Act

is to generate money for the Institutional framework created to enforce water
pollution laws and not to acknowledge that water is a scarce and precious
national resource
•Salient points of EPA ‒A general umbrella legislation on environmental
protection that enablesgovernment to create authorities for environment
protection and improvement-Environment definition includes water, air and
land /interrelationship amongst water, air and land and human beings, other
living creatures, plants, microorganism and property-Section 3 of EPA
empowers central govtto take all such measures as it deems necessary for
protecting and improving the quality of the environment-Section 3(2) illustrates
without being exhaustive the specific matters in relation to which the
government can take action which includeoLaying down standards for the quality
of environment in its various aspectsoOther matters that govtdeems necessary for
securing effective implementation of this
Act•Wetlands(ConservationandManagement)AmendmentRules,2016
•NationalWaterFrameworkAct,2016(Draft)
(UrbanWaterManagement–
ServiceLevelBenchmarksforwatersupply,sanitation,solidwastemana
gementandstormwaterdrainage,netmeteringofwater,annualwateracc
ountsandwaterauditreportsetc)

Indian association of soil and water conservationists …. holds national and regional conference

National conference on resource conservation and watershed management at

Dehradun 2001

Watershed management would be most suitable for drought prone, tribal

and hill areas, which should be allowed and encouraged to be developed by
the local communities, with technical and financial help from the
government and NGOs.