Dr Mark Everard - Day 2- Lancaster Sep18

1. Dr Mark Everard
Associate Professor of Ecosystem Services, UWE Bristol
Reversing the cycle:
Water scarcity trends, interlinked vulnerabilities and potential solutions
in a complex dry land Indian catchment: the Banas system, Rajasthan

2.  Stewardship
= resource exploitation + regeneration
 Trends in the Banas catchment
 Community‐based regeneration in Rajasthan
 Upscaling co‐benefits in the Banas catchment
…and beyond
What we’ll cover today…

3. European marine fisheries
MSY ?

4. UK ‘sustainable abstraction’

5. Historic Indian water management
• 4.5 millennia of innovative water management
o Adaptation to episodic monsoon rains
o Wealth of traditional, local knowledge
• Community‐based, local groundwater recharge
o Tanks, johadi, eris, taanka, rehats, beris, etc. + forest management

6. Desert or wetland?

7. Profound changes
• Demographics
• Urbanisation
• Land uses
• Climate change
• Mechanisation
o Tube wells
o Dam‐and‐transfer
• Marketisation
• Governance
• Economics

8. Governance and ownership
• State ownership of water
• State control of water management
o Dispossession from local people
o Collapse of traditional, local management and community collaboration
o Loss of traditional knowledge

9. Tube wells and energisation
• Private exploitation of water
o Receding aquifers
o Those with resources pump deepest
• Cheap/free electricity to farmers
o Absurd economically and equitably
• No incentive for recharge
o Cycles of socio‐ecological degradation
o Village abandonment
• Competition, not collaboration
Technology and economics

10. Outcomes for catchment functions
Social
• Abandonment of recharge
• Loss of community cohesion
• Loss of traditional wisdom
• Drying wells
• Fluorosis, As and saline water
• Village abandonment
• Urban / irrigation vulnerability
FCl
Environmental
• Declining aquifers
• Contaminated water
• Fragmented river
• Drying reservoir
• Biodiversity loss
Technology / policy
• Tube wells replace recharge
• Energy costs low
• Ready access
• Deeper withdrawals
Economic
• Short‐term stimuli
• Long‐term vulnerabilities
A degrading socio‐ecological cycle

11. • Stewardship
= resource exploitation + regeneration
 Trends in the Banas catchment
 Community‐based regeneration in Rajasthan
 Upscaling co‐benefits in the Banas catchment
…and beyond
What we’ll cover today…

12. What and where is the Banas?
Arid or semi‐arid

13.  Formerly community recharge
 Mechanised tube wells
 Resort development
 Inaccessible water
 Fluorosis and salinity
 Village abandonment
Issues in the rural upper Banas

14. Bisalpur Dam on the middle Banas
 Built for local uses (1987)
 Urban appropriation (2006‐9)
 Habitat fragmentation
 Urban and rural vulnerability
 No dam releases
 Declining quantity/quality

15. Jaipur City’s thirsty history
• Semi‐arid zone of Rajasthan
• 3.5 million now, 4.2 million by 2025
• Over‐abstraction depresses groundwater
• Contamination of local sources
• Ramgarh Reservoir, 32 km to NE
• Built 1897 for local supply, irrigation, fishery
• Diverted to Jaipur 1952, enlarged in phases
• Ramgarh Lake dry since 2000
• Bisalpur Dam, 120km to SW
• Built 1987 for local irrigation and supply
• Diverted to Jaipur 2006‐2009, enlarged in phases
• Rarely fills, rising fluoride and salt concentrations
Where next? A broken model, with serious linked vulnerabilities

16.  Formerly connected
 Water insecurity
 Food insecurity
 Wildlife‐human conflict
 Reduced flow to Chambal
 River fragmentation
Impacts on the lower Banas

17. Tightly linked vulnerabilities
RURAL
URBAN
IRRIGATION
WILDLIFE
TOURISM
All facets of a tightly linked, multi‐faceted socio‐ecological system (SES)

18. Compounded by:
• Rising human population
• Lifestyle change
• Changing climate
‘Wicked’ problems in the Banas
Interconnected factors (STEEP):
• Social
• Technological
• Environmental
• Economic
• Political

19.  Stewardship
= resource exploitation + regeneration
 Trends in the Banas catchment
 Community‐based regeneration in Rajasthan
 Upscaling co‐benefits in the Banas catchment
…and beyond
What we’ll cover today…

20. Community‐based catchment restoration
Alwar District, North Rajasthan
Everard, M. (2015). Community‐based groundwater and ecosystem
restoration in semi‐arid north Rajasthan (1): socio‐economic progress
and lessons for groundwater‐dependent areas. Ecosystem Services,
16, pp.125–135. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.10.011.
Learning from 4,500 years of water wisdom
• Geographically and culturally attuned

30. Gopalpura

31. Chabutra Wala

32. Golakabass

33. Tilda

34. Rudmal Meena, headman, Harmeerpur village

35. Jabar Sagar

36. Jabar Sagar

37. Mandalwass

38. Tilda

39. Mandalwass, lower impoundment

40. Tilda

41. Golakabass

42. Tilda

45.  Stewardship
= resource exploitation + regeneration
 Trends in the Banas catchment
 Community‐based regeneration in Rajasthan
 Upscaling co‐benefits in the Banas catchment
…and beyond
What we’ll cover today…

46. Kumbhalgarh Fort
Rajsamand
Ranakpur
Bhilwara
Bisalpur Dam
25.923878oN, 75.455738oE
Tonk Sawai Madhopur
50 kmAjmer
Current water management in the upper catchment:
• Mechanised over‐exploitation of groundwater is currently degrading water/river
flows and quality, creating vulnerabilities for local people and ecosystems
Urban appropriation of water from the Bisalpur Dam:
• Declining quantity and quality of water entering the dam from upstream
creates vulnerabilities for the dam’s urban and irrigation beneficiaries
Downstream reaches of the catchment:
• Starvation of flows downstream creates
vulnerabilities for ecosystems and communities
Rajasthan state
A degenerative socio‐ecological cycle

47. Kumbhalgarh Fort
Rajsamand
Ranakpur
Bhilwara
Bisalpur Dam
25.923878oN, 75.455738oE
Tonk Sawai Madhopur
50 kmAjmer
Potential future water management in the upper catchment:
• Refocusing management on groundwater recharge during
monsoon run‐off could rebuild catchment resources,
benefitting multiple constituencies down the river
Reinvestment in ecosystem processes by beneficiaries from the Bisalpur Dam:
• Recharge and regeneration of water resources in the Banas upstream could
secure benefits enjoyed by the dam’s urban and irrigation beneficiaries
Downstream reaches of the catchment:
• Upstream and local recharge, and implementation
of Environmental Flow releases from the dam, can
result reduce current vulnerabilities
Rajasthan state
Creating a regenerative socio‐ecological cycle
Everard, M., Sharma, O.P., Vishwakarma, V.K., Khandal, D., Sahu, Y.K., Bhatnagar, R., Singh, J., Kumar, R., Nawab, A., Kumar, A., Kumar, V., Kashyap, A.,
Pandey, D.N. and Pinder, A. (2018). Assessing the feasibility of integrating ecosystem‐based with engineered water resource governance and management
for water security in semi‐arid landscapes: a case study in the Banas Catchment, Rajasthan, India. Science of the Total Environment, 612, pp.1249‐1265.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969717322726.

48. STEEP:
• Social: Rebuilding community collaboration, recognising all stakeholders are linked as equal co‐dependents
• Technological: Technology usage balancing recharge with extraction, linking nature‐based and engineered
• Environmental: Understanding natural recharge rates and other processes
• Economic: Balancing benefits and costs, with economic measures to sustain the whole system
• Political: Nested governance across scales, from local self‐benefit to catchment‐scale vision
‘Big picture’ solutions
SUSTAINABLE HYBRIDISATION:
• Infrastructure:
• Natural processes, valuing fundamental ‘capital’
• Tradition wisdom (reinterpreted)
• ‘Green’ technology
• ‘Hard’ engineering
• Simultaneously realising self‐benefit + catchment benefits

49. Background
Everard, M., Sharma, O.P., Vishwakarma, V.K., Khandal, D., Sahu, Y.K., Bhatnagar, R., Singh, J., Kumar, R., Nawab, A.,
Kumar, A., Kumar, V., Kashyap, A., Pandey, D.N. and Pinder, A. (2018). Assessing the feasibility of integrating
ecosystem‐based with engineered water resource governance and management for water security in semi‐arid
landscapes: a case study in the Banas Catchment, Rajasthan, India. Science of the Total Environment, 612, pp.1249‐
1265. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969717322726.

50. Wise Water Solutions in Rajasthan
Sharma, O.P. and Everard, M. (2018). Wise Water Solutions in Rajasthan.
WaterHarvest, Udaipur, India.

51. Regeneration of the Banas‐Bisalpur Socio‐ecological Complex
Multi‐stakeholder workshop: 4th–6th December 2017
Kindly sponsored by Wetlands International- South Asia Office (India)
Endorsed by Government of Rajasthan: Mukya Mantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan (MJSA)
Progressing the Banas programme

52. Building on political levers
How to influence across policy sectors?

53. Everard, M., Sharma, O.P., Vishwakarma, V.K., Khandal, D., Sahu, Y.K., Bhatnagar, R., Singh, J.,
Kumar, R., Nawab, A., Kumar, A., Kumar, V., Kashyap, A., Pandey, D.N. and Pinder, A. (2018).
Assessing the feasibility of integrating ecosystem‐based with engineered water resource
governance and management for water security in semi‐arid landscapes: a case study in the
Banas Catchment, Rajasthan, India. Science of the Total Environment, 612, pp.1249‐1265.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969717322726.
Everard, M. (2015). Community‐based groundwater and ecosystem restoration in semi‐arid
north Rajasthan (1): socio‐economic progress and lessons for groundwater‐dependent areas.
Ecosystem Services, 16, pp.125–135. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.10.011.
UN Water. (2018). World Water Development Report 2018: Nature‐based Solutions for Water.
UN Water. http://www.unwater.org/publications/world‐water‐development‐report‐2018/.
Everard, M. (2013). The Hydropolitics of Dams: Engineering or Ecosystems? Zed Books, London.
Sharma, O.P. and Everard, M. (2018). Wise Water Solutions in Rajasthan. WaterHarvest, Udaipur,
India.
Further reading

54. Dr Mark Everard
Associate Professor of Ecosystem Services, UWE Bristol
Reversing the cycle:
Water scarcity trends, interlinked vulnerabilities and potential solutions
in a complex dry land Indian catchment: the Banas system, Rajasthan