Abstract:
The spatial and temporal variability experienced in the weather conditions of a local area as well as the landmass on which they act makes the overall system highly dynamic and therefore complex to understand in terms of its water resources. Watershed management philosophy offers a great deal in handling these complexities and has been accepted globally. However, it is a pity that invariably this philosophy has not been implemented effectively.
In India, integrated watershed management has been adopted as a part of the National Water Policy (NWP, 2002) for conservation of natural resources. Recently, enhanced emphasis is being placed on ensuring that the local level users participate in the planning and management of the natural resources at the watershed level through the "Haryalli" Guidelines Of the Ministry of Rural Development, (MaRL, 2004). Although the intent is in place the mechanism to achieve the goal is inadequate and faulty. The present paper discusses the fallacies inherent in the watershed management programme and goes on to suggest the remedies for designing and implementing the watershed management philosophy in a scientific manner. Furthermore, the paper also addresses the issue of handling the externalities in the watershed management programme that are invariably ignored.
The paper demonstrates the use of new technologies in the form of a GIS based modeling framework for local level planning. Use of case studies has been made to bring home some pertinent fallacies and also to demonstrate the applicability of new technologies to address some of the problems in watershed management programme.
