Harappa to Harsud: water management in India

Water wars in urban India is not new, they go back to Harappa.
Harsud was a town and municipality in Khandwa in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Although the town was more than 700 years old, it submerged under the waters of the Indira Sagar dam in July 2004. The town was relocated to Chhanera (New Harsud) after the old town was submerged in the waters of Indira Sagar Dam.

Indus people

According to historian DD Kosambi, the Indus people managed water by damming the small branches of rivers.

Aryan

Aryan people shattered this dam system which ruined the agriculture and eventually destroyed the Indus valley Civilization.
The Aryans replaced Indus agriculture with pastoral economy that involved mass killing of animals.

Buddha

Things changed course with the spread of the philosophy of Ahimsa.
Buddha said, agriculture can support more number of people than pastoral economy and for that, stop mass killings.

Taxila
It's said that the king of Taxila asked Alexander: “To what purpose should we make war upon one another if the design of your coming into these parts be not to rob us of our water?”
Vedic period

Vedic sacrifices went out of fashion.
Agriculture became the most important source of revenue.
The king requires revenue, and cultivating land to supply for needs of subject is king’s duty. King should build and look after the irrigation systems. This eventually resulted in demand for water.

Others

In Arthashastra Kautilya declared: King should build and look after irrigation system.
Canals, dykes, roads and tanks were made from time to time. The Bhopal lake, created in the 11th century, was one of the largest artificial lakes of the time, spanning 65,000 hectares.
Iltutmish made several tanks in Delhi. The famous Hauz Khas tank was built by him.
The Khaljis are also known for building tanks.
Firuz Tughlaq was one of the greatest canal builders. He also introduced the water usage charge.
In the Mughal period, Akbar directed his governors to be energetic in the making of reservoirs, watercourses and wells.
In his account of a visit to Olala near Mangalore, Italian traveller Pietro Della Valle mentions: The state generously promotes and encourages water management at the village level.
For the building and maintenance of tanks, Emperor Krishna Dev Raya provided monetary Inam, called Dasabandam. Inam Kudimaramat was provided to maintain rivers, springs and channels.
Strong social and moral code of conduct was invoked to ensure maintenance of public works religiously.
Violation of the obligation of maintaining these structures would amount to killing of their fathers and cows.

British

Recurrent famines forced the British to appoint the first irrigation commission in 1901. British paid little attention to people's participation in water management. Instead they opted for big dams.
Arthur Thomas Cotton and John Pennycuick constructed irrigation canals and Mullaperiyar Dam respectively.

After Independence

Big dam building was escalated after Independence.
Prime Minister Nehru declared these big multipurpose dams as “The temple of a free India”. We need dams to make our country self-reliant in food production and electricity.
But unlike in Indus valley, dams in their new avatar are different. Besides irrigation and flood control, they are meant to produce electricity as well.
However, it comes at the cost of submerging lands and displacing a large number of people.

Scarce resource

Lack of public participation, along with gradual withdrawal of the State, caused irreparable damage to local waterbodies, such as tanks and ponds.
Recurrent droughts in rural areas: It's estimated that 330 million people are affected by the recent droughts alone.
State manages the water and it has its own priorities, journalist P Sainath noted.
In drought-prone Marathwada, people have to pay between 45 paise to Rs1 for one litre of water.
Whereas beer manufacturing companies get three million litres of water per day at 4 paise per litre.

Water scarcity is one of the main reasons for the mass migration of people from rural areas. These are the people who now live in irregular colonies of the cities. The saddest part is, water, which was once the free gift of nature is now forcing people to shift priorities in their lives.