{"id":30240,"date":"2018-10-26T14:53:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T09:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=30240"},"modified":"2018-10-26T14:53:55","modified_gmt":"2018-10-26T09:23:55","slug":"rivers-floodplains-cities-and-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/rivers-floodplains-cities-and-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"Rivers, floodplains, cities and farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/rivers-floodplains-cities-and-farmers\/article23396194.ece\"><strong>Rivers, floodplains, cities and farmers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>What has happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Floodplains of rivers can provide a new source of water. They are a local, non-polluting, perennial and non-invasive source of water for urban centres. Our work and research on the Palla floodplain scheme which was launched by the Delhi Jal Board in 2016 is a tangible realisation of this idea. The scheme (on a 25 km stretch of the Yamuna) is currently running at half its potential and providing water to about one million people in the city \u2014 of a daily requirement of 150 litres per person<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conserve and use plan<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It demands that no more than is recharged by rain and floods each year can be withdrawn from this aquifer<\/li>\n<li>This ensures that the groundwater level in the floodplains remains steadily above that in the river in the lean non-monsoon months when the river is often polluted<\/li>\n<li>Drawing out any more water than is recharged can contaminate and eventually finish off this precious resource.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>A new Scheme: Use of Floodplains as source of water<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Floodplains can be used as aquifer:<\/strong> If we conserve and use the floodplain, it can be a self-sustaining aquifer wherein every year, the river and floodplain are preserved in the same healthy condition as the year before<\/li>\n<li><strong>Conserve and use scheme:<\/strong> A socio-economic-environmental scheme, can provide water to urban centres along rivers; it can also engage farmers by providing them an assured income and restore rivers to a healthy condition.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Income for farmers: <\/strong>Farmers on either side of the river can be provided an assured and steady income<\/li>\n<li><strong>Farmers can grow food forests:<\/strong> Farmers can grow a food forest, fruit orchards or nut trees but not water-intensive crops on this land. It would guarantee not only a good farming income but also great earnings from the water for the farmers without taking the ownership of the land away from them<\/li>\n<li><strong>No Need of subsidies: \u00a0<\/strong>The capital cost for building such a scheme would be minimal (a few hundred crores) and the revenue generated would be able to pay for the costs and for farmers\u2019 income without any subsidy<\/li>\n<li><strong>Prevention of erosion:<\/strong> Ecologically, a water sanctuary would prevent erosion, heal the river ecosystem, and restore the ecological balance in floodplains<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rivers can be refilled when water levels decrease in them:<\/strong> Even after withdrawal, floodplains would have enough water to slowly release back into the river in a lean season<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stop illegal extraction of water<\/strong>: This scheme would help curb illegal extraction of water, stop pollution by local agencies and industries and also encourage cities to be more responsible in their waste management.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This scheme will also help improve the quality of rivers, quality of life for citizens, and at the same time guarantee farmers a healthy fixed income. This is a new scheme of living. This is the philosophy of \u201cconserve and use\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rivers, floodplains, cities and farmers What has happened? Floodplains of rivers can provide a new source of water. They are a local, non-polluting, perennial and non-invasive source of water for urban centres. Our work and research on the Palla floodplain scheme which was launched by the Delhi Jal Board in 2016 is a tangible realisation&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/rivers-floodplains-cities-and-farmers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Rivers, floodplains, cities and farmers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704913929},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}