Pani pani re...

Mornings are good. You are fresh and it is the beginning of the day.

I generally use the company transport to commute to my workplace. And after I go to the office first thing I do is, go downstairs, with my friends, to grab a bite of breakfast. 

Then the discussion, invariably, veers to hot topics - news of the day, politics, social problems, movies and cricket.

So there was a discussion about a recent news item that detailed how there is escalating expenditure on irrigation projects in Maharashtra, without significant changes on the ground.

As usual it prompted me to think over.

It is pretty hard what is more outrageous?

The ever-increasing problems of day-to-day life or the general degrading water conditions in Maharashtra.

Now some facts - Maharashtra has 1427 large dams, highest number in the country.

Based on various assessments studies done by Water Resources Department, the 75% dependable yield is 131562 Mm3 . The permissible use of water in the state is 125936 Mm3. 

And there are five major river basins in Maharashtra - Tapi, Narmada, Krishna, Godavari and rivers in Konkan.

Add to that, the dispute of sharing the water in Krishna basin. The second Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal gave its verdict on December 31, 2010. And Maharashtra was given 666 tmc of water. Next hearing is scheduled in the year 2050!

Despite all this, almost every year, we start facing shortage of water in the months of April, May if not in March.

That economy, availability of food grains, almost everything depends on a good monsoon in India and Maharashtra, is a age-old piece of reality.    

But equally frustrating fact is that there are same problems occurring almost every year, especially in case of water resources.

There are issues of water distribution to ever-increasing number of city-dwellers and the needy farmers.

The balance to keep between the two, is extremely tricky.

And to add to the woes, India's monsoon rainfall plummeted up to 31% by July 2nd this year and has affected the sowing of rice, pulses, cotton, oil seeds in the country.

Solutions? Ram bharosay!

Surely rainfall is not in human being's control, but water conservation and judicious usage, is the least we can do.