In view of the high economic, social and environmental costs of the current projects, it is imperative for us to consider alternatives schemes, which could be used to harness our water resources in order to meet the increasing and diverse demands of today. Such projects designed in the earlier periods of our history were in consonance with nature and took care to ensure that the existing natural system were not disturbed. Visitor to India since ancient times, Megasthenes, , Fa Hien and Al Beruni have recorded how this country was not visited by famines, and how even in a year of poor monsoons, there was enough water in the wells for the farmers to draw on. Excess water was diverted from water-courses, but their lean season flows were never impeaded. Rain water was also carefully harnessed and stored in tanks. With the technology available to us today, we should be able to improve on the earlier day systems, but we should not forget to adhere to this basic principles which they had followed.

A British officer of the last century, Major Colvin has written about the canals of the Delhi region the Asiatic Society Journal of 1833(pl05), which brought the excess waters of the Yamnua to the capital and areas to the west of it. Built originally by Feroze Tughlak, it was extended to Delhi by Ali Mardan Khan after which excessive withdrawals appears to have depleted the ground water. The canal system was improved upon by the Britsh who also made excessive withdrawals from the river, and later started work on canals on the Ganga. The first famines in this very rich basin, with its wells drying up in a year of failed monsoons was recorded during the reign of Shah Jehan, whose construction works in Delhi used much of the diverted waters of the Yamuna. But the worst one was reported in 1878 after the British had also diverted lean season flows of the Ganga in the newly constructed Doab canals of this river. Learning from history that it is the diversion of us should mainly harness the monsoon flows and use only very small lean season diversion for the prevention of stagnation in the valley reservoirs. These proposed reservoirs of the western part of the upper Yamuna basin are shown in Annex. I.

The alternative schemes in consonance with nature are briefly mentioned below. It may be noted that the transition period would be necessary before the new systems could fully take-over the system of water management of our vast country.

A. Valley Reservoirs:

Constructed in the flood plain of rivers or in command areas where lakes or broad water courses had existed, these reservoirs would not only store the excess monsoon waters, they would also reinforce the ground water storage of the region, thereby greatly benefiting the poor farmers who depend on wells. It may be seen from the table of the allocation of Yamuna waters shown above the Haryana, which has the best network of canals, would be able to harvest at least an additional thousand million cubic meters (IBCM) of monsoon waters, leaving some 25% of lower riparian regions)

B. Tanks:

Built by many kings and local peers of the past, the system of big and small tanks have greatly benefited our people in earlier times. Modern pumps could be used to withdraw water from the tanks, which would be re-charged by ground water to which they are connected during construction.

C. Check dams and small tanks:

Many minor irrigation works have used percolation check dams in the past to store the water of streams that are dry in the lean season, but get plenty of water during rains. Such schemes also help in the development of water shed areas through the growth of trees, whose roots could store water, and have been known to convert seasonal streams into permanent ones.

D. State Tubewells:

Though these have not functioned too well in the past, it is felt that their performance might improve through the strengthening of the Paani Panchayat movement mentioned below. High yield wells in the river bed or its vicinity would have to be avoided in order to ensure that aquifer flows are not interfered with at their very source. The state must undertake carefully mapping of the aquifers to ensure optimum exploitation of ground water resources over a wide area, as in done in Israel.

E. Private tubewells:

With improved re-charge of the ground water, it is felt that the restrictions contemplated in the areas potentially rich in ground resources would not be necessary.

It may be noted that the schemes mentioned above would greatly improve the ground water resources of the country. The headwork's of the canals to valley reservoirs would be located at modified barrages or existing dams whose height could now be kept at lower levels. The heights of dams of on-going projects could be limited to their existing heights as large dam storage would not be required and since substitute storage's would be constructed in the command areas, the barrages could also be modified to permit greater lean season flows, navigation and the migration of fish and water mammals to their breeding grounds. It may also be noted that greater flow in rivers will give them back their capacity for treatment of partly polluted deposits, through it will still be essential to pre-treat municipal sewage or industrial effluents at least up to the second stages.

Advantages.

The obvious advantages of the alternative projects mentioned above are their low cost, short gestation periods, eco-friendly results and the restoration of rivers to their primeval functions mentioned earlier in this paper. Public involvement in the control of the distribution of water in the state owned schemes should also reduce the existing problems of canal water disbursements. Since the major and medium irrigation schemes have currently been allotted the largest amount of plan funds for development in the VIIIth Plan, substantial savings could be made by adopting the alternate projects.

Disadvantages:

In view of the lack of experience with the schemes proposed in this category there may be a lack of public faith in these lower cost solutions. However, with experience public confidence is blund to grow, especially because they themselves would be involved in the control of distribution of water through the proposed Paani Panchayats being proposed.

It has often been said that with the growing demands of a growing population, the water problem could only be tackled through the major or medium schemes being set-up and planned todate. Perhaps, with the growing requirements of a mega-city like Delhi, a comparison could be made of the plans to meet them through the conventional major and medium schemes and through the alternative ones mentioned above. This could be a good basis for arriving at a decision about the worth of the latter schemes. After a survey of the Ganga and Yamuna basins, Paani Morcha had carried out a study of the feasibility of setting up a low cost alternative projects with short gestation periods. Despite suggestion that no space would be available for any such projects within the small state of Delhi, space for six reservoirs , five in the flood plains and one for harnessing rain water were proposed. In addition space was also found for the low-cost natural treatment of some 2200 million litres per day of city sewage in `Eco-Parks'. A tabulated comparison of the results that are likely to achieved from the existing and the alternative schemes is shown in Annexure-II of this paper. this comparison shows that if the latter are implemented Delhi might not required supply of water from the far off Tehri dam project which could then be reduced size.