Mahadevan International Centre for Water Resources Management

The Mahadevan International Centre for Water Resources Management was instituted on May 6, 2001 with the “blessings” of Professor G.O.P. Obasi, the then Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Geneva, to commemorate the birth Centenary of the Late Professor Calamur Mahadevan. The principal mission of the Centre is to serve as a clearing house for water sciences and technologies in the developing countries, through a series of customized training and R. & D. programmes.

As the saying goes, “charity begins at home”. If one could develop schemes of water management which can be worked successfully in the extremely difficult situation of India, the schemes could be adapted to other developing countries with greater confidence.

India has 17 % of humans, 30 % of the domesticated animals, 4 % of land, but only about 2 % of the water resources of the world. The population density in India is 324/ km², as against the global average of 45 , and 116 for Asia and 133 for China. In 1960’s, the rate of growth of population in India and China was about 2.2 %. Through rigorous (some say, draconian) population control measures, China has succeded in stabilizing the country’s population. The rate of growth of population in India has decreased significantly, but still high enough – India is expected to surpass the population of China by 2030. Though the average growth of GDP in India during 1950-2000 was 4.3 %, the net growth was only 2.8 %, because of approximately three-fold increase of population during the same period. Despite the large harvests due to “Green Revolution” in agriculture, the population increase had the effect of restricting the per capita per day consumption of food grains at about 400- 460 g (as against the recommended intake of 575 g.). The infant mortality rate in India is 66 per thousand, compared with 20 in Sri Lanka, and 33 in China.

With increasing population, the amount of agricultural land per capita and water resources available per capita per annum keeps on becoming less with each passing year. As a consequence of the approximately three-fold increase of population from 360 million in 1951, to 1030 million in 2001, the agricultural land available per capita decreased from about one acre in 1951 to 0.4 acre in 2001, and the fresh water availability decreased from 6000 m³ per capita per annum in 1951 to1869 m³ in 2001. There is another complicating factor – because of increasing demand for water for domestic consumption and for industry, irrigation which presently accounts for about 90 % of the total water consumption has make do with no more than 70 % of the water. So the farmer faces the challenge of growing more food on a smaller piece of land and with less water than before.

U.ASWATAHANARAYANA
Hon Director