Water Policy for Andaman & Nicobar Islands - A Scientific Perspective

Abstract

Although India as a whole has reached to threshold level of stress in terms of per capita water availability, but the eastern and north eastern region are surplus in water. The Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) Islands are even more lucky as they receive an average annual rainfall of about 3080 mm. About 95 percent of annual rainfall is received during May-December of which nearly 75 percent is lost as runoff to the sea due to undulated terrains and steep slopes. The Islands have a width of 15 to 40 km east to west and the slopes are from centre to either towards east or west due to which the length of drainage line to the sea is short. Because of this, there is only one perennial river Kalpong in North Andaman Island. Thus the actual water availability is much less and Islands faces severe problem of water scarcity even for drinking water. The Islands have become a major tourist destination not only for the national but also international tourists. In order to support the tourist driven economy of the Islands, the emphasis should be to produce adequate perishable items in these Islands rather than transporting from mainland. However, the irrigation potential created is just 3% and actual irrigated area is about 1%. Therefore, the focus of water development should be irrigation to crops apart from drinking water. As rainwater is the only source of the fresh water availability in these Islands, its harvesting, storage and recycling is the most important strategy for water resource management. Studies at CARI has shown that if only 3% of the water which flows out is stored in surface and underground storage, the requirement of domestic and agriculture can be met. To achieve the goals of providing sufficient water for domestic purpose and irrigation to cultivated area, a policy is required to develop and manage water resources on a sustainable basis without endangering the fragile Island ecosystem. This document is a step in this direction and is based on open discussion with stakeholders during brainstorming session held at CARI Port Blair on 7th and 8th July, 2009. We express our heartiest gratitude to Dr. Mangala Rai, DG (ICAR) and Secretary (DARE), Government of India for providing effective leadership and guidance for taking up this task. We are grateful to Dr. H.P. Singh, Deputy Director General (Horticulture) for encouragement and inspiration. We extend our special thanks to Shri Vivek Rae, Chief Secretary, A&N Administration for chairing the special theme session and suggesting valuable comments on the draft paper. We are highly thankful to Dr. S.S. Magar, Chairman, Research Advisory Committee of CARI for his encouragement and support. We also wish to extend our sincere thanks to Shri S.S. Chaudhury, PCCF, Shri Khajan Singh, PCCF (Wild life), Shri G.C. Saxena, Secretary, IP&T, Shri Alok Saxena, CCF, Shri R.K. Ghosh, Chief Engineer, APWD, Colonel S.S. Multani, ANC, Sh. S.N. Jha, Dy. Commissioner, South Andaman and other officials of A&N Administration for knowledge sharing during the special theme session. We also place on record our special thanks to Dr. M.S. Gill, Director, PDCSR, Modipuram, Dr. M.A. Khan, Director, ICAR-RCER, Patna, participants of the brainstorming session and the faculty members of CARI for their active and constructive suggestions. We hope that this publication would serve as a useful document to the planners, policy makers and researchers involved with development of water resources in the Union Territory of A&N Islands