India's first water bodies census: why, and what it says

• The Ministry of Jal Shakti has released the report of India’s first water bodies census
• It is a comprehensive database of ponds, tanks, lakes, and reservoirs in the country.
• The census was conducted in 2018-19, and enumerated more than 2.4 million water bodies across all states and Union Territories.

What was the need for a water bodies census?

• The Centre earlier maintained a database of water bodies that were getting central assistance under the scheme of Repair, Renovation and Restoration (RRR) of water bodies.
• In 2016, a Standing Committee of Parliament pointed to the need to carry out a separate census of water bodies.
• The government then commissioned the first census of water bodies in 2018-19 along with the sixth Minor Irrigation (MI) census.

How is a ‘water body’ defined?

• The census defines a water body as all natural or man-made units bounded on all sides with some or no masonry work used for storing water for Irrigation or Other purposes (example industrial, pisciculture, domestic/drinking, recreation, religious, groundwater recharge, etc).
• Water bodies are usually of various types known by different names like tank, reservoirs, ponds etc.
• A structure where water from ice-melt, streams, springs, rain or drainage of water from residential or other areas is accumulated will also be treated as a waterbody.
• Water stored by diversion from a stream, nala or river will also be treated as a water body.

Did the census cover all water bodies that fit this definition?

• Seven specific types of water bodies were excluded from the count:
  • Oceans and lagoons;
  • Rivers, streams, springs, waterfalls, canals, etc. which are free flowing, without any bounded storage of water;
  • Swimming pools;
  • Covered water tanks created for a specific purpose by a family or household for their own consumption;
  • A water tank constructed by a factory owner for consumption of water as raw material or consumable;
  • Temporary water bodies created by digging for mining, brick kilns, and construction activities, which may get filled during the rainy season; and
  • Pucca open water tanks created only for cattle to drink water.

Key findings of the India’s first water body census

• West Bengal’s South 24 Pargana has been ranked as the district having the highest (3.55 lakh) number of water bodies across the country.
• The district is followed by Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur (50,537) and West Bengal’s Howrah (37,301).

What does the census reveal about encroachment of water bodies?

• The census found that 1.6% of enumerated water bodies -38,496 out of 24,24,540 had been encroached upon.
• More than 95% of these were in rural areas.
• In almost 63% of encroached water bodies, less than a quarter of the area was under encroachment; in about 12% water bodies, more than three-quarters of the area was under encroachment.
• Uttar Pradesh accounted for almost 40% (15,301) of water bodies under encroachment, followed by Tamil Nadu (8,366) and Andhra Pradesh (3,920).
• No encroachment was reported from West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and Chandigarh.

Prelims take away

• Standing Committee of Parliament
• Results of water bodies census