What is watershed management ? How can watershed management fulfil the needs of water in India ? Explain with examples.

Watershed management basically refers to efficient management and conservation of surface and groundwater resources. It involves prevention of runoff and storage and recharge of groundwater through various methods like percolation tanks, recharge wells, etc.

There is a wide scope to use rainwater harvesting technique to conserve precious water resource. It can be done by harvesting rainwater on rooftops and open spaces. Harvesting rainwater also decreases the community dependence on groundwater for domestic use. Besides bridging the demand-supply gap, it can also save energy to pump groundwater as recharge leads to rise in groundwater table. These days rainwater harvesting is being taken up on massive scale in many states in the country. Urban areas can specially benefit from rainwater harvesting as water demand has already outstripped supply in most of the cities and towns.

Apart from the above mentioned factors, the issue desalinisation of water particularly in coastal areas and brackish water in arid and semi-arid areas, transfer of water from water surplus areas to water deficit areas through inter-linking of rivers can be important remedies for solving water problem in India.