The effective management of land and water resources will drastically reduce the human miseries. Explain.

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Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Effective land and water management reduces human misery because drought, floods, degraded land and unsafe water mostly stem from misuse rather than natural scarcity. Ralegan Siddhi and Hiware Bazar show how ridge-to-valley watershed treatment turned drought villages into surplus ones.

**Introduction**

India supports about 18% of humanity on 2.4% of the world's land and 4% of its fresh water. The Latur water trains of 2016 showed that misery stems more from how land and water are used than from nature's shortfall.

**How Mismanaged Land and Water Breed Misery**

1. **Drought and migration**: Over-drawn aquifers and sugarcane in drought-prone Marathwada left Latur relying on water trains in 2016, deepening farm distress.
2. **Floods**: Building over lakes and drains turned the 2015 rains into the Chennai floods, and the 2008 Kosi breach left lakhs homeless in Bihar.
3. **Degraded land and disease**: ISRO's atlas (2021) found nearly 30% of India's area degrading in 2018-19, while arsenic and fluoride in groundwater cause chronic illness.

**How Effective Management Reduces Human Misery**

SKETCH: flow | Ridge-to-Valley Watershed
- Contour trenches
- Check dams
- Aquifer recharge
- Year-round crops
- Fewer migrations

1. **Watershed as one unit**: Ralegan Siddhi and Hiware Bazar treated land from ridge to valley and curbed borewells, turning drought villages into surplus ones.
2. **Traditional storage**: Tarun Bharat Sangh's johads revived the Arvari river in Alwar, and Mission Kakatiya (2015) restored Telangana's village tanks.
3. **Efficiency and safe water**: PMKSY's drip irrigation and Atal Bhujal Yojana's village water plans stretch each drop, and a WHO assessment (2023) said universal tap water could avert about four lakh diarrhoeal deaths.

**Conclusion**

Misery in India springs less from scarce land and water than from managing them separately. Treating both as one system, from ridge to valley and aquifer to tap, secures food, health and dignity, advancing SDGs 6 and 15 and India's pledge to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030.

The effective management of land and water resources will drastically reduce the human miseries. Explain.

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