Watershed management a crucial solution

At a recent Water Conclave in New Delhi, India, experts emphasised that watershed development remains one of the most effective and scalable solutions as India’s water security challenge is fundamentally linked to rainfall dependence and rural livelihoods.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the protection and restoration of freshwater ecosystems require developing sustainable, coherent and comprehensive watershed management that re-values, restores, and reconnects watersheds and brings tangible benefits to local and national stakeholders.

Protecting freshwater resources is vital to human health, economic prosperity, and climate resilience. From mountain headwaters and forested catchments to rivers, wetlands, lakes, groundwater aquifers and eventually coastal and marine ecosystems, freshwater moves through an intricate, interconnected system, known as the hydrological cycle. Along this path, it intersects with agriculture, cities, industry, and natural landscapes. This means that unsustainable land use, pollution, and resource exploitation in one area can have far-reaching impacts downstream, as well as across sectors.

A UNEP statement adds that globally, freshwater ecosystems are under increasing pressure from poor management, overuse and climate change. Rapid urban and agricultural expansion, extractive industries, and pollution have degraded many of these ecosystems. At the same time, growing water demand from rising populations, weak governance, and inefficient water use has led to widespread destruction, pollution, and the loss of vital ecosystem functions. Climate change further intensifies these threats by disrupting water cycles and exacerbating shortages. It is estimated that only 15% of the world’s wetlands remain and hydrological connectivity within entire watersheds is being fragmented and lost.

A UNEP-European Commission watershed project ‘Sustainable protection and restoration of rivers, wetlands, and lakes through integrated, sustainable watershed management planning in Brazil and India’ — seeks to build on established integrated water resources management approaches and management at the basin level. This is key to improving people’s well-being by safeguarding healthy ecosystems, strengthening resilience to climate change, and ensuring sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation for all.

It also underpins livelihoods such as agriculture, while respecting and valuing the religious, cultural, and recreational practices that matter to communities. It is based on the premise that all freshwater ecosystems — rivers, lakes, bogs, mires, swamps, fens and groundwater — are interconnected and underpin planetary health and human well-being. The project focuses on the Araguaia-Tocantins Basin in Brazil and the Ramganga Basin in India. It aims to create a replicable, and scalable, approach to watershed management that is sustainable, and that re-values, restores and reconnects watersheds, while contributing to advancing international environmental agreements. It uses integrated and participatory approaches, bringing all stakeholders together to discuss water-energy-food-ecosystems nexus challenges within each basin and sub-basin, as well as to assess the scale and sources of pollution, groundwater depletion, flood risk and potential climate change impacts.

Protection and restoration of freshwater ecosystems will help build water resilience. It will involve extensive consultation and co-creation with stakeholders, including local and national governments, private enterprises and local and indigenous communities. Gender and diversity inclusion will be an important focus of the project both before and during implementation of watershed management plans. A significant component of the project will be to mobilize sustainable financing by implementing priority watershed management activities. The lessons learned in Brazil and India will be used to create a generalized model and associated guidance to assist in creating future watershed management plans across the globe.

In India, the project aims to advance integrated and sustainable watershed management planning in the Ramganga River Watershed. It focuses on demonstrating integrated, nature-based, and community-led approaches to strengthen basin-level planning, as well as ecosystem resilience in the Ganga Basin. Implemented in the Delha River sub-basin – a 120 km tributary of the Ramganga that spans Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh – and the Kalewala wetland, the project addresses key water management challenges in an area where 70% of land is used for agriculture, water is heavily diverted for irrigation, and ecological pressures affect both river stretches and connected wetlands. The initiative aims to showcase how nested watershed plans at basin, district and city levels can be operationalised in practice, and in alignment with the Government of India’s Ganga rejuvenation vision and the Ganga Authority Order of 2016. It combines technical agreements, community engagement, and pilot interventions that can later be scaled across the Basin.