PHERAN DIARIES – 18
By: Dr Sanjay Parva (bindasparva@gmail.com)
It is an open secret: Kashmir’s water security now lives and dies on three fragile pillars – snowpack, springs, and governance. Two of those are wobbling; the third is asleep.
The hard facts (today)
• Glaciers are retreating faster than before. In the Hindu Kush Himalaya, the rate of glacier mass loss has accelerated sharply – a structural hit to long-term baseflow in Jhelum and its tributaries.
• Springs are drying. Studies and local observations point to a steep decline in spring numbers in Kashmir’s catchments; springs are a primary rural source.
• Rain and snow are erratic. Average precipitation is around 1000 mm annually, but with big year-to-year swings – perfect conditions for both droughts and flash floods.
• Tap coverage ≠ source security. Taps run only if sources are recharged – and that is not happening at scale.
• Groundwater looks “comfortable” on paper – for now. But local stress pockets are emerging, and extraction is rising. That’s exactly when cheap recharge is smartest.
The 5-year picture (2026–2030): why the clock is ticking
• Less ice, more volatility. With glacier loss locked in and snow cover trending down, summers will run leaner, and shoulder seasons will turn spikier.
• Demand will outpace “pipes and pumps.” New connections, urban expansion, and tourism growth will widen non-monsoon deficits unless recharge is aggressively scaled up.
• Precipitation uncertainty deepens risk. Wetter wets and drier dries are already here – exactly when on-site storage is the cheapest insurance.
The mandate: start with government roofs, schools, and all state property
Why government first? Scale, example, and speed.
1. Scale: Thousands of government buildings – offices, schools, hospitals, blocks – mean lakhs of square meters of catchment.
2. Example: Citizens comply faster when the government leads.
3. Speed: No dams needed; two tenders and 90 days per campus can change supply curves before the next spring.
Back-of-envelope: A typical government school with about 1,000 m² of roof, with 0.8 m of effective annual rainfall, and a runoff coefficient of 0.8 can harvest roughly 6.4 lakh litres a year. Ten such schools = 6.4 million litres – stored or recharged into aquifers that feed handpumps and springs.
Proof from elsewhere (and a warning)
• Tamil Nadu’s state-wide mandate in 2003 is credited with significant groundwater recovery.
• Bengaluru’s legal compulsion for rainwater harvesting now covers nearly two lakh properties.
• India’s Model Building Bye-Laws already enable such measures; J&K can notify enforcement tomorrow.
What the J&K Government must notify – now
1. Universal RWH on all government assets (existing + new): offices, schools, colleges, anganwadis, hospitals, bus terminals, PSUs, police/paramilitary housing – with dual targets: storage for non-potable use and recharge pits per 500 m².
2. Tie compliance to bills and budgets: No electricity/water connection, no completion certificate, and no maintenance grant without an RWH compliance code.
3. District-wise “Roof Map” & scoreboard: Publish GIS of all state roofs >250 m² with status: planned, tendered, installed, functional. Update monthly. Name non-compliant departments.
4. Standard designs by altitude & soil: Snow-load-friendly gutters, first-flush, filtration, recharge shafts for different soils, and kul-recharge adaptors where channels exist.
5. O&M fund and audits: 1% of each office’s electricity budget earmarked for upkeep; annual third-party audits with public reports.
6. Schools first: Every middle/high school becomes a “live lab” with rainfall gauges, usage meters, and public reporting.
What happens if we do nothing
• More dead springs → deeper borewells → higher energy bills → poorer households rationed first.
• Taps without water will be political dynamite; summer 2029 will ask 2025’s administrators what they did besides giving connections.
• Emergency spending will spike on tankers and dredging while the cheapest cubic metre – the one falling on our own roofs – runs to drains.
Bottom line
Kashmir cannot negotiate with melting ice. But it can legislate what happens to every drop that lands on a government roof. A 90-day, state-wide mandate for rainwater harvesting on all government buildings, schools, and properties is the fastest, fairest insurance we can buy before 2030.
If the administration is serious, it will pass the order this quarter and publish the first Roof-to-Recharge scoreboard next month. If not, the public will know who chose tanker queues over common sense.
An author, a communications strategist, Dr Sanjay Parva was a debut contestant in 2024 Assembly elections.
It had deade back asked the need to have water harvesting structure poit is why a citizen need direction that mat tantamount to order what is responsibility rather fundamental duty to save environ and society desire yo be driven as a dumb driven cattle with government stick
Kashmiri has ruined valley so eitj it ingress at high order.
Our Dr. Sanjay Ji has been guiding Kashmiris for a long time and every time he keeps writing on some social, political, economic issues….I consider him an ocean of knowledge…The magicians of the pen want a change in this region which is not possible…As far as storing rain water is concerned, some people are doing this…I have also been doing this for the last 5 years, but my problem is that where I have a plan to store this water naturally, I do not have any tin shed where I can store this natural water and use it in Agriculture fields.