Anthropology of Water Stress - A Study on Sector 12 of

Anthropology of Water Stress - A Study on Sector 12 of
Lucknow District of Uttar Pradesh
Dr. ALOK CHANTIA
Lecturer (Anthropology)
Sri J.N.P.G. College
Lucknow
A community’s cultural identity is shaped by environment
in which it finds itself. The resources found in the
environment play a substantial role in shaping the social
life of the local people, as the process of resource use itself
is social in nature. Today the availability of water per
capita which was 8192 cm in 1901 has reduced to 1869 cm
only. It is also well documented that consumption of water
per person in India is 800-1000 cm. It is an alarming
situation. Water is a unique natural resource, present in
abundance that is why man has used it carelessly and
ultimately we are in crisis.
Inspite of India being a rural country, the process of
urbanization is increasing fast. Due to non-availability of
basic facilities like water, electricity, education, hospital
etc. in remote and small districts everyone is running
towards cities increasing stress on water.
Lucknow is capital city of Uttar Pradesh where more than
40 lakhs population is living. The limit of Lucknow has
extended 4-5 times more as many rural areas have become
part of present Lucknow. The problem of tenancy, road
structure, conditions of tanks, construction map of houses,
poor drainage system, unavailability of water measurement
meter, no water harvesting, number of water tanks, tube
wells and lack of feeling of nationality, etc. have increased
stress on water resources of Lucknow. How we can reduce
stress on water by restructuring all these things is the main
thrust of present study which has been done on sector 12 of
Indira Nagar Colony, earlier known as takrohi Village,
where irrigation based agriculture was in practice till
1980.Now it has been converted into well organized colony
by Lucknow Development Authority. It is an exploratory
cum descriptive type of work and data have been collected
by participant observation from Nov.2006 to April 2007.
More than 10,000 population is living here but for the
present purpose I have taken 100 houses of different socioeconomic
and cultural strata to find out the real cause of
stress on water level and its solution.