In a major water distribution and demand management reform, the state government will henceforth supply water from new dams using closed pipelines, instead of the present system of using open canals. Officials said this close-conduit system will reduce leakage, theft, evaporation and loss of water, making more of it available for end users, such as farmers, in times of recurring water scarcity.

Water resources minister Girish Mahajan told dna that water would henceforth be distributed from dams through pipelines instead of canals. "At present, we are losing around 50% of the water being distributed through canals. Pipelines will help conserve this," said Mahajan, adding that if they wanted to release water for Solapur from projects in upstream Pune, only 10% of the water would actually reach the intended place.

"Underground pipelines will do away with land acquisition costs," noted Mahajan, adding that project costs had increased due to higher compensation for land owners.

Experts admit that one of the Achilles heels of the already stressed agriculture sector in Maharashtra, which is likely to show 2.7% negative growth in 2015-16, is lack of irrigation.

A senior state water resources department official pointed out that this would be on the lines of the system used by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to source water for the city from dams using pipelines. "We are turning to a pipeline-based network due to factors such as land acquisition, losses in the conventional system and problems in developing command areas," he explained.

"The dependency is just 49% for unlined canals, which means around 51% water is lost. The dependency is 65% for cement canals. In case of pipelines, it will rise to 85%," said the official. "If we adopt a system where the water is supplied using underground pipelines to farms wherever feasible (using the force of gravity), this will reduce the need for land acquisition and we can only compensate farmers for losses to their crops," he added.

The state water resources department was planning to use this closed-conduit system in some lift-irrigation projects such as Kurha Wadhoda and Warangaon Talwel in Jalgaon. The distribution systems in the Waghur, Tembhu and Urmodi dams were also proposed to be pipeline-based.

The official said they were also planning to make drip irrigation systems mandatory by 2017 for crops with a 12-month growth time. This will do away with wastage of water in the conventional flood irrigation system. The Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) also lays focus on drip irrigation.

Maharashtra has the largest number of dams in India, but much lower irrigation compared to the national average of 45%. It has pending projects with a balance cost of Rs90,000 crore.

The state government recently admitted in the legislature that of the 29 states in India, Maharashtra is ranked at a poor 28 in terms of irrigation coverage, with only Jharkhand faring worse. While around 45% of the net area sown in the country is covered under irrigation, states such as Uttar Pradesh (44%) and Gujarat (58%) are ahead of it.

According to the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (MWRRA), of the five river basin systems, only 55% of the dependable yield is available in the four river basins – Krishna, Godavari, Tapi and Narmada, east of the Western Ghats. These four basins comprise 92% of the cultivable land and over 60% of the rural population.

An approximate 49% of the area of these four river basins comprising 43% of the population is already considered as deficit or highly deficit regarding water availability. The size of these deficit areas is likely to increase steadily with increasing population and economic growth in the years to come. The remaining 45% water flow is from the westward flowing rivers, which originate in the Western Ghats, are monsoon specific and drain into the Arabian Sea.