ABSTRACT
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is one of the largest social protection initiatives in the world, promised a lot on the water management front, along with rural employment. Analysis of the types of interventions in the face of the macro hydrological, geological, geo-hydrological and topographical realities and limited field evidence suggests that the planning and implementation of water-management (WM) works are seriously flawed due to the total absence of hydrological and economic analysis. The capacity of rural local governments in performing their intended functions is weak, barring very few states like Kerala. With increasing natural and man-made disasters, flood protection and control have become increasingly important. India has been tackling the problem of floods through structural and nonstructural measures. Dams and reservoirs are the best flood control structural measures, but they can only be constructed by a skilled workforce under the supervision of trained professionals.
