{"id":87495,"date":"2019-12-11T01:05:51","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T19:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=87495"},"modified":"2019-12-11T01:05:51","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T19:35:51","slug":"will-new-policy-meet-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2019\/12\/11\/will-new-policy-meet-target\/","title":{"rendered":"Will new policy meet target?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Right to Water<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\nBy Dhurjati Mukherjee<\/strong>
\nYet another National Water Policy is on the anvil. The Union\u00a0Water Resources Ministry has finalised a 10-member committee under chairmanship of former member, Planning Commission and water expert Mihir Shah, to draft it and report back within six months. The NWP currently in force was drafted in 2012 and is the third such policy since 1987. Among the major policy innovations in this policy was the concept of an Integrated Water Resources Management approach that took the \u201criver basin\/sub-basin\u201d as a unit for planning, development and management of water resources. Obviously, it isn\u2019t enough.
\nIn September, Water Resources Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat announced the Centre was planning to update and make key changes in water governance structure and regulatory framework, keeping in view growing scarcity due to rise in water usage. A National Bureau of Water Use Efficiency was also on the cards.
\nIt also proposed that a portion of river flows ought to be kept aside to meet ecological needs. Such an approach led to the government, in 2018, requiring minimum water levels to be maintained in the Ganga all through the year and hydropower projects, therefore, to refrain from hoarding water beyond a point. Though the last policy had stressed for a minimum quantity of potable water for essential health and hygiene to all its citizens be made available within easy reach of households it hasn\u2019t been fulfilled.
\n\u201cInter-basin transfers are not merely for increasing production but also for meeting basic human need and achieving equity and social justice. Inter-basin transfers of water should be considered on the basis of merits of each case after evaluating the environmental, economic and social impacts of such transfers,\u201d the policy noted.
\nWhen water management has emerged a key issue, not just in India but other parts of the globe, there are demands for making clean water a fundamental right.\u00a0The per capita availability of water in India has fallen almost 15% \u20141,816 m3\u00a0to 1,544 m3 in a decade, 2001-2011. Almost 22% of the groundwater has either dried up or is in critical category. Moreover, given that just 30.80% of rural households and 70.60% of urban households get tap water supply \u2014 which in itself is no guarantee of being potable considering the thriving business of water purifiers \u2014 it\u2019s easy to see why the government wants to avoid declaring water a fundamental right\u00a0de jure. This also makes the government\u2019s stated target of 90% rural households getting a tap water connection\u00a0by 2022 almost an impossible task in present circumstances.
\nHowever, if one refers to certain developments and Supreme Court judgments, the demand has justification. In 2010, India was\u00a0among the 122 signatory countries\u00a0of the UN,\u00a0which recognised \u201cthe right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right.\u201d Not just that, it called on India, as also other countries, \u201cto scale up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water\u201d for its population.
\nMoreover, the Supreme Court, through various judgments clarified that the Right to Life, as enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution,\u00a0includes the right to clean drinking water. For instance, in the case involving Narmada Bachao Aandolan against the Union government, while upholding the government\u2019s decision to construct dams, the apex court said \u201cwater…is part of the right to life and human rights as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution.\u201d
\nHowever, the question is not just declaring water as a fundamental right but providing safe drinking water to millions of citizens. Water contamination and judicious management have been plaguing the country for long, but precious little has done at national level. Evidently, on an average,\u00a07 persons died due to shortage or polluted water in 2018. In fact, between 2014 and 2018, almost 12,000 people have died due to just four water borne diseases\u2014cholera, acute diarrhoeal diseases (ADD), typhoid and viral hepatitis.
\nContamination of water, whether of arsenic, fluoride or mercury, is a cause of concern. Added to this is the pollution of rivers, lakes, canals from where people in rural areas take water for drinking purposes. And it is tragic that due to sheer lack of awareness there are lakes and ponds in backward districts from where people use water both for bathing and drinking. According to the Ministry, \u2018River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation\u2019 2017, six million tonnes of chemical fertilizers and 9000 tonnes of pesticides applied to the Ganga basin\u2019s agricultural fields as also 260 million litres of untreated industrial wastewater add to pollution. All these make the Ganga at Kanpur, Allahabad and Varanasi the world\u2019s most polluted river. Similarly, the Composite Water Management Index developed by NITI Aayog shows that 70% of water resources are polluted due to dumping of untreated waste water and sewage in rivers.
\nOne cannot term India as water-deficient but most villages and\/or hamlets do not have clean ponds and environmentally-safe water storage facilities. Moreover, the annual precipitation (rain and snowfall) is close to 1200 mm, much higher than global average of 1000-odd mm. Thus, in view of basic hydrological, agro-climatic conditions, a scientific approach to harness and harvest the abundant endowment of water into an utilisable resource is critical.
\nRainwater harvesting, which is in place, needs to spread across the country as a community-based participatory plan as this will possibly be the key to solve not only water, food and energy problems but ensure sustainable agricultural growth.
\nHowever, what is equally important is to ensure efficiency of water use in the agriculture sector where (as per Economic Survey 2018-19) consumption is 89%. Debates are ongoing about increasing efficiency in irrigation to enable more water availability to farmers. In fact, as per reports, the gap between the irrigation \u2018created\u2019 and \u2018utilised\u2019 is widening. Farmers should be encouraged to shift from paddy and wheat production, which requires huge water, to other crops like maize, corn, ethanol etc. Even growing pulses, which is a little deficient, would help greatly as consumption is rising rapidly.
\nThe new policy should outline ways to reduce water use in agriculture sector through a systematic plan. There has to be a thrust on value-added crops that require less water so that water consumption can come down by say 8 to 9% within 3-4 years. Also segregation of ponds, one for bathing and cleaning and another for drinking purposes should be earmarked by immediately instructing both panchayats and block officials.
\nFinally, it is an accepted fact that big dams haven\u2019t been of much use and the dictum of small being beautiful and useful is relevant in the case of water. Though hydrologists may refer to Raymond Nace about his rejection of bigness in solving water problems, our great leader, Mahatma Gandhi too had spoken of viable small units and making each village self-sufficient. Thus, the committee\u2019s recommendation should concentrate on district-wise approach for ensuring water availability to all. Then only will it become a true fundamental right.\u2014INFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Right to Water By Dhurjati Mukherjee Yet another National Water Policy is on the anvil. The Union\u00a0Water Resources Ministry has finalised a 10-member committee under chairmanship of former member, Planning Commission and water expert Mihir Shah, to draft it and report back within six months. The NWP currently in force was drafted in 2012 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-87495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}