Even though the National Water Policy 2002 addressed the various issues pertaining to sustainable development and efficient management of water resources, the ground level action after eight years is short on results but long on roll-out of a multiplicity of programmes.
On the water front, the writing on the wall is crystal clear with international institutions highlighting in recent years water-related issues and challenges in India's water sector and calling for timely action to recover the fast depleting resource that is a basic human necessity.
Latest in the litany of woes on the country's water front, after the World Bank and the World Economic Forum's lament, has come from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB).
In a a draft ‘Water Operational Framework 2011-2020' ADB stated that “the Bank will be challenged by the water stress that dominate large parts of Asia, manifest most clearly in countries such as China, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam”.
It explicitly cautioned that water shortages are likely to aggregate 40 per cent in developing Asia by 2030 and that in some countries such as India demand will exceed supply by 50 per cent.
While the data gleaned by the ADB were from Water Resources Group, which estimated the aggregate 2030 demand and supply at 1,498 billion cubic meters (BCM) and 744 BCM respectively, the country's National Commission for Integrated Water Resources Development (NCIWRD) has assessed that “with the desired efficiencies, the water requirement by 2050 could be brought down to about 1,180 BCM in a high demand scenario.
It needs to be noted that the average annual water availability is estimated at 1,869 BCM.
The increase in population over the years has indubitably reduced the per capita availability. Whereas in 1951, the per capita water availability was 5,177 cubic metre a year, the per capita availability based on the population in 2001 census works out to be about 1,820 cubic metre a year.
As the 2011 Census findings will be known on April 1, the per capita availability of water would have definitely come down further.
As the Ministry of Water Resources has conceded that in view of the topographical constraints and hydrological features the utilisable water has been assessed to be about 1,123 BCM, NCIWRD projects the water requirement by about 843 BCM and 1180 BCM respectively provided the existing water resources are efficiently utilised.
Even though the National Water Policy 2002 addressed the various issues pertaining to sustainable development and efficient management of water resources, the ground level action after eight years is short on results but long on roll-out of a multiplicity of programmes and plan of actions purely as political gimmicks.
A House Panel report in April on inter-linking of rivers, deemed a crucial plank for providing a thrust to the whole water issue, has drawn attention to the fact that out of 30 identified links by the National Perspective Plan (NPP), the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for only one link, – the Ken-Betwa link – has been completed so far.
It said that though the DPRs for two other links, Par-Tapi-Narmada link and Damanganga-Pinjal link had been taken up in January 2009, the preparations of DPRs for remaining identified 27 links have not yet been taken up.
The nub of the matter is that though all the States had agreed to the inter-linking of river (ILR) programme in principle, problems did surface when it came to the brass-tacks and specifics of the issues of water sharing and other related benefits.
The long-pending Cauvery river water dispute between the riparian States of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is only one instance of the intransigence, albeit the lofty proclamation of the National Water Policy that the water sharing/distribution among the States should be guided by a national perspective with due regard to water resources availability and needs within river basins.
Policy analysts say that ILR is only one component and there are vexatious developments such as the alarming rate of ground water depletion, lack of potable water to lakhs of poor villagers and pollution of major rivers by the dumping of industrial waste and other dregs.
Unless a national campaign to underscore conservation, spatial distribution across the country and recharging of water tables is evolved, the battle lines for water would get clearly drawn.
It is a sad reflection of the reality that only 12 States have adopted the State Water Policy with Delhi, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli having pitched for the National Water Policy.
Critics warn that in the absence of a concerted move crafted by consensus to address the serious water problems plaguing the country, the warfare on water would break out before long, offering scant comfort to a high growth economy.
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