Corporatising water: India's draft National Water Policy

I would like to put forward some inputs on the different aspects of the draft National Water Policy formulated by the Ministry of Water Resources with regard to the situation in different parts of Assam (but this may only be a reflection in part, because this is not based on a documented study/exploration but on information collected from different field-oriented stakeholders). The issues related to public concern and policies are addressed below.

Issues of public concerns related to water resources and their management:

(a) The right to water amidst increasing scarcity and food security has indeed become a great concern, which needs a well-oriented effort In general, the Northeastern states of India are blessed with heavy rainfall, which eventually results in adequate and high groundwater table in most of the plain districts of Assam. Hence extraction of groundwater is easier and, therefore, the drinking water supply in Assam is highly dependent on groundwater.

In urban areas, the poor coverage and unreliability of public water supply to meet the increasing demand arising out of the extraordinary pace of urbanization and growing population has led to an increased dependence on groundwater. Indiscriminate digging of bore-wells has resulted in depletion of ground water levels. The depletion of ground water levels is significant in areas which have been witnessing rapid construction activities for the last few years. Moreover, in certain locations, groundwater sources such bore-wells/ring-wells (dug well), etc. dry up during winter, leading to water scarcity. Every year there is a seasonal water crisis in the greater Guwahati area because of depletion of the ground water table, leading to a situation where deep tube wells and ring wells dry up and the residents are compelled to procure water from private vendors at a premium. The problems of depletion of groundwater level aggravates due to the recent phenomenon of climate change, which has led to erratic rainfall pattern in this region. In the recent past, the rainfall pattern seems to have changed creating an impact on the groundwater level and sometimes some of the small perennial rivers do not have enough water. So efforts should be made to capture region/basin/watershed wise information to encompass water resources. So the scope of such water policy should, perhaps, include the use of water for drinking, irrigation and other conjunctive uses along with their extensiveness and impacts. However, there is a shocking provision to treat water as an ‘Economic Good’. Such provision is going to violate the basic right to water.

( Protection and prevention of water resources and more importantly, the wetlands for their meaningful survival:
The necessary approach for conservation of water resources is the most neglected issue in all peri-urban areas. Indiscriminate dumping of waste materials and release of wastewater (untreated) into different water bodies is a common approach causing large scale pollution leading to environmental degradation. The river ‘Bharalu’ flowing through the middle of the Guwahati city in Assam (India) has now turned to a dead river and in some portions, people can not even stand on the river bank due to the foul odour, etc. Likewise, the Deepor beel, a famous Ramsar Site in Assam and a wetland very close to Guwahati city is also paying a heavy price due to rapid urbanization and other anthropogenic activities. The beel, once spread over a large area, has now been shrunk to a shadow of its former. However, there are different issues threatening the existence of the Deepor and they need to be addressed at the earliest. Large-scale encroachment, dumping of solid waste, heavy siltation due to deforestation in the hills surrounding the beel, accumulation of all sorts of filth and toxic wastes from the storm water/wastewater drains from Guwahati city, aquatic weeds, unabated industrial development in nearby areas, construction of railway line along the southern boundary, quarrying within the beel ecosystem, etc., have threatened its ecosystem to a great extent. The draft Policy is silent on strict conservation options/modalities.

(c) Operation and Maintenance (O&M) and Sustainability:
The access to safe water has been largely undermined by poor O&M and the issue of sustainability. The contributing factors are:
• Poor ownership by communities due to dependency on the Government
• Poor capacities, willingness and ownership by panchayats to maintain water supply systems
• Limited accountability mechanisms for safe water
• Limited initiatives on motivation/incentives.

In Assam, the rural drinking water supply is managed by the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), Government of Assam. Apart from the Government initiatives, a section of the rural population rely on self-water sources, ranging from shallow unlined/lined dug wells (Ring Wells) to the bore wells fitted with different types of water lifting devices, like hand pumps, etc. Such water sources established on their own initiatives provide additional strengths to the government efforts/approach to ensure sustainable water supply and thus play a major role in ensuring drinking water security in rural areas. However, to tackle the problems of adverse water qualities, the rural population needs to depend on government sources for safe potable water. But, in case of the government water sources, although, they are nearly always used by the household/community group, yet they become reluctant for owning the responsibility of O&M. This is because in rural areas, any form of payment (even the users’ contribution/tariff) is uncommon due to their perception that the government is responsible, and their total dependence on the government.

However, in water scarce regions or considering the quality aspect with regard to safe water supply, households and communities now have started coming forward with their own initiatives for improving the status of water supply services by managing the upkeep of the water supply arrangements established by the government and sometimes even bearing the establishment cost, in part. So the government policy should focus on much of the ground-breaking work of community (users’) management of water supply for achieving the desired levels of services in a sustainable manner with due consideration to the importance of improved and safe water supply.

Under the ongoing reform initiatives, the PHED, Assam, has made significant strides in recent years, initially in putting community level ownership on the agenda, and now moving increasingly towards community involvement for O&M initiatives. In its efforts to encourage the community (users) to actively participate in the O&M of rural water supply schemes, User Committees are being formed under the guidance of PHED, Assam, for each rural Piped Water Supply Schemes (PWSS) with the representative participations of the users from the areas covered by the PWSS. The major role of such User Committee is to ensure effective management of the PWSS including its regular O&M, creating social responsibilities in the form of ownership, regular supply of water and also the liaison with the PHED in case of requirement of any technical inputs. Such an endeavour has succeeded in shifting the responsibility and the ownership of the rural PWSS to the community (users/beneficiaries) in a result oriented manner. Further, cost recovery for O&M and replacement costs, in part or full, has also led to the financial viability and sustainability of the schemes.

To boost such efforts, last year the Government of Assam introduced the Chief Minister’s award for the successful User Committees of water supply schemes, namely “Uttam Gramya Pani Jogan Parichalana Puraskar (UGPJPP)”. Such awards have renewed the commitments of the User Committees to bear the social responsibilities with the true spirit of cooperation and involvement.

Another important issue is the affiliation of the User Committees to the PRIs. The PRIs are yet to
take this responsibility to form such User Committees and also the monitoring and sustainability in this regard, due to their involvement in other decentralized programmes under the Panchayati raj system. In this regard the followings need to be ensured:

• The impact of these social movements on rural drinking water supply has already started rolling through social accountability, which refers to the users' point of view – addressing demands/sustainability of supply and its water sources.
• These initiatives need to be institutionalized keeping in view their sustainability and the rural community’s needs to be mobilized to own and sustain these programmes effectively.
• The development agents, like NGOs, CBOs, etc., and above all, the community should be properly capacitated to ensure effective social mobilization
• Considering this, a participatory demand driven approach is highly warranted with a focus on necessary awareness generation amongst the community on the need for “total water security”.
• There is a need for a profound role of development workers/agencies to support Government approaches and activities to pave the way for successful implementation to prevent drinking water borne risks to ensure water safety and security to all. These initiatives need to be institutionalized keeping in view their sustainability and the rural community needs to mobilize themselves to sustain these programmes effectively.

The impact of different geogenic contaminants on water quality:
Adequate provision of alternate sources is highly warranted in the event of geogenic contaminants affecting water security. So the biggest issue here is the lack of coordination among various government departments and other stakeholders. A well designed and sustainable
management action plan for an integrated water resource management (IWRM) for water resources are a prime need that would consider both the aspects of development and necessary preservation, as well as environmental perspective.

Issues of basic principles for public policies:

• The planning, development and management of water resources need to be governed by encompassing all water resources based on the region/basin/watershed wise information. The national perspective may perhaps not provide effective approach for a particular region, like the North Eastern region. Ensuring sustainability for the approach/activities is also very important.
• Moreover there should be convergent policies for the scopes of the different sectors to cover the use of water for drinking, irrigation and other conjunctive uses along with their extensiveness and impacts. Considering the availability of water resources (both groundwater and surface sources) in Assam with normal rainfall, the multiple uses of water resources is not yet practiced due to the lack of proper convergence among stakeholders. All implementing stakeholder draws their own plan of action for utilization of water resources. Few years back the agricultural department wanted to go ahead to install one lakh shallow tube well for irrigating the agricultural field, without considering the probable future effects of over withdrawal leading to chemical contamination/leaching etc. However such attempt could have easily be avoided by a system of water sharing through discussion with other stakeholders. In case of utilization of ground water for different purposes such irrigation, water supply etc. a common source (deep tube well) may perhaps be a feasible option and this can happen only through proper convergence to involve suitable water sharing formula.
• Allocation of water for the purpose of basic livelihood and environmental upkeep must be prioritized, without any economic cap on it. Water allocation for private parties/vendors may be treated as an economic good with all necessary regulation without any virtual license to pollute the water resources.
• There should be strict allocation for the water to be used for industrial purposes.
• Adequate research on the linkages among different forms of water resources, like surface water bodies (river, spring, etc.), ground water, wetland etc. may be helpful for conservation of water resources. In this connection, development of GIS mapping of water resources may perhaps be quite helpful for the necessary decision making process.
• The scope and a more conservative approach of Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010 of the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Central Wetland Regulatory Authority and the role and responsibilities of the central and state government, needs to specified with a clear direction for better management of the wetland and also to prevent any detrimental activities on the wetlands.
• The impact of different geogenic contaminants on water quality and their necessary redresses need to be prioritized.
• A Legal framework might be established in a more stringent way to prevent pollution (more importantly the anthropogenic ones) for all forms of water resources.
• All sources of pollution must have the adequate provision for treatment of effluents and there must be strict compliance before release to the water resources, if need be.
• One of the notable factors responsible for water scarcity is the dwindling forest cover as proclaimed by different schools of thought. One school of thought describes that there is a substantial reduction in water retaining capacity in the areas along the Indo-Bhutan border. These areas were well known for their thick forest cover, predominantly with Sal trees, which contributed to enhance the water retaining capacity in the areas. But during the last few years, there was large scale deforestation and the Sal Wood trees have vanished from the area. So the groundwater reserve in those areas gets exhausted more easily, as it flows down to the lower terrain areas downstream.
• Inter-basin water-related conflicts are also particularly evident in this region. For example, plans are in place to develop over 100 hydroelectric power plants along the river Brahmaputra and its tributaries in Arunachal Pradesh. The dams would bring a valuable income to Arunachal Pradesh, but at the same time would put at risk many traditional waterrelated livelihoods and other riparian regions downstream.
• So day by day, it has become inevitable to have a Regional Task Force on water resources with the involvement of all stakeholders to act as ac regulatory authority on scientific source finding using hydrological survey and to ensure proper utilization of water resources and also to avoid the situation that arises out of climate change leading, to water scarcity and other regional problems.
• Adequate capacity building activities for all implementation stakeholders should be taken up.