Go Green India: Water - Ideas from Gujarat

The Indian economy and society today face enormous challenges in the water
sector. Water demands of our fast industrialising economy and urbanizing society are
steeply increasing, but the potential for augmenting supply is limited, ground-water
tables are rapidly falling and water quality issues are increasingly getting critical.
Climate change poses new but serious challenges with its impacts on the Nature's
hydrologic cycle. More extreme rates of precipitation and evapo-transpiration will
worsen the impacts of floods and droughts. lt is no wonder then that conflicts across
competing uses and users of water are growing with passing of every day. These
challenges can only be met through a paradigm shift in the management of water
resources in India. The National Water Policy should obviously come out with clinical
diagnosis of the problems and the correct remedial policy prescriptions along with
timeframe for implementation. Further, the nature and magnitude of water challenges,
that we have already started facing and will eventually become further severe in coming
days, also call for innovative and out of box solutions.

lnnovations hold the key

The National Water Policy should encourage such innovations in water sector

which focus on finding affordable solutions for the needs of people with no sacrifice of

quality of life or economic output. lnnovation can play a key role in not only driving

growth and competitive advantage, but also ensuring that this development becomes

socially inclusive as well as economically and environmentally sustainable. Proactive

States need to be incentivized in order to ensure that the nation's resources are utilized

optimally and efficiently. Here, I would like to mention a few such innovative initiatives,

which can be suitably extended and improvised further.

1) More than water demand management; the water management is going to be very

crucial issue in coming years. ln order to meet with the burgeoning water demands, we

need to prepare water management experts. Necessary education and training needs to

be incorporated in the curriculum, and also it is to be ensured that when these experts

pass out from the universities, they are offered appropriate job opportunities. This would 98

serve as an incentive for students to take up the course for water management and the

nation would benefit by infusing young talent in this field. The policy should incorporate

this aspect so that it gets focused attention from all concerned.

2) Another aspect for which I would like to invlte attention of this august body is the

necessity to promote desalination in a big way. Our country has got about 4000 km long

coast line. Why can't we think of utilizing saline water from sea by desalinization

technology and other options as well? This will help ameliorate water availability,

especially in the coastal area. To make desalination more effective, economy of scale is

required as it seems to be an expensive affair. However, if the value of some other

outputs such as sodium, potassium and magnesium is taken into account, it may turn

out to be affordable. Another way of utilizing sea water is to blend it with potable water in

required proportion so as to make such blended water fit for agriculture/ irrigation. ln

order to boost this technology, there is a need to provide appropriate incentives for

innovations, so that desalination becomes affordable. Draft Water Policy should include

this aspect also.

3) Recent experiments have shown some possibility of generation of water from the wind

through wind mills. Though this is an emerging technology, further innovations are

necessary. The policy should encourage such innovations because this will address

twin-problems of electric power supply and water supply, especially for villages.

4) Rain water Harvesting and recycling of water is another area which can help augment

the available water resources. Not only should these be made mandatory but, the policy

should also stipulate certain percentages for such mandatory recycling of water for major

cities as well as for industrial and commercial units which are the bulk users of water.

5) Natural replenishment of ground water reservoir is slow and is unable to keep pace with

the excessive continued exploitation of ground water resources in various parts of the

country. Magnitude of ground water exploitation with sub optimal planning has resulted

in creating deleterious effects in terms of ground water depletion and quality

deterioration. Augmentation of ground water reservoir through Managed Aquifer

Recharge (MAR) offers a positive approach to overcome the problems of ground water

scarcity. The Water Policy should have necessary provision for MAR.

6) Solar energy is another emerging technology and is very relevant in our country, where

sun light is available in abundance and throughout the year. lf the solar panels are laid

all along the canals, dual purposes of nearly eliminating water-loss due to evaporation

from the open canal as well as generation of solar energy without acquiring any land can

be served. Gujarat has endeavoured this on pilot basis on one of the branch canals of

Sardar Sarovar Project and the results are encouraging. This can be replicated

elsewhere in the country on a large scale. However for its successful introduction;

Government of lndia should provide financial assistance. This also needs to be

incorporated as policy prescription in the draft water policy.

7) lt is well known that open canal system causes heavy water loss through evaporation

besides occupying a vast chunk of irrigable land. Further; the cost of acquisition of land

and the time lost in the procedure is the major hindrance in the progress of canals.

Laying of underground pipelines, wherever technically feasible, can be a better option to

resolve all these issues. However, in order to give a big push, Government of lndia

needs to provide financial assistance in view of the initial capital investment. The

Government of Gujarat has already initiated actions in this regard for Sardar Sarovar

Project command area. This aspect should also be addressed in our water policy

document.

8) Demand side management also needs to be considered to meet with limited availability

of water. Since, agriculture has a major share in total water use, there is an urgent need

to promote research for new seed varieties that would require less water for growth and

are also more water-stress resistant. The Water Policy should address this aspect suitably.

Need to revisit the Policy framed l0 years ago:

I would, like to bring out certain important and very relevant provisions as

contained in the National Water Policy 2002, which do not find place in the draft Policy

2012. These are:

1) Draft Water Policy 2012 is silent about defining the priorities for water allocation which

were clearly stipulated in National Water Policy 2002. The Water Policy should include

this to serve as general guidance.

2) Provisions made for encouraging execution of water resources projects, benefitting the

tribal and weaker sections of the society are missing in the draft Policy 2012. These

need to be reconsidered for inclusion.

3) Provision for water zoning of the country is aIso not found in the draft Policy 2012.

Economic development and allied activities including agricultural, industrial and urban

development, should be planned with due regard to the constraints imposed by the

configuration of water availability.

4) As laid down in National Water Policy 2002 the provision for enacting the Dam safety

legislation may be continued to ensure proper inspection, maintenance and surveillance

of existing dams and also to ensure proper planning, investigation, design and

construction for safety of new dams.

Ground Water: Need to Consult the Stakeholders

The draft water policy tends to suggest for Government regulation of wells and

their use which is highly sensitive and needs a cautious approach since it is concerning

to our millions of farmers. There are more than 100 million agriculture land holdings in

our country out of which small and marginal farmers, together, constitute about 80

percent of total holdings and their average is less than one hectare of land. Besides, the

irrigation cover can at best be provided for about 60 percent of total cultivable area at

national level. Further, the idea of considering water as community managed resource

may seem to be very good; but its implementation may pose a number of

unprecedented legal complexities. ln this regard, we need to consider two-pronged

strategy comprising of preventive measures framework and regulatory measures

framework, especially for industrial and commercial use of ground water. Also, it would

be prudent for the Policy makers to take a broader view and consult the farmers, and

other stake-holders extensively before coming to any conclusion.

Other Important Aspects

a) The Draft Policy also proposes for releasing certain amount of water for ecological

purposes. This is definitely a welcome step. However, in existing schemes, it would be

very difficult to do so at the cost of various established water uses. Looking to the

practicalities of implementation, it seems appropriate to consider this provision only for

projects to be taken up henceforth. Also, it would be prudent for the Policy makers to

consult the farmers, and other stake-holders before coming to any conclusion in this

regard.

b) The Draft Policy 2012 touches upon the aspect of interlinking of rivers very cursorily. The

fact is that the Ministry of Water Resources had formulated a National Perspective plan

for water resources development by transferring water from water-surplus basins to

water-deficit basins / regions by interlinking of rivers as early as in 1980 and this scheme

of interlinking of rivers was approved with two components viz. Himalayan rivers and

Peninsular rivers. As the population is growing and the availability of water is dwindling,

there is an urgent need to transfer water from water-surplus to the deficient areas. 32

years later, the policy should now spell out concrete steps to be taken and draw up a

time-bound action plan rather than skirting this issue of vital national importance.

c) The draft Policy talks about pari-passu planning and execution of all components of a

water resource project. Here, I would like to emphasize upon the need for simplification

of procedures for Forest and Environment clearance; Land Acquisition procedures and

the procedures for getting clearance from Railways & National Highways Authorities for enabling pari-passu execution. The Policy must clearly spell out about effecting changes in Land Acquisition Act and Guidelines for Forest and Environment Clearances along with the mechanism for the single window clearance with time capping for issuance of requisite clearance / approval.

d) As was rightly mentioned in National water policy 2002, the states find it difficult to fund

the maintenance of water resource schemes which is under non-plan budget. Therefore,

a centrally funded scheme or a National Corpus fund needs to be devised / created to

help the States undertake properly the maintenance or upkeep of water resources

schemes.

e) Water disputes between the states are governed by the provisions of lnter State water

Disputes Act, 1956, which was amended in the year 2002. It is our common knowledge

and experience that, the Tribunals appointed for the purpose take years to come to any

conclusion. Further, the award of the Tribunal is challenged by the aggrieved party

resulting in further delay. Keeping this in view, the Sarkaria Commission on Center-State

relationship has also recommended making necessary amendments in this Act including

for fixing the time-limit for the settlement of such disputes by the Tribunals. The National

Water .Policy should consider this recommendation of amending our existing legal

framework / statutes so as to ensure that the inter-state water disputes are not suffering

from undue delay and are settled timely.