‘We need to move to a situation where groundwater is a common property resource'
The time has come for optimal pricing of water and power to prevent an unlimited pumping of groundwater and aid better coordination amongst competing demands for the scarce resource, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here on Tuesday.
Dr. Singh's observations come at a time when there is a debate on the pricing of water and privatisation of services in the sector. The Ministry of Water Resources is working on a reforms-oriented new national water policy, which is likely to be finalised by the end of the month.
Common property
Hinting at strict laws to regulate groundwater, Dr. Singh said every landholder had the right to pump unlimited quantities of water from borewells on his ground. “Inadequate and sub-optimal pricing of both water and power is promoting the misuse of groundwater. We need to move to a situation where groundwater can be treated as a common property resource.”
Sustainable and rational management of water resources is a challenge that will engage the policymakers in the 12th Plan, Dr. Singh said, inaugurating the India Water Week on the theme of “Water, Energy and Food Security — Call for Solutions.”
Broad legal framework
Mindful of water being on the concurrent list, the Prime Minister called for a “broad overarching national legal framework of general principles to pave the way for essential legislation on water governance in each State.”
A major problem in better management of water resources were the weak institutional and legal structures related to water. Given the limitations on enhancing supply, a large part of the effort to close the supply-demand gap would be to focus on water use efficiency. “This is particularly critical in the agriculture sector, which utilises three-fourths of our water resources and where the water-use efficiency is low compared to international standards,” he said.
Expressing serious concern at the declining water table, Dr. Singh observed that groundwater sources of drinking water often failed due to competition over the same aquifer between public drinking water systems and private irrigation.
Falling back upon the ancient technique of building sound water harvesting structures, he called for collective and cooperative solutions to “recycle, reuse and recharge” water.
More than 1,000 delegates, including 43 from abroad, are participating in the event organised by the National Water Development Agency. Amongst the participants is Afghan Water Resources Minister Mohammad Ismail, who sought, during the plenary session, “more assistance” for integrated development of water resources in his country.
Moving towards ‘private irrigation'
In an unusual reference to farmers, Dr. Singh, in his inaugural speech at the India Water Week on Tuesday, said: “Groundwater sources of drinking water often fail due to competition over the same aquifer between public drinking water systems and private irrigation.”
“Private irrigation” is a new term coined by the government as it is moving towards bringing strict laws to price irrigation water as well as control ground water.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia, while making it clear that the government could not be expected to pick up the bill for irrigation water, said “farmers must learn to produce more with half the water.”
Keywords: National Water Week, Manmohan Singh, potable water, ground water, water rights, sustainable development, water pricing, national water policy, water resources
Pls stop the paper work and see the realistic life.Sincerely our govt fails in all fields, rather than solving the problem in good way it's going in wrong direction.First stop purify the mind and learn to take the decisions honestly which is good for the people, stop saying 100 things just do one good thing.In the name irrigation project what happend in AP state, many thousands of crores of rupees was stolen by the ministers& contractors in the name of development. Just stop the non sense words & show one good thing in practical development.
Rightly said by the PM that the time has come for optimal pricing of water to avoid unlimited use.Just an example in haryana ,where govt started a scheme to provide taps at every door in the village so that the villagers need not to go to distant wells to fetch water.The govt goes well in implementing and now every door has a tap in almost every village,but a parallel problem which arised is that the taps goes continuously running for the whole day and no one takes a moral responsibility to put a cap on the tap and lot of fresh water going wasted every day.So,an optimal pricing for water will help reduce such kind of problems at a time when the ground water level is continuously declining...
Hon'ble PM Sir, Its irrigation that consumes 90% of ground water and that's because of use of chemical fertilizers. Use of organic fertilizer can reduce the water requirement to a large extent. Also reduce growth of water intensive crops in the semi-arid and arid areas (viz. rice in rajasthan. Already common people are burdened with excise, sales and service tax increase by this budget and so please do not press them with water pricing further. plz promote organic farming at national scale. its the solution to large number of problems viz. water scarcity, healthy food, reduction in quantum of waste, regeneration of soil fertility etc.
Hello Mr.Chandu, If our politicians have that type of broad mind (Discussing good implementations with the opposite parties) then do you think we have to struggle this much to eliminate the poverty from India. No use sir, we can only comment in news paper like this. All are so selfish when position and power came in the picture. Only these politicians can say something and show something. In grass root level their relatives or neighbors will be benefited by the implementation. They will even create a project worth less than 1C, by keeping in mind of the beneficiaries (not the poor Indian civilian). Indian still have to wait in queue for the free food ration.Its the faith of India.
As rightly pointed out by Mr.Singh,the only measure that could contain the misuse and wastage of water and power consumption is by levying of optimal charges.However,what is apparent apart from the above is to restrict the usage of these resources only to certain extent fixing a bar,with a rider that consumption over and above the restricted levels would attract exemplary punishment besides penalty in terms of amount.This may be harsh against the users,but taking into account the stark realities of fast dwindling resources coupled with irresponsible attitude of some of the people and organisations those are adamant to go by the rules this may not be inappropriate.Single floored houses and below status where water usage confines to satisfactory levels however,can be exempted from this domain.Further,utmost priority must be given to take up the works to construct recharge water pits wherever possible to help recharge ground water levels.
Chaney, Well said....UPA 2 lackpolitical a will in a great extent which is unfortunate
for India as a whole. .
I don't mind paying for water, but concern is how much drinkable this paid water would be? Do I still have to buy good water filters which will be adding at least of 3-4 Rs. per liter to it.
Finally, some words of wisdom and some courage to call spade a spade. The citizens would be pround of such truth statements. So, who is to set the ball rolling? Centre, State, may be Congress led States . . . .
MM Singh is trying to hand over Water Supply and infrastructure[via PPP
etc],in India, to the MNCs under the diktat of the World Bank,as in
Cochabamba Water War in Bolivia,2000.It is very clear that MM Singh
favours ONLY the MNCs...A very grat danger for a Sovereign and JUST
India.Please google for:-
Cochabamba Water war
It is a shame that people have to pay for water even for drinking. Any
kind of regulation will only increase the cost that the common man has
to pay. The well to do will not mind, it is only a fraction more of
the cost they already pay. But for middle classes and poor, it will be
a very big burden.
Bottled water should be banned, any kind of sale of water should be
made a crime, unless it is for industrial purposes. The government
should make sure that the new regulations does not affect the common
man adversely.
Respected Prime Minister,
Sir - All you need to do is, lift your telephone and ring up Narendra Modi to know what he did in Gujarat. In fact, Gujarat is the only state in India, where groundwater levels have picked up in the last decade. Please convene a meet on water management under Gujarat's officers to pass on the benefits to India.
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