by Srivatsan V
During 1999, the state of Gujarat witnessed “Water Riots” due to water shortage and poor water resources management. It has caused a new worry for Gujarat and agitations were launched against the government which even went violent at one point of time. Migration in search of Water became a common phenomenon during Summers in Gujarat. Also, lack of access to safe drinking water, time loss in collecting water, effects of head loading, etc. had detrimental effects on the health of women in Gujarat. Water quality problems caused due to excessive fluoride, nitrate and salinity caused extensive health damages in many parts of Gujarat.
To tackle this insecurity, after becoming CM, Narendra Modi started “State Wide Drinking Water Grid”. It helped the govt to supply water to far off places through an inter-basin bulk water transfer. Along with this, 156 water filtration and treatment plants with a capacity of 280 crore litres per day have been constructed.This connects to more than 11,000 villages and 125 towns in the state for ensuring safe and assured water supply to around 65% of Gujarat’s population in drought prone and water quality affected areas. Currently, in Gujarat, less than 400 habitations are found to be affected by fluoride.
The Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO) was started in 2002 by Mr. Modi has brought safe quality drinking water to the doorsteps of the people in Rural Gujarat. This initiative was given Prime Minister’s award for Excellence in Public Administration for the year 2006-07 and was also awarded the United Nations Public Service Award in the year 2009 in the category of ‘fostering participation in the policy-making decisions through innovative mechanisms’ for Institutionalization of Community Managed Drinking Water Supply Programme and User Level Water Quality”.
The Sardar Patel Participatory Water Conservation Project was launched by the Government of Gujarat to initiate construction of Check Dams, renovation of village tanks and ponds, and construction of recharge wells by a beneficiary group or any NGO with assistance from Government. As per this scheme the state would bear 80% of the cost of building a check dam and the rest would be borne by the beneficiary or NGO. (Initially it was 60% and 40%). Before launch of this programme, the average depletion of water levels in north Gujarat was around 3 metres per year.
After its launch, there has been a water level rise of more than 4
meters per year. The water harvesting structures in Gujarat contributed a
lot to reduction of soil moisture evaporation in agricultural
fields. Mr. Narendra
Modi has been using socio-religious analogies for inculcating the
culture of water conservation among small and marginal farmers in
Gujarat. He encourages farmers to create “Jal Mandir” by digging farm
and village ponds by telling “However poor household theirs (small and
marginal farmers) may be, they must be keeping an earthen pot full of
water for drinking purpose.Similarly, village and farm ponds are like water pots for mother earth for quenching her thirst and farmers are duty bound to create them as an obligation towards mother earth”. This belief system too played a good role in creation of micro water harvesting structures in different parts of Gujarat.
Even states like Maharashtra and Delhi too faced problems of water scarcity and lack of proper access to safe drinking water. Last year, Maharashtra suffered the worst drought in the last four decades which affected nearly 29 lakh families. In some villages, Drinking water was supplied once in 7 to 10 days and villagers alleged that polluted water was supplied by municipal corporation. Ajit Pawar, the Deputy CM of Maharashtra reportedly insulted the farmers affected by drought by saying “from where will we give him water? Should we urinate in dams?”
In Delhi, Water supply of Delhi Jal Board was not available to half of Delhi and it led to emergence of tanker mafia there. Delhi Government had spent crores to build Munak canal but not even a drop of water had reached Delhi from this canal. The water treatment plants in Delhi were mismanaged and were reportedly working to the extent of around 50% of their capacity. More than 80% of the water samples of Delhi Jal Board failed test in 2012. Between 1993 to 2005, more than crores were spent to clean up Yamuna river but the pollution in the river only doubled.
The recently elected Aam Aadmi Party came up with a policy of supplying 667 litres of water a day to every household. This policy had also resulted in a steep increase in water bills beyond a particular units of consumption. Recently RS Pachauri, chairperson of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change criticised AAP’s free water policy saying that it may result in lot of wastage. Tackling problems of water scarcity and lack of safe drinking water requires good infrastructure outlays, innovative mechanism and good administration. Gujarat Government has stood as a good example for this.
No comments:
Post a Comment