The UPA government’s draft national water policy has proposed a “gradual shift” towards privatising water supply and end government’s role in the sector. This echoes the national water policy of the Atal bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government unveiled in 2003 and was believed to be driven by World Bank directives.
The move is bound to be controversial. Globally, any attempt to privatise water supply has lead to mass riots (in Bolivia and a few other Latin American countries, for instance).
In India, the Maharashtra government had to rollback a plan to privatise the 1,000-km Nira river. The privatisation of 26 km of the Sheonath river in Chhattisgarh also saw public outrage. Delhi too saw a rollback of a plan to privatise water supply by the Sheila Dikshit-led government.
The draft policy says the ‘service provider’ role of the state has to gradually shift to that of a ‘regulator of services and facilitator for strengthening the institutions responsible for planning, implementation and management of water resources’. “Water-related services should be transferred to community and/or private sector with appropriate Public Private Partnership model,” the policy states.
The policy bats for increasing water tariff, which could be another crisis in the making. “Over and above the pre-emptive uses for sustaining life and ecosystem, water needs to be treated as an economic good… may be priced to promote efficient use and maximising value from water. While the practice of administered prices may have to be continued, economic principles need to increasingly guide the administered prices,” the policy proposes.
The policy mulls over a need of evolving a “broad overarching national legal framework” of general principles on water.
“The Indian Easements Act, 1882, may have to be modified accordingly in as much as it appears to give proprietary rights to a landowner on groundwater under his/her land,” the draft paper says.
The policy proposes a Water Regulatory Authority in each state which will fix and regulate tariff system and charges. “The authority may also have other functions, such as regulating allocations, monitoring operations, reviewing performance and suggesting policy changes. It may also assist in resolving intra-state water-related disputes,” it says.
It envisages a national level forum to deliberate upon issues relating to water and evolve consensus, cooperation and reconciliation amongst party states. It proposes setting up of a permanent ‘water disputes tribunal’ at the Centre for resolving disputes expeditiously.
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