Water, the wonder liquid, is the valuable gift
for our nature. We often say Water is
life. It is a vital molecule to
the existence of all known forms of life on the Earth, even though it does not
provide any vitamins, calories or other nutrients. Human body contains almost 70% water. It plays an important role in
the world economy, as it functions as a solvent for a wide variety of chemical substances,
raw for power generation, industrial cooling and transportation. Though it has no color, but because we are adding unknowingly and knowingly, it is now showing own color to us.
Water covers
70.9% of the Earth’s surface. Out of
this, 97% is in the form of Ocean and
Sea water. Remaining 3% is Fresh
Water which can be termed as very scarce resource available on the Earth.
Surprisingly, out of the total available
fresh water, 98% of water is in the form of Polar Ice and Glaciers, 1.7% water is available as Ground water and
0.3% is in the form of Rivers and Lakes. Water is also present in the atmosphere
in solid, liquid and vapor states.
Experts are
of the view that by 2025, more than half of the world population will be facing
water based vulnerability and by 2030, in some developing nations demand will
exceed by 50%. Today, almost 1.9 billion
people in the world lack fresh water access. In the coming decades, people may employ separate security guard
for keeping water safe and secure, some says the 3rd World War will be for the water and these kinds
of thing have already started happening!
In Indian Context:
India
accounts for 17.5% of global population
whereas water availability is only 4% of
global fresh water. In the last 65 years, water demand is ever increasing
whereas supply is almost same. For increasing demand-supply gap, the prominent
reasons are ever increasing population, rapid urbanization, industrialization
and agricultural expansion.
In some states,
women travel for 5-10 km a day just to
get the fresh drinking water. Recently uranium
has been found in the water body of Punjab state. Delhi gets water from
Yamuna but water delivery mechanism in Delhi is the worst. More than half of
the households do not have water meters. Tanker mafias are actively mal-practicing.
When one tanker comes 1000s of water bottle holders come, they combat with each
other. Some states are reporting that their water table is going down by 1-2
feet/year.
We Indians
think that we have enough water, but reality
is pretty scary when it comes to per capita availability in India which is
very-very low. More than 60% of the population
has no access to fresh water. We unnecessarily waste the water while bathing,
washing clothes, in the kitchen. Our farmers switch the pump on in the night,
come back home, sleep like Kumbhakaran, in the morning they reach to farm and
switch the pump off. In between they irrigated their farm with more than needed
water, so how much water got wasted you can imagine.
Rivers are
getting contaminated with hazardous chemicals and human wastage. Yamuna River, despite wasting Rs. 6,500+
crores for cleaning it up, has become more polluted in the recent years. Today,
Yamuna is the most polluted river of the world. Ganga is on the verge of
becoming the second Yamuna.
Water Disputes in
India:
According to Indian Constitution provision, Entry
17,List II says managing the water resource is primarily a state subject on
which they enjoy the exclusive power related to four aspects – Drainage &
Embankments, Irrigation, Supply of Drinking Water and other storages system
such as Sanctuaries, Dam, Tank & flood control measures.
As per Entry 56, List I Union has the power of
regulation and development of inter-state river valley which is necessary in
the public interest.
Article 262 empowers parliament to
constitute River-Water-Tribunal to adjudicate disputes related to sharing of
inter-state river water. Parliament had passed a law Inter State River Water Tribunal (ISRWT) Act 1956. Tribunal is a
quasi-judicial body which consists of judicial, technical and administrative
experts.
India is a
federal democracy and many rivers cross state boundaries. Because of large
areas of India relatively being arid (agricultural) and country which accounts
for only 4% of global fresh water against 17.5% of global population, mechanism for allocating scarce water
resource is critically important. However, constructing efficient and
equitable mechanism for river water between the states have long been an
important legal, political and constitutional issues.
Myriad
inter-state river water disputes have erupted since independence. The larger
dispute between Karnataka and Tamilnadu mainly over Cauvery river water raises hatred and violence. Disputes are
persistent because in the peninsular India, rivers are seasonal in nature. Cauvery
River, flowing from west to east, is one of the most utilized and disputed
river of India rather of the world. It originates from Talacauvery located at
Kodagu district in Karnataka which drains into Bay of Bengal. Karnataka shares
42% of water, Tamilnadu 54% , Kerala 3.5% and remaining share goes to
Puducherry.
Recent
dispute over the use of Yamuna river
water among the states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and New Delhi was resolved
through conference inviting three Chief Ministers with the facilitation provided
by Center. This approach was adopted only when prior intervention through legal
and administrative ways had failed. But not all the disputes have happy ending
like this.
State govt
under constitutional framework dominates the utilization of river water with
the provision if river crosses the inter-state boundaries disputes are quite
inevitable. Keeping this in the mind, Constitutional framers incorporated article 262 for ISRWT to solve the issues where direct negotiations have failed. However,
sometimes states refuse to accept the award of tribunal and that is why
arbitration of tribunal has failed time and again. Surprisingly, even court’s
order has been ignored repeatedly which has added on the further complexity.
The time
has come to strengthen the legal and the
institutional framework for solving the disputes related with water sharing.
There is a growing consensus among the experts that there should be a creation of Statutory empowered single
framework to adjudicate all inter-state river water dispute by amending
ISRWT 1956. The tribunal can have regional branches but with a provision that
decisions will be binding on all the participants of dispute. If they fail to imply
its directives, they should face state disqualification for central assistance.
But even
more significant step would be to bridge
the gap between demand and supply of fresh water by moderating, regulating the
demand and increasing the supply. The demand can be moderated through
different legislative technical administrative means directed towards enhancing
the water use efficiency, whereas the supply side can be taken care with a focus on Rain-Water Harvesting, Recharging the water-table and Water-Shade
management.
Inter-linking of Rivers
in India:
River Linking is a project linking
two or more rivers by creating a network of manmade canals and providing
catchment area. It is based on the concept that water deficit river will get
waters from water surplus river.
By linking
rivers, vast amount of non-irrigated area will become fertile, floods will be
prevented, hydroelectric power will be generated by constructing new dams and
new water navigation routes will be created which will prove to be cheaper than
road transport system.
The National River Linking Project (NRLP)
is being planned to overcome the water shortage problems in western and
southern India and to solve the problem of floods in the Eastern part of Ganga
Basin. Some river linking projects have been taken off.
There are
some concerns and issues like, huge
capital requirement changing the course of river may have an impact on
ecology, aquatic life may be jeopardized, it may result in large scale
deforestation in certain areas, inter-state river water dispute may further intensify
and displacement,
rehabilitation & resettlement of population residing in that area. To
address all these issues, a prudent
analysis is required, plan can be implemented at micro level, impact analysis can be done and then macro level
projects can be given green signals.
Water Pollution:
Water pollution is the contamination
of the water bodies like lakes, rivers, oceans and groundwater. It occurs when
pollutants are discharged without proper treatment in to the water bodies. It affects
almost everything in the environment and it considered to be the leading cause of worldwide deaths and
diseases. Water pollution alone
accounts for the deaths of more than 14000 deaths a day. In India alone almost 600 people die per
day because of consuming contaminated water. Some 90% of Chinese cities
face some degree of water pollution.
The time has come to regulate the sewage discharging
mechanism through modern means. It can be controlled by utilizing a green infrastructure, repairing and
replacing malfunctioning equipments, proper treatment before discharging polluted water in to the water bodies.
There is a need to minimize water usage at all levels. Water policing mechanism
has to be changed. Water auditing and
footprints mechanisms are required. Water
reusing/recycling technologies are also required. Multipurpose river water valley needs to be developed.
In a
nutshell, we need to spread awareness among Indians that water is a valuable
gift of the nature. We should use water
judiciously and should not perform
criminal wastage of water. Government should provide modern techniques of treatment mechanism at subsidized rate to the
industry as well as households. Water used in the kitchen, after treating can be
used for moping. We would have to understand that “We are the part of this nature not the master of this nature”.
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