The Ministry of Jal Shakti had set up a committee to draft a new water policy in November 2019. This was the first instance where an independent committee of experts was asked by a ministry to draft a policy. For 1 year, the committee got over 124 submissions. They were made by various people including state and central government and academics. So, the New Water policy is based on the consensus that came through these long and wide-ranging discussions.
The NWP lays down the limits to infinite water supply and suggests a change with demand management. Irrigation involves 80-90% of the country’s water and its majority use is done for rice, wheat, and sugarcane. This means that until this demand is managed or modified it is difficult to fulfil the need of millions waiting for access to water. For this problem, a solution is the method of crop diversification to resolve the water crisis.
The new policy suggests diversifying purchases by government and state-owned enterprises to encompass cereals, pulses, and oilseeds. This will require a farmer to alter his cropping pattern that in turn saves water. The biggest purchaser of such goods can be Integrated child development services, mid-day meals, and public distribution systems. This shall also help to solve the problem of malnutrition and diabetes because these crops are more nutritional.
In the second aspect, the slogan of Reuse, Reduce and Recycle has been given for the urban water supply and wastewater management. It suggests sewerage treatment and eco-restoration of urban water from rivers should be done by decentralized wastewater management. While the water for use of flushing, fire protection, vehicle washing should be made compulsory with wastewater passed through proper treatment.
It also suggests that there are more than a trillion litres of water stored in dams around the country that are not reaching the required farmers. Even the irrigation area can be increased by constructing pocket-friendly pipes to transport the supply water. It also stresses water supply by “nature-based solutions’ like restoration of catchment areas that shall be boosted through compensation for ecosystem services. Also, building special blue-green infrastructure like rain gardens, bioswales, wetlands, urban parks, green roofs, etc.
This policy gives superiority to sustainable and precise management of groundwater. It also lays out stakeholders and custodians of aquifers with information on aquifer boundaries, water storage capacities and its flow. The bond of Indians with water and river has been very special and sacred. But, water has always been addressed as an economic entity in water policies. This perspective towards water has led to its hazardous degradation.
The NWP stresses river protection and restoration along with recognizing the economic role of water. Some important steps for it involve Re-vegetation of catchments, regulation of groundwater extraction, river-bed pumping, and mining of sand & boulders.
It also lays the outline for a Rights of Rivers Act recognizing their right to flow, to meander, and to meet the sea. It recognizes water quality as an unconsidered severe issue and asks every ministry to create a separate water department.
The policy suggests a shift towards affordable, low-energy, and eco-sensitive techniques for the treatment of sewage. The establishment of a unified multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder National Water Commission (NWC), should be followed by states. Water is an essential substance and the hiring of experts to draft a new policy is aimed to Adopt accurate and effective measures to save the valuable source of water.
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