Download 1 - Government Performance Management Peer Assisted Learning

Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie
I.A.S Phase V Training Programme, December 2010-January 2011
Strategy Paper: Water Management
Pravesh Sharma (MP 1982) & Alok Sheel (KL 1982)
SWOT Analysis of India’s Water Sector
•
Strengths
– Good resources
• Ganga-Brahmaputra basin
• Monsoons
• Himalayan ice
• West coast water resources
•
Weakness
– Silo approach to water management
– Spatial, temporal and social imbalances
– Water availability in Peninsular India
– Unsustainable Financial model
– Sanitation and waste water
– Weak political Will
– Weak Regulation
•
Opportunities
– Inter-basin transfer
– Recharge
– Storage capacity
– Surface Irrigation
– Optimizing available water availability
•
Threats
– Climate change
– Uncertainty of cross-border inflows
– Demographics, urbanization & agriculture.
– Groundwater depletion
– Contamination of water sources
IAS Phase V 2010-11. Strategy Paper: Water
Pravesh Sharma & Alok Sheel
Vision, Mission, Objectives, Functions and Strategy
Despite its critical role in sustaining human life, integrated water management has
not received the attention it deserves at the highest levels of policy making and planning
in India. Not only is the handling of the subject fragmented across several departments
within government, it does not even figure in the twelve challenges identified in the 12 th
Plan. The imperative for treating an indivisible natural resource like water in an
integrated manner is manifest in Ministry of Water Resources own National Water Policy
2002 which accords primacy to drinking water, a function which is not within its
administrative purview. Ironically, the bulk user of water resources (i.e agriculture) is
also not a subject dealt by it. Likewise, while groundwater is handled in Water Resources
Ministry, its depletion in urban areas falls within the domain of Department of Drinking
water, and in rural areas within the domain of ministry of Agriculture. Such inherent
contradictions have led to a sub-optimal and fragmented strategic framework being
adopted by all the central agencies dealing with water.
Having reviewed the current Strategic Plan, National Water Policy 2002 and the
RFD of the Ministry of Water Resources we are of the considered view that Water
needs to be dealt with in a holistic manner as an integrated and indivisible natural
resource, cutting across current administrative silos. To this end, we have detailed
below an alternate vision, mission, functions and strategic plan for water under revised
administrative arrangements that go beyond the current roles and responsibilities.
The key issues in the Indian water sector are the administrative, managerial
and financial challenges. The administrative challenge derives from the need to evolve
appropriate administrative structures that can take a holistic view of water and thereby
optimize water utilization and management in the country. The managerial challenge
derives from the fact that while mainstream estimates indicate that in the aggregate India
has adequate freshwater relative to demand in the foreseeable future, its spatial, temporal
and social distribution is very skewed. There are also issues relating to efficiency of
water use, sustainability of freshwater extraction, reliable service delivery, equity,
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depletion of available fresh water by contamination of fresh water sources through human
activity, and management and development of human resources that need to be
addressed. The financial challenge lies in recovering the administrative and capital costs
of water delivery from consumers of water so that dependence on hard fought taxpayers’
funds can be minimized and adequate capital continues to flow into the water sector.
Key Issues
Administrative Challenges
Given the critical nature of water as a natural resource, its effective management
involves a number of administrative departments and ministries, including Water
Resources, Agriculture, Rural Development, Urban Affairs, Industry, Health, Power,
Environment and Forests and Panchayati Raj.
Currently the Ministry of Water Resources has the primary responsibility of
managing the country’s water resources. While rural drinking water is handled in
Department of Drinking Water in the Ministry of Rural Development, and urban drinking
water in the Ministry of Urban Development, two major user departments, namely
Agriculture and Industry, have no role in water management. Since over 80% of the
demand for freshwater derives from the agricultural sector, this is clearly anamalous as
this comes in the way of exploiting the synergies in agriculture and water planning. For
this reason water was at one stage part of the Ministry of Agriculture.
While it is appreciated that the formation of a separate administrative wing focused
exclusively on water has facilitated greater attention being bestowed on water resources,
it is unclear why agriculture and water resources should be in handled in separate
ministries. They could be separate departments within the same Ministry. It is
pertinent in this regard that in the United States of America not only water but also
climate issues are handled in the Department of Agriculture since the latter is the major
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source of demand for water. In India, the Water Resources Department handles both
Irrigation and Drinking Water.
Although the biggest demand for drinking water derives from agriculture, the
critical importance of drinking water is self-evident, and manifest in the National Water
Policy 2002 that gives priority to drinking water over all other uses. Drinking water could
therefore be handled in a separate Ministry. This Ministry should have the responsibility
for both rural and urban areas. In a fast growing developing country like India, the ruralurban divide is very dynamic on account of rapid urbanization of rural areas. It is
consequently necessary to cut the umbilical cord between the Department of
Drinking Water and the Ministry of Rural Development and form a separate
Ministry of Drinking and Industrial Water and Sanitation, that works closely with
the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Urban Affairs, Industry and Health.
Over the years, waste water and sanitation issues have been crowded out of water
management in the country that has focused almost exclusively on the supply of
freshwater through irrigation systems for agriculture (Ministry of Water Resources) and
piped water for drinking (Department of Drinking Water) to address the demand-supply
imbalance, while the Ministry of Health is focused on curative medicine. As a result,
there has been gross underinvestment in sewage systems, open defecation is rife with
India accounting for by the largest global share, and waterborne diseases continue to take
a huge toll of human life.
There has been gross underinvestment in sanitation as an
analysis of the budgets of Urban Affairs and Rural Development would indicate. It is
therefore high time that a separate Department of Waste Water and Sanitation was
created as part of the proposed Ministry of Drinking and Industrial Water and
Sanitation. It is pertinent to note that as water storage facilities are increased on a vast
scale managing the sanitary fall out would be critical. A lesson from history is in order
here, as the rapid expansion of canal irrigation in India in the second half of the
nineteenth century was accompanied by a sharp deterioration in public health, as
channels of natural drainage were blocked by canal, railway and road embankments,
leading to water logging and breeding of vectors..
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Following the 73rd and 74th amendment to the Indian Constitution, drinking water
supply service delivery devolves on local self government institutions. In developed
countries too water supply is managed by local institutions. Developing the capability of
Panchayati Raj institutions to the level that they can deliver water services
effectively remains a huge administrative challenge. Greater focus is necessary on
human resource development in this regard, which is dealt with separately below.
Managerial Challenges
Spatial imbalances: Inter- basin transfer of water
India is endowed with good freshwater resources centered on the Monsoons,
Himalayan ice and the Indus-Ganges-Brahmaputra alluvium, one of the largest
groundwater reservoirs in the world. The Ministry of Water Resources has estimated that
with 2.5% of global landmass India has 4% of the world’s freshwater resources. This has
come under increasing demographic stress since India is home to about 16% of global
population and the distribution of India’s freshwater is highly skewed.The Central Water
Commission has estimated that the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin with 33% of the
landmass has 60% of total water flows, while the western coastline with 3% of the area
has another 11%. This leaves just 29% of water resources in the remaining 64% of the
area in peninsular India where farmer suicides are concentrated.
The controversial river-linking scheme was mooted to address the spatial
hydrologic imbalance. The idea of transferring surplus water from better endowed basins
to deficit ones has been around for a while now without gaining sustained traction. Given
the skewed spatial distribution of water resources, it is perhaps inevitable that a country
of India’s size and historical capacity to undertake large sized interventions in this sector
should find such an idea appealing. Clearly, it does not make sense to allow huge
volumes of water, which becomes surplus in some basins during a few months of the
year, to both visit periodic havoc on human lives, habitats and livelihoods and then
drain away over the next few months with absolutely no benefit to the country,
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while other basins are short of water . Undoubtedly, there are several ecological,
technical, social and economic issues to be sorted out before such an idea can be
translated into reality. However, what is critical is putting a process in place that
ultimately leads to answers to what is presently only a set of questions. A two stage
graduated process can address this challenge. In the first instance, the National
Development Council (NDC), which is the supreme planning body in the country,
could adopt a unanimous resolution to set up a multi-disciplinary agency (MDA)
reporting directly to the Planning Commission, which is mandated to examine the
entire spectrum of issues pertaining to inter-basin transfer of river waters. This body
should ideally be headed by a political executive or a senior bureaucrat/technocrat with
appropriate rank to give it both legitimacy and acceptability. The terms of reference of
this body would be most comprehensive and it may be given a time line of at least two to
three years to submit its findings. There should be an express provision in the NDC
resolution which will set up the MDA that its findings will be placed again before the
NDC for a final view on the strategy which should be adopted in view of the MDA’s
report. This is the most transparent and effective manner to place all the relevant
information in the public domain and allow for a meaningful and result oriented national
debate on this vital issue.
As a corollary to this approach, all pending inter-State water disputes will be put
on hold by the same resolution of the NDC till the MDA has been able to examine all
aspects of the inter-basin river water transfer and submit its findings to the NDC.
Temporal Imbalances: Water Storage
Most of the rainfall in India is received over a relatively short duration during the
monsoons. This leads of temporary flooding on the one hand, while huge amounts of
water in excess of the existing recharge and storage capacity drains off into the sea. The
challenge is to reduce the pace and quanta of this run off. Inter-basin transfer would
address the problem in part. This strategy should however be augmented by
increasing water storage capacity through large new reservoirs, desilting and
reviving traditional water storage structures and ponds, dissemination of state of the
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art groundwater recharge technologies, and construction of new water harvesting
structures such as check dams, open draw wells and rooftop rainwater harvesting
devices on a large scale. Some States have already mandated, or are contemplating,
changes in building rules and other legislation to mandate creation of additional water
storage capacities. There is ample scope for evolving a new set of centrally sponsored
schemes to drive this process forward expeditiously. It would however at the same time
also be imperative to manage the sanitary fall-out of static water bodies in close
proximity of human habitations.
Social Imbalances
Access to water in India is highly skewed socially in view of its close
association with land and property rights on the one hand, and the persistence of
ritual handicaps in accessing traditional sources of water supply, such as open wells
and ponds, on the other. Effective public delivery of water services should alleviate this
problem. The poor are efficient users of water, and supply of a minimum quantity of
piped water at low prices is eminently feasible as part of large water supply systems,
even where these are privately managed through PPPs. Such a subsidy is a merit good
that can be easily funded without the need to target and without access to general budget
revenues through a system of cross subsidy involving a steeply graded pricing system
benchmarked to water consumption. For the landless and houseless, the first best
solution is to address the root of the problem (i.e providing access to land and
shelter), while the second best is to provide access to water through adequate
number of working taps and water sources in public places.
Increasing Water Use Efficiency in Agriculture
Despite the fact that agriculture accounts for almost 80% of total freshwater usage
in India, and it is increasingly evident that the flood method of irrigation (which prevails
in over 95% of the irrigated area) damages both ecology and farm economics, there is
surprisingly no attempt on the part of either agriculture or water resources planners to
address this issue. This also creates severe management problems in major command
systems as farmers at the tail end of the canal receive delayed and deficient supplies, even
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as those upstream use the water wastefully since it is grossly underpriced. Overall,
wasteful water use practices in agriculture present a severe challenge to policy makers,
scientists, engineers, administrators and economists alike to bring about large scale
behavioural change with a view not only to conserve water and increase its availability
for competing demands, but also protect the environment and hike crop productivity.
Moving to a regime of watershed planning is a seductive idea, but has so far
failed to take off, largely because the planning process is based on administrative
divisions, which do not coincide with watershed boundaries. More thought needs to
be given as to how to overcome this hurdle. However, several other ideas can be
implemented simultaneously to achieve this goal. Crop planning is presently virtually
an in-house exercise of the agriculture ministry, in consultation with the States. This
should necessarily be conducted with inputs regarding water availability projections
in a particular season. Provisioning of subsidized seed, fertilizer and other inputs, as
well as extension services, are the preferred interventions to achieve desired crop acreage.
Reforming this approach would envisage integrating surface and groundwater availability
estimates in this exercise. Adjustments in choice of crops for a cycle may be required
depending on the water availability estimates. This is the first step in bringing water at
the core of the crop planning exercise. Minimum support price signaling is an additional
policy instrument available to government to influence cropping patterns.
At the same time, a time bound plan to bring the entire cropped area under
controlled irrigation devices (such as sprinkler and other water conservation
systems) should be undertaken. This may require legislation at the state or national
level and should be implemented through a judicious blend of incentives (such as set offs
against water and power tariffs) and subsidies to certain categories of cultivators. Another
intervention can be the delivery of irrigation water through underground pipes, which
will not only conserve huge quantities of water lost through evaporation while being
transported through open canal systems but also bring spin-off benefits in the form of
drinking water to rural areas from the saved quantities.
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Sustainable Exploitation of Water Resources
It goes without saying that the drawal of freshwater resources for human consumption
should not exceed the natural rate of recharge through the annual hydrological cycle. This
problem has become particularly acute since the availability of freshwater resources
has remained constant even as its exploitation is increasing manifold with
technological advancement, population rise and economic growth, all of which were
very limited in the preindustrial era. Quite apart from the long-term threat to human
existence such depletion represents, as in the case of public debt, there is also a problem
of intergenerational equity. It would not be fair on subsequent generations if the present
generation were to permanently reduce the quantity of fresh water that would otherwise
have been available to them.
Surface water resources are renewed year after year through the hydrological cycle.
Increasing consumption and/or storage capacity simply serves to reduce the run-off into
the sea on the margin. The phreatic water table tapped by open draw wells is likewise
automatically recharged each year through the same cycle. Unsustainable drawal of fresh
water, therefore, mostly occurs when water trapped in underground rock formations
below the phreatic water table in deep aquifers over centuries, millennia or even millions
of years, is extracted at levels exceeding the natural rate of recharge.
While surface water and the phreatic water table have always been utilized by
humans for consumption, as in the case of natural oil, humans have only recently
developed the technology to tap these deep aquifers. This technology, however, has the
potential to completely empty out these aquifers within a relatively short period of time
as the growing volume of groundwater data being gathered through the National
Hydrology Project indicates. The drilling rig and electric pump revolution has
permanently depleted groundwater reserves in several areas, with water and power
subsidies compounding the problem through inefficient use of a scarce resource.
Excessive drawal has also led to increasing concentration of toxic elements such as
fluoride, arsenic and salinity in several areas. While groundwater depletion in urban areas
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is largely due to poor piped drinking water supply, in rural areas by far the major culprit
is agriculture and irrigation since about 80% of freshwater usage is for agriculture.
Of course, modern science and technology can also be used to artificially increase
the rate of recharge of aquifers, and to that extent the level of sustainable
exploitation of deep aquifers can also be enhanced. For this it is imperative that
comprehensive data on the size and sustainable levels of exploitation is compiled and
regularly updated. A beginning has been made in this regard through regular readings of
observation wells all over the country through the National Hydrology Project. This work
needs to be extended and made more comprehensive, including through mapping of deep
aquifers in the country and determining their rates of recharge. Once this is done a cap
would need to be put on annual extraction rates.
In view of sharply falling groundwater levels several States have put, or are in the
process of putting in place, legislation to regulate the use of groundwater. Such efforts
have however met with limited success as it has been impossible to monitor the large
numbers of tube wells that have proliferated all over the country. What is perhaps
required is a major legislative change which puts water on a par with other natural
resources. Presently while minerals present under one’s property belong to the State, that
has the right to regulate and license their extraction, subsurface water resources belong to
the property owner. Where private property sits on top of a deep aquifer, the owner is
within his rights to drain the entire aquifer that may extend far beyond the boundaries of
his property. This would need to change, for while owners of land should be free to tap
the phreatic water table through open wells on their property, deep aquifers need to
be treated as a common resource and public good.
Regions away from river systems and otherwise disadvantaged by the scarce
availability of surface water bodies are constrained to fall back almost exclusively
on groundwater, as in large parts of Western, Central and Peninsular India, which are
areas of mostly dry land cultivation. Irrigated area and agricultural productivity in these
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areas has expanded in recent times through massive, unsustainable exploitation of deep
aquifers.
One way to address the problem is to enhance local storage through expanded use
of rainwater harvesting, revival of traditional water bodies, and groundwater
recharge technologies that enhances the sustainable drawal of groundwater. Another
way of addressing the issue is through a massive expansion of surface irrigation from
river systems to dryland areas wherever possible. This would not only be very expensive,
but major irrigation projects have a poor record of execution and maintenance. This
would need to be vastly improved, including through galvanizing water use associations
that have mostly failed to take off so far. Alternatively, the river linking project could
serve the same purpose.
Reliable Service Delivery
Piped drinking water, even in our cities, is a luxury rather than a basic
entitlement. The situation in rural areas is even more dismal, with shallow tube wells
serviced by manual water pumps being the preferred mode of supplying untreated subsurface water to habitations. This has led to consequential health challenges in the form
of water borne diseases and linked social and economic costs, both at the household and
societal levels. The problem has been complicated by issues of incorrect pricing of piped
drinking water, confusion regarding the role of market forces and public sector
monopolies. Sub-optimal outcomes and wastage of resources, both in terms of water and
finances, is the norm.
Experts have long argued that supplying 24x7 piped water actually leads to more
efficient water usage, besides substantially reducing risks of contamination due to the
constant high pressure in the water mains, and also better measurement of water usage
because water meter perform better. It signals availability on demand to consumers,
reducing or totally eliminating the need to store water, a major cause of imbalanced
demand. The necessary adjunct to 24x7 supply is of course metering and price recovery,
both of which are presently resisted on account of uncertain supplies. Given the overall
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water availablity in the country, 24x7 drinking water supply is an achievable goal,
requiring a quick roll out of large sized, high profile pilots, rapidly followed by
scaled up implementation.
Since piped drinking water is not merely an urban requirement, we must
turn our attention urgently to addressing rural demand as well. Suggestions have
been made elsewhere in this note on synergising irrigation and drinking water supplies
wherever feasible. In other areas, safe drinking water sources will have to be located and
treated drinking water supplied as an important national priority. While it is not within
the scope of this paper to discuss the issue in detail, it must be mentioned here that the
sanitation challenge in both urban and rural areas is closely linked with the provision of
piped water to human populations and ignoring the two much longer will add
substantially to social and economic risks.
Effective Management of Water Related Sanitary and Public Health Issues
As already pointed out, concerns regarding availability and depletion of water
resources have tended to crowd out sanitary issues relating to human water consumption.
It has therefore been proposed to have a separate department that focuses on the
environmental impact assessment and management of water usage in different
sectors, namely household, industrial and agriculture. This department would need to
work in close consultation with the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
Unscientific disposal of hazardous chemical and human waste contaminates both
water bodies and groundwater. With increasing use of chemicals in industries,
households (detergents, soaps, shampoos etcetera) and agriculture (chemical
fertilizers and pesticides), chemical contamination of fresh water sources is
increasing sharply. Excessive tapping of groundwater is also increasing concentrations
of fluoride and arsenic in several areas rendering the remaining groundwater unfit for
human consumption. It is much more difficult to manage chemical contamination of
freshwater sources than organic contamination.
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The increasing density of human settlements is reducing the distance between
unscientifically disposed household waste, including night soil, and water bodies and
wells that are the source of drinking water, especially during the heavy monsoonal
downpour when the phreatic water table can rise sharply. The danger is that although less
than 10% of freshwater is actually used for direct human consumption, it has the potential
to contaminate all freshwater sources. Many densely populated ancient civilisations
limited bacteriological risks through water-sanitising cultural practices such as tea
drinking. The practice of drinking boiled water seasoned with herbs is also widespread in
Kerala where the dense settlement pattern has led to organic contamination of
groundwater sources. There are, however, competing pressures on scarce fuel sources,
especially in areas of endemic poverty, to replicate such adaptations on a national scale,
and the problem needs to be addressed at its source through revamping and
accelerating programs such as the Total Sanitation Campaign.
There has been inadequate investment in sewage systems that could evacuate, treat
and recycle urban wastewater. Since both 24X7 piped water supply and sewage
systems are mostly still to be put in place in large urban agglomerations, economies
of scale could be realized by linking the two and laying two sets of pipes, one for
supply of fresh water and the other for evacuation of waste water.
Human Resource Management and Development
Water resources management has both hardware and software components. The
subject of hydrology has so far largely been seen as the preserve of engineering
studies, even though interventions originating from the sector have impacts in areas
as diverse as ecology, soil sciences, human habitats, livestock and urbanization.
Inadequate attention has been devoted to outcomes in the latter set of areas, often
resulting in human and environmental consequences that were never anticipated in the
original design. This calls for a review of the HRD requirements for hydrological
interventions, especially if the country plans a bigger spend through aggressive
investments in the sector in the coming decades. Subjects as seemingly unconnected as
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sociology, anthropology, economics as well as agronomy and soil sciences will need
to be looked at afresh to align them with the needs of the sector.
This calls for a comprehensive effort not just at the tertiary level but also in the
basic diploma and other short term courses offered in ITIs, arts and science colleges and
vocational institutes. The drive to decentralise management of field level water
structures and systems through community owned organizations and supply of
drinking water through Panchayati Raj institutions will never take off without basic
level trained managerial resources, which are critical to help keep accounts,
maintain water channels and pipe networks, undertake collection of dues,
disseminate information etcetera. At the same time, core engineering skills in
hydrology must be upgraded with cutting edge research, jointly funded by the
government and the private sector with appropriate incentives. It may be noted that given
India’s long, diverse and successful experience in hydrology, planning, training and
implementation of interventions in the sector is an area of comparative advantage, which
should be leveraged by attracting international students to our institutions and providing
suitable sops to both PSU and private sector units to aggressively pursue consultancy and
turnkey project implementation opportunities abroad.
Financial Challenges
Currently, India’s water sector is in severe financial distress and there is
enormous liability from deferred maintenance. There is shortage of substantial funds
to deal with the needs for the development of fresh water resources and waste water
infrastructure, maintenance and management. Amidst the scarce availability of resources
for water supply, investment is sewage and waste water systems have tended to get
crowded out. Funds are required not only for annual maintenance and rehabilitation of the
sector but also for providing services to those who do not have them. Distortion in pricing
of water services rural power has further induced substantial overall economic costs by
enlarging the gulf between prices and costs, besides encouraging wasteful consumption
of a scarce precious resource. Some of the factors responsible for this financial crisis are:
inadequate revenue generation, chronically under-funded operation and maintenance
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(O&M) costs, revenues not channeled directly to expenditure, inappropriate prioritization
of government expenditures, and above all unwillingness of governments to raise water
tariffs in view of their politically sensitive nature. In short, inadequate cost recovery
and lack of direct linkages between both revenue and expenditure are at the root of
these problems.
Water is a sensitive political issue, and governments, especially at the local levels,
seem reluctant to levy user charges to cover the costs of effective service delivery. This
has led to severe underinvestment and decapitalization in the sector since it is forced to
mostly rely on hard fought and severely constrained general budget revenues. It is often
said that the real problem in public financial management in the water sector is not so
much the willingness to pay, but the unwillingness to charge. The shortfall in service
delivery has resulted in substantial inefficient private investment through the creation of
domestic water utilities on a large scale through which households set up storage,
pumping and purification devices within their own premises, and are also willing to
purchase clean bottled water at several times the rate charged by public water utilities.
The poor have to spend more and more of their precious time in gathering water leading
to increasing opportunity loss through foregone income. The managerial challenge lies
in channelizing these private flows into centralized water supply systems that could
deliver the same or better quality of service at much lower cost, thereby enhancing
social welfare.
Since households have made huge personal investments owing to poor public
services, these “sunk costs” pose a challenge, because these users would actually benefit
little in the short run from more reliable supplies and may oppose higher user charges,
even if service quality is improved. They would only become supporters in the medium
run when they understand that they did not need to replace their assets (their pump and
overhead tanks and water filters) because they could now rely on the piped distribution
system. Hence, this requires that information on improvements and savings that it brings
in the short run (lower electricity costs) and medium run (no replacement of equipment
for coping) needs to be communicated effectively. The time span for bringing tariffs in
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line with costs needs to be tailored to this reality. Therefore, there is an urgent need to
formulate appropriate water policies, institutions, strategies and technologies to address
these issues.
In view of the abysmal record of government in managing large irrigation
systems, the National Water Policy, 2002 has emphasized that the management of water
resources should incorporate a participatory approach by involving not only Government
agencies but also all stakeholders in various aspects of planning, design and management.
Recognizing the need for a legal framework for Participatory Irrigation Management
(PIM), the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) has brought out a model Act to be
adopted by the States for this purpose. Presently more than 61,000 Water Users’
Associations (WUAs) have been formed in 23 States covering an area of about 12.55
million hectares. Some of the remaining States have been encouraging participation of
farmers in Irrigation Management at outlet level under cooperative/society acts. Despite
this progress, PIM is not working effectively in most States.
Overall, exclusive public financing of water investments as an idea has long
passed its sell-by date. The National Water Policy 2002 has in-principle accepted the
need for encouraging private investment in the sector. However, no significant project
has as yet been developed either through a public-private joint venture or exclusive
private sector funding. One of the main constraints in this regard is the absence of clear
rules of the game and a transparent regulatory regime. Examples of rapid growth fuelled
by enormous private sector investment in telecom and power and more recently in
airports suggest that the sector is ripe for introducing a regulator who would set out clear
rules of investments and pricing. In a life-sensitive sector like water, subsidies and
entitlements, especially for vulnerable groups, will remain an important political
economy consideration and the state will continue to play a major role in the medium
term future. Yet, in the absence of transparent rules of investment, fresh infusion of
financial resources at desired levels is unlikely to materialise. This is one decision that
can only be delayed at great cost to the country.
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In view of the huge unfulfilled demand for water, and the willingness of
consumers to pay for reliable service delivery, there is great scope for innovative
financial solutions. In view of their dispersed nature and consequential costs, large piped
rural water supply schemes run by water utilities have not been very successful. On the
other hand smaller, decentralized community/user owned and managed rural
schemes have provided reliable and cost effective service delivery in many areas, as
under the World Bank assisted Rural Water Supply Scheme.
There is also greater scope for leveraging the public funds allocated under
MNREGA, and other central and state funded schemes, for earthworks required for
augmenting storage capacity and interlinking of rivers. This would reduce the overall
additional budgetary allocations for improvements in water management on the one hand,
and create durable and productive assets under MNREGA on the other.
Implementation Strategy
In the foregoing paragraphs we have proposed an alternate vision of integrated
water management that transcends current administrative boundaries. While researching
for this paper we realized the futility of managing a critical life sustaining natural
resource like water in a fragmented manner. At this stage, given the limited time and
resources at our disposal, it is not possible to come up with a detailed and realistic
Implementation Plan which would need to factor in the budgetary and medium to longterm resources likely to be available, widespread stakeholder consultation and
comprehensive appraisal of data. What can be attempted at this stage is at best an outline
Implementation Strategy, which has been woven into the narrative. In the run up to the
XII Plan it is our earnest hope that the vision, approach and strategy for integrated
water management outlined above would be considered while finalizing the Plan
and devising appropriate interventions.
The Outline Implementation Strategy derived from the foregoing would consist of
the following:
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IAS Phase V 2010-11. Strategy Paper: Water
Pravesh Sharma & Alok Sheel
1. Administrative reorganization of central ministries through which Water
Resources and Agriculture are handled in the same Ministry. A separate Ministry
of Drinking Water should handled both Urban and Rural drinking water,
Industrial demand, and include a separate Department of Waste Water and
Sanitation.
2. A new and effective mechanism for pushing ahead with Inter Basin Transfer of
River waters , perhaps centered on the National Development Council.
3. Expansion of water storage capacity, revival of traditional water bodies, recharge
of groundwater sources, check dams and watershed revamp to reduce run-off.
4. Leveraging MNREGA and other similar schemes for labour intensive earthworks
for basin transfer and water storage schemes.
5. Revamping the system of crop planning through ‘water budgeting’, by leveraging
input subsidies and the Minimum Support Price mechanism.
6. Phased expansion of water conserving irrigation devices, such as piped irrigation
and sprinklers.
7. Water Banking: Comprehensive data upgrade and management, building on the
National Hydrology project, and including mapping and determining sustainable
exploitation rates of deep aquifers.
8. Groundwater regulation, including legislating State ownership of deep subsurface aquifers, excluding the phreatic water table, and Building Rules for
rooftop rainwater harvesting.
9. Targeting 24X7 drinking water supply through a two pipe system for fresh and
waste water.
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IAS Phase V 2010-11. Strategy Paper: Water
Pravesh Sharma & Alok Sheel
10. Comprehensive revamping the Total Sanitation programme to expand use of
toilets.
11. Human Resource Development review and revamp of engineering and related
disciplines such as economics, sociology, anthropology etc. to develop capacity of
institutions across the water spectrum and focus on capacity building for PRIs
and ULBs.
12. Appointment of a Regulator to incentivize private investment in the Water Sector.
13. Greater innovation in dispersed rural water supply schemes, including community
ownership/user operation, such as the World Bank assisted Jalanidhi scheme in
Kerala.
14. Minimizing draft on hard fought and scarce general budget revenues through cost
recovery while underscoring operational efficiency, leveraging the willingness to
pay and invest, while targeting direct subsidies for the poor.
*****
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