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Terming the existing water laws as inadequate, the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, on Friday proposed a national legal framework on general principles to pave the way for legislation on water governance in every State.
“The existing institutional and legal structures are inadequate, fragmented and need active reform,” the Prime Minister said while inaugurating the 6th meeting of the National Water Resources Council here.
Denying any move by the Centre to centralise water management, Singh said the framework would be an umbrella statement of general principles governing the exercise of legislative, executive or devolved powers by the Centre, the states and the local governing bodies. He assured the States that their rights would not be encroached.
Painting a grim picture of water scarcity in the country, the Prime Minister said rapid economic growth and urbanisation were widening the demand-supply gap and leading to worsening the water-stress index.
“Our water bodies are getting increasingly polluted by untreated industrial effluents and sewage. Groundwater levels are falling in many parts due to excessive withdrawals, leading to contamination with fluoride, arsenic and other chemicals,” he said.
He called upon States to rise above political, ideological and regional differences and move away from a “narrow project-centric approach” to water management, especially with regard to irrigation systems.
Stressing on the need to minimise groundwater use, the Prime Minister said the water table was depleting, and expressed serious concern over the lack of regulation on its extraction and co-ordination among competing uses.
We need to initiate steps to minimise misuse of groundwater by regulating the use of electricity for its extraction,” he said.
The meeting, attended by several Chief Ministers and State Water Resources Ministers along with senior officers from States as well as Central Ministries, is likely to adopt the latest National Water Policy.
The policy includes a national legal framework on water issues that the States had been opposing since the draft had been put in public domain in January 2012.
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