The Centre on
Monday unveiled the draft of its contentious National Water Framework Bill
which seeks to provide “right to water”, while stating that water allocation
and pricing should be based on “economic principles”.
“Every individual has a right to a minimum
quantity of potable water for essential health and hygiene and within easy
reach of the household,” states the draft. “The minimum quantity of potable
water shall not be less than 25 litres per capita per day,” it says, adding that
the quantity must be fixed by the “appropriate government”.
“The state’s responsibility for ensuring
people’s right to water shall remain despite corporatisation or privatisation
of water services, and the privatisation of the service, where considered
necessary and appropriate, shall be subject to this provision,” says the draft
bill, which also mandates that governments should specify the “quality
standards” of water supply for various uses like drinking, livestock,
irrigation and industries among others.
While noting that the government remains the
trustee of water resources, the draft bill gives it the flexibility of roping
in a “private agency” for “some of the functions of the state”. In this
context, it stipulates that “allocation and pricing” should be based “on
economic principles to ensure its development costs”, and “so that water is not
wasted in unnecessary uses and... utilised more gainfully and water
infrastructure projects are made financially viable.”
For this purpose, “an independent statutory
water regulatory authority shall be established by every state for ensuring
equitable access to water for all, and its fair pricing for drinking and other
uses such as sanitation, agricultural and industrial,” it says, adding that the
decision of this authority will be subject to judicial review.
The regulatory authority will be entrusted with
fixing the water price and its periodical review, and formulating a “principle
of differential pricing for water for drinking and sanitation”.
The draft bill, prepared on the basis of a
report by a committee headed by Y K Alagh, also mandates protection of
“ecological integrity necessary to sustain ecosystems dependent on water”, that
may include restrictions on water usage to maintain minimum natural flow in rivers
to meet the ecological needs and regulated groundwater use.
It seeks to make river basins the mandatory
basic hydrological unit for planning, development and management of water
resources, while stipulating that governments should come up with “specific
legislations” for developing, managing and regulating basins of intra-state
rivers. Besides, it says, there should be a river basin masterplan.
“All water resources projects shall conform to
the river basin masterplan under section 7(7)... and shall take into account
all social and environmental aspects, in addition to techno-economic
considerations of the project, in consultation with project affected and
beneficiary families,” it says. Local bodies, including panchayats,
municipalities, corporations, and even water users associations will have a say
in planning and management of the projects.
The National Water Framework Bill has already
drawn criticism from several states, including Congress-ruled ones like Kerala
and Haryana, which have claimed that it amounts to infringing upon their rights
as water is a state subject.
The draft bill gives time till July 31 for
comments.
Source : indianexpress.com
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