Star News Agency

New Delhi. The Central and State Governments plan to spend nearly Rs. 90,000 crore in the XI Five Year Plan for rural water supply and sanitation. In typical water supply schemes more than 80% of the total cost is materials like pipes, pumps, cement etc. We want industry to come up with materials and products that are cost-effective and appropriate for rural conditions. The emphasis should be on material and products that require the least maintenance considering inadequate supply of skilled persons in rural areas. Stating this at a National Workshop on Government-Industry Interface for Safe Drinking Water organised here today the Minister of State for Rural Development by Ms. Agatha Sangma said use of water for drinking purpose has to compete with industrial use of this precious resource. She said the role of Government is complementary as suppliers of drinking supply water infrastructure and service. Industry is both a supplier of materials and products and in some recent cases is a partner in supplying safe drinking water in rural areas..

The Minister said our population of more than one billion people resides in highly variable environments. The spread of water resources in our country varies widely, from recurrent flood prone areas to desert areas. Various measures are being taken by Government of India and the State Governments for improving the utilisation of overall water resources. Within this framework we see that India faces an increasingly urgent situation: its finite and fragile water resources are stressed and depleting while various sectoral demands are growing rapidly.

Since the major surface water resources are mostly in the public sector, their exploitation is more or less under control. Groundwater is the source for more than 80% of drinking water systems. But since the exploitation of ground water is mostly in the private sector, its regulation for equitable and judicious use is a must. Irrigation and industrial expansion has placed greater demands on surface and groundwater resources. Industry uses 6% of available water resources as compared to 4% for domestic uses and less than 1% for drinking water. Despite more than Rs. 1,00,000 crore investment already made by the Central and State Governments in rural water supply sector, because of unregulated ground water extraction by industry and agriculture, the reliability of rural drinking water supply and satisfaction levels are still below the desired levels. The Minister stressed the need to deliberate on ways to safeguard public drinking water sources in such cases. Groundwater regulation laws passed in some States need to be implemented more vigorously. States that have not yet passed such laws should take urgent action too enact legislation in this regard.

Ms. Sangma said some form of prescribing collective rights with the responsibility for regulation to be devolved on Gram Panchayats and local communities’ need has to be considered. To safeguard the sustainable supply of safe drinking water, concerted action is needed on all fronts including agriculture, urban and spatial planning, population planning, and industrial development.

Underlining the need for judicious use of Water Resources the Minister said Industrial use of water should rest on the principles of harvest, minimize, reuse and recharge. Use of water efficient technologies should be adopted to minimize use of water. The industry should take this responsibility upon itself as a part of environmental and social responsibility without waiting for regulation or pricing pressures. Water suppliers in the public sector should adopt pricing strategies that promote these principles. The Minister advised the Industry to plan social infrastructure improvement in conjunction with the Panchayats and the local administrators. Convergence of Corporate social responsibility activities of Industry with various Government programmes like National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, National Rural Drinking Water Programme, Hariyali and Integrated Watershed Development Programme, etc. She said such initiatives can go a long way in attaining sustainable water resources and overall human development.

The one day conference was addressed by Mr. T.M.Vijay Bhaskar, Joint Secretary in the D/o Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development, Dr. Sudhir Kapur, CII National Committee Member and Dr. Gouri Shankar Ghosh, Former Executive Director, UN Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WASH), WHO, Geneva.

Issues like Water quality, Water recycling and Water recharge, Promoting cleaner and cost effective technologies, Role of Corporate Social Responsibility and role of Public Private Partnership are taken up in the sessions earmarked for Inter-linkages for Rural Drinking Water Supply; Role of Industry in ensuring Drinking Water Security and Reflections on State Perspective for Rural Drinking Water Supply. The Seminar is a joint collaboration of The Department of Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India and The Confederation of Indian Industry.