By IANS
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday highlighted the huge climate change challenge for India and appealed all panchayat and municipal bodies to come forward with their water conservation strategies, while putting commercial users of water on notice about possible water charges.
“Water is life. Yet, humankind has not done enough to replenish, conserve and safeguard our sources of water supply. On the contrary, given the threat of climate change and global warming, we face the real prospect of reduced supply of water,” Manmohan Singh said.
“This threat is of particular concern to us in India since we have, since times immemorial, depended on glaciers for our water supply in this part of our subcontinent,” he said at the National Water Congress-2007, held in the capital.
Underlining the danger of human conflict based on need for water, he said: “Today humankind faces a real danger of human conflict based on our need for water. However, I do believe that we have the wisdom and the foresight to deal with this challenge.”
“We must resolve together to ensure the equitable, efficient and environmentally friendly use of this life giving natural resource.
“It is now widely recognised that water, especially potable water is finite and a vulnerable resource. There is also a wide consensus that water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving all stakeholders.
He said in the present scenario there was a greater need to address the challenge of water scarcity with much urgency.
The prime minister appealed to Panchayat Raj institutions, municipal bodies and other local authorities to come up with region specific strategies to conserve water.
“Any strategy for water conservation, management and utilisation cannot be imposed on the country from here in New Delhi. We need a community-based, region-specific strategy that is owned by the people who have to implement it.
“I sincerely believe that our Panchayati Raj institutions and our municipalities and local bodies, along with civil society organisations, have a critical and vital role to play in this regard,” he said at the National Congress on Ground Water 2007.
“I want each and every panchayat and municipality to come forward with a water conservation strategy.
“We have the impressive example of Chennai city that had a city-based, neighbourhood-based strategy. Every village, every locality, every neighbourhood, every town should have a rainwater harvesting scheme. Panchayats must be actively engaged in ground water recharge and the renovation and maintenance of water bodies,” the prime minister clarified.
Manmohan Singh urged the Advisory Council on Artificial Recharge of Ground Water to create widespread national awareness and a genuine national consensus on “an equitable, efficient and environmentally sustainable water policy for our vast country”.
Juxtaposing the excess of water in the form of floods and acute scarcity of water during a drought, Manmohan Singh said: “Our country faces the ironical challenge of managing every year both an embarrassment of riches and scarcity of water.
“The Government deals, at the same time, with the challenge of both floods and the challenge of drought. We cannot address these two problems in isolation.”
Elaborating on government initiatives, the prime minister said: “We are in the process of formulating a scheme for dug well recharge in hard rock regions of the country covering seven states”.
He further said the government could not continue to subsidise commercial use of water, and thus put industrial and agricultural users of water on notice.
“We cannot continue to subsidise the economic and commercial use of water.”
“There are related policies that must also be corrected to ensure adequate emphasis on water conservation, especially ground water. For example, providing free power to farmers has encouraged excessive use of pump sets and excessive drawing of ground water,” he added.
Pointing out that water was both a public good and an economic good, the prime minister said governments had to take both these properties into account while evolving water policies.
“The question before us is have we paid adequate attention to these principles and priorities since 1992? I am afraid we have not done so and we must make up for the lost time.”