THERE is little doubt that we have a major crisis on our hands when it comes to safe, sustainable and universal access to water. And there are both grave challenges and exciting
opportunities for those who have to find solutions for sharing and managing
water in India. If there is any comfort, it is that all nations face the
same issue. It is only recently that countries have woken up to the extent
of the overdraft on the planet's water account. Climate change is worsening
the situation rapidly, and as glaciers melt and icecaps disappear, everyone
is looking for quick and creative new solutions for water management.

I  would say that India is uniquely poised to offer a diverse stable of
solutions to the world. We can demonstrate how large, public sector
investments in water work best when supplemented by local community action
to multiply the sources of supply, (especially for drinking water) and to
equitably manage the demand. We have a beautiful history and culture around
water conservation and water harvesting that is begging to be revitalised.
We have a strong and vocal civil society that is becoming ever more
effective. The civil society has played a tremendous role in capacity
building and in monitoring of water projects.

We need to keep an open mind  to more public-private-people partnerships in the water sector. India is  poised for dramatic urbanisation. Currently there are no good models for
equitable and sustainable water management by cities. I believe we have a
great opportunity through programmes like the JNNURM to finance emerging
urban areas that declare intent to move towards water neutrality. There is
enough scientific knowledge in our institutions to produce a great model for
cities that does not bankrupt villages in its wake. Let's coax it out into
the public domain. Also, with the NREGA in place, and the setting up of the
National Rainfed Area Authority, we can push faster for the creation of
public water assets, through the labour of our people for watershed
development, especially in the dryland areas, which constitute two-thirds of
our landscape.

With Bharat Nirman funding, we can create a massive surge in
rooftop rainwater harvesting (RRWH) systems, especially in public buildings,
such as schools and hospitals. Karnataka already has an ambitious programme
in place for 23,000 - odd schools, called Suvarna Jala. There is no reason
why other states cannot do the same. We have to collect water where and when
it falls. And if handled correctly, that can provide safe drinking water to
millions who are currently without drinking water security.

This is also a  public health issue, which can be catalysed by NRHM. We need to move swiftly  and firmly on groundwater regulation. The depletion of our water tables is
creating a state of emergency. Model Bills are sitting with policymakers in
the states, and need to be activated immediately. Water is a state subject,
but the Centre can incentivise reform, and help create strong regulatory
frameworks across the country. It seems clear that no one solution fits all.
We need integrated, multi-source options to mitigate the risks that are
staring us in the face. When there is a commitment to allow people to choose
from a tray of options, so much can be achieved. And here is where the
strength of our traditions, the power of our community networks and our
decentralising political systems (panchayati raj institutions) come into
play. Yes, it is a great opportunity to get our water management right. But
it has to be priority number one, for we cannot even imagine ending poverty
without universalising access to water. There is no time, and little water,
to waste.



AMRIT PANDURANGI Executive Director PricewaterhouseCoopers THE problem with
our argumentative nature is that we often argue about wrong issues. The
debate relevant now should not be about the imminence of water crisis but
how to tackle the imminent crisis. There is enough and more worldly wisdom
about management of finite natural resource and it is therefore obvious that
we must apply such wisdom and fast. Understanding some basic principles and
more importantly implementing these principles (through existing or where
required new policies, laws, rules and regulations) is urgently required.

Ground water, for example, should essentially be a community asset,
irrespective of exactly where it is located, how it flows and whether it is
part of a larger stream or isolated pool; whether it is below an individual's
property or not should be immaterial for deciding ownership and access.

 The debate should not be about the correctness of adopting a rightsbased or
entitlementsbased approach. Both physical and fiscal frameworks should be
used to regulate it. In any given urban area, for example, broadly defined
long-term master plans for ground water should guide its extraction and
usage. Levy of an appropriately designed system of access and usage charge -
designed on the same principles that are applied to any economic good - and
implementing it strictly should be a national priority and not a national
debate. The charges should clearly give due importance to balancing of
conflicting parameters. It should, for example, take into consideration
equity, incentivising conservation and reuse, economic costs and benefits
and administrative efficiency and ease of levy and collection.

This is, no doubt, easier said than done. It is now well established through numerous
studies that there is willingness to pay but no willingness to charge
(typically by politicians and often times administrators). In each
geographical area, there should be a true cost computed (based on
assumptions of efficient and not actual costs) which should form one of the
inputs to charging. Citizens should not be asked to carry the burden of the
inefficiency of the service provider but pay the costs of sustaining the
water resources and system in a healthy financial state. Commerce and
industry should be charged keeping in mind the economic costs as well as how
it impacts their competitiveness. If any segment of the users needs to be
subsidised because of very genuine reasons, the subsidies should be
transparent, targeted and time bound.

It is also high time that governments  at all levels - local and the state - realised that their role of being a  key player in the water sector in the last six decades has been a hugely
expensive failure. They have always looked upon themselves as builders of
water assets (and not even maintainers) and never as providers of water
service to the users. This has to change and the faster this happens the
better it is for the society. The community at large, the non-governmental
sector and the private sector all have a crucial role to play in service
provision with healthy competition amongst themselves. Certainly, there is a
need for building huge capacities of all these sectors for being efficient
service providers and the government has a major role to play in creating
the right enabling programmes for doing so. Other than this, the government
is best suited only to be the policy maker and perhaps the planner leaving
even the regulatory role to a truly independent entity. Direct
accountability to the user rather than the elected politicians is what is
urgently required if we want to bring about quick, radical and beneficial
change. That too not to avert but to manage the already existing crisis.



VASUDHA PANGARE World Water Institute Pune ANY debate in our country on
water focuses upon issues such as "do we have enough water?", "is the
scarcity real or manmade?", "do we need large dams or local water harvesting
structures?". These issues are important, but the time has come now to act,
rather than debate endlessly on these issues, making the same arguments
again and again. During our journey across India over the last few years to
research for our book, Springs of Life: India's Water Resources, we came
across another major crisis that is looming ahead of us and which has not
received the attention it deserves, and that is, the problem of water
quality.

 The many ways in which this manifests in our lives and affects our
health is truly horrifying. While passing by the Ankleshwar industrial area
in Gujarat, we stopped at a village called Sarangpur. Two thousand labourers
who work in nearby factories live in this village. Here the water that comes
out of the borewell looking clean and clear is in fact a cocktail of
chemicals which percolate into the aquifer from untreated effluents
discharged by chemical factories. In the absence of any other source of
water, the residents of this village use this highly contaminated water for
bathing, washing and sometimes even for cooking. Based on what we already
know about the harmful effects of the chemicals that are contaminating the
water, we can assume that the people of Sarangpur are being poisoned slowly
to death.

And there are thousands such Sarangpurs in the making all across
India. Water becomes contaminated due to industrial effluents, dumping of
untreated wastewater and garbage and also from natural substances found in
the earth's crust such as arsenic and fluoride. At best, we treat about 80%
of our domestic waste, dumping the rest untreated into the nearest water
bodies. Our streams, lakes and rivers are the final resting places of cans,
bottles, plastics and other household products. Fertilisers and pesticides
used in agriculture enter water bodies as run-off or percolate into the
groundwater aquifers. It is estimated that 68.5 million litres of industrial
wastewater is dumped everyday directly into local rivers and streams without
prior treatment.

 Groundwater has been found unfit for drinking in 22 major  industrial zones. We meet 90% of our irrigation and drinking water needs  from groundwater. In our search for water we have dug deeper and deeper  wells, exposing the natural elements in the earth's crust which are harmful  to us. The extent of pollution from these substances is only now being
known. Current estimates put 3-4 million people at risk from arsenic
poisoning in West Bengal, while new evidence suggests that the whole
Ganga-Meghna-Brahmaputra belt is under threat. It is estimated that about 90
million people are exposed to fluoride contamination every day and 25
million people have already become crippled due to fluorosis. Fluoride
contamination in groundwater has been detected in 200 districts in 17 states
in the country. And in Delhi itself, 50 % of the area is affected by
fluoride pollution with levels of fluoride being 3-4 times higher than the
desirable limit. There is a lack of awareness about water quality issues not
only in rural areas but also in urban areas.

 Many of the vegetables we city  dwellers eat are grown with wastewater, the untreated sewage that we dump in  rivers and streams. Pollutants from the wastewater enter the food we eat.  Spinach, for example, contains traces of heavy metals. Paddy grown in
peri-urban areas is also found to be contaminated. The costs for cleaning up
the water are already prohibitive and the costs for treating the health
problems of the nation will soon become unaffordable as well. Add to this
the loss of manpower in agriculture, industry and services. This is not what
a growing economy such as ours needs today or in the future.


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