A bucket list of stories on World Water Day -Governance Now

A bucket list of stories on World Water Day

From the need for a water law to the debate on privatisation of water, we replug some of our stories on world water day (March 22)

GN Bureau | March 22, 2017

#World Water Day #Water #Water Issues #Water Scarcity #Water Management #Bundelkhand #Ganga #Yamuna #Water Law #Water ATM

What if there was a law for optimum use of water, conservation of rivers and underground water? It would have battled the water crisis in different regions of the country. Villagers from drought-hit regions of the country, mobilized by environmentalist Rajendra Singh have sought a similar law to ensure water security across the country. Together with the help of organisations and activists, they have prepared a draft of the proposed ‘River Conservation Bill’. It aims to conserve and rejuvenate water bodies throughout the country and calls for framing rules and regulations for optimum use of water. It includes demand for satellite mapping of all natural water bodies, including small streams and ponds at state, district and village levels and updating the information yearly.
We replug our interaction with the villagers who had gathered in Delhi to make their voice heard.
Read: Time for a water law

Like a child, the Yamuna gushes down the Yamunotri glacier, its free flowing and crystal clear waters cutting through mountains and valleys. The youthful Yamuna generously nurtures life on its way. But its free-flowing spirit is abruptly interrupted at Hathnikund barrage in Haryana. There, the water is diverted through the western and eastern Yamuna canals. Then a tired river proceeds towards Delhi. The capital drains its drains and effluents into the river. The once pristine Yamuna turns murky. By the time it meets the Ganga in Allahabad, it is a poor shadow of its former self.
Read: And unquiet flows the Yamuna

The helplessness was all pervasive. They wanted to grab the only opportunity to get heard – to convey their plight, and their worries that the nearby Jamni river had water just enough to last two months; they had just one tube-well that could fill only two pots in 15 minutes; or the fact that the only well, located one and a half km away, had almost dried up with just a month’s water for animals. The old pond nearby had completely dried up, despite the fact that the villagers had silted it.
Read: Why Bundelkhand is on the verge of the worst-ever famine

India along with the rest of the world is facing an acute water scarcity, a crisis that is deepening with each passing year and now posing a threat to the world economy. A World Bank report, ‘High and dry: Climate change, water and the economy’, says that economic growth is a surprisingly thirsty business and water is a vital factor of production, so diminishing water supplies can translate into slower growth that cloud economic prospects.
Read: Thirsty world stares at limp economy

On a hot and muggy early July morning, Ravi Kumar made his way through the narrow lanes of Savda Ghevra till the main road. Armed with two big plastic containers, the 26-year-old stopped in front of a concrete cylindrical structure and set his containers down. He then reached into his pocket and took out a plastic card. The moment he touched it to a slot in the structure, he got a reading and, with a final push of a button, the concrete structure started dispensing water. Kumar, who drives a battery-operated rickshaw, had installed a submersible pump at his home but said the groundwater it pumped out was saline. His family of five requires 10 litres of water daily, which is now met by a recharge of '100 for his card that lasts him 15 days.
Read: Should water supply be privatised?

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