India's stressed water economy faces a turbulent future, as per a recent expert panel chaired by Mihir Shah, formerly with the Planning Commission. The report is categorical that if current trends continue, about half the demand for water would remain unmet by 2030. The reforms panel has called for a 'paradigm shift' in water management with the involvement of professionals from social sciences, management and many other specialised disciplines, citing this as one of the main reasons for recommending the restructuring of engineer-heavy Central Water Commission (CWC) and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB).
The seven-member panel headed by Mihir Shah has recommended that CWC and CGWB be disbanded and a new multidisciplinary National Water Commission be created in their place. It has called for a shift away from engineering solutions - creating big dams — to water management and towards a "more people-centred approach" that leads to rejuvenation of of rivers and aquifers.
The Shah committee was set up last year to recommend ways to restructure the CWC, which develops surface water projects, and the CGWB, which monitors ground water use and contamination. Its report is the third major report that has been issued on the restructuring of CWC since 2000. It calls for much better managing of our water resources for irrigation, tackling attendant overdependence on groundwater, overhauling sewage and water supply in urban areas, and economising on industrial usage. While our cities produce about 40,000 mn litres of sewage daily, barely 20 per cent of it is treated. Worse, only 2 per cent of our urban areas have both sewerage systems and sewage treatment plants, which is scandalous. We need subventions and realistic user charges to fill this gap.
As India urbanises, our rivers cannot be allowed to become, in effect, polluted open drains: There's a growing gap between irrigation potential created and that utilised. The report estimates that 35 mn hectares nationally, almost a third of today's coverage, can hdve irrigation "at very low cost" if we focus on command area development, canal systems -and their operations and maintenance with water user associations.
