Manmohan Singh calls for water conservation

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday warned of severe water shortage in the next few decades, and called for forging partnerships between the Government and civil society to conserve and preserve water resources to meet the situation.

“We should move forward, move towards forging a partnership between the Government and citizens for conserving water. Government agencies must create a framework for collective action with NGOs and the civil society at large,” he said.

Inaugurating a conference of State Ministers in charge of rural drinking water supplies and sanitation, convened by the Union Ministry for Rural Development, he called for effective action to ensure the sustainability of water sources.

Though there was considerable progress in providing safe drinking water in rural areas since the introduction of the accelerated rural water supply programme, the number of “slipped back” habitations increased every year on account of the failure of sources. There was a need for proper institutional arrangements to ensure that both scientific expertise for locating sources as well as collective action for water recharge were effectively mobilised.

“Institutional arrangements at the State level, such as source finding committees, have unfortunately remained largely dysfunctional. These must be revived and advanced scientific expertise now at our disposal should be fully utilised for this purpose.”

Dr. Singh emphasised the need for State Governments to transfer the management of drinking water to district level institutions. Wherever financial resources were scarce, water recharge activities could be funded through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme and district-based plans of the Departments of Agriculture and Irrigation.

Panchayati Raj bodies should be encouraged to manage and financially sustain the operation of water systems.

At present, officers working in the sector largely came from a civil engineering background, while groundwater-based systems called for expertise in areas such as geo-hydrology.

There had to be planned capacity building for the staff of the public health engineering departments in geo-hydrology, so that they would appreciate issues of environmental sustainability more effectively.

The Prime Minister also called upon the Department of Drinking Water to take proactive action to sensitise the community on safe water and its use.

While environment provided the backward linkage for drinking water, its forward linkage was with health. Quite often, water-borne diseases spread even in habitations where safe water had been provided.

The theme of the two-day conference is “Sustainability in rural drinking water supply schemes and sanitation for all.”

Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz emphasised the need for greater Centre-State collaboration in reaching safe drinking water and sanitation to all.