Policies, Laws and Regulations

The Government of India launched the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) in 1972-73 to ensure provision of adequate drinking water supply to the rural community through the Public Health Engineering System.

The second generation programme started with the launching of Technology Mission in 1986-87, renamed in 1991-92 as Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission. Stress on water quality, appropriate technology intervention, human resource development support and other related activities were introduced in the rural water supply sector.

The third generation programme started in 1999-2000 when sector reform projects evolved to involve community in planning, implementation and management of drinking water related schemes, later scaled up as Swajaldhara in 2002.

The Rural Water Supply (RWS) sector has now entered the fourth phase with major emphasis on ensuring sustainability of water availability in terms of potability, adequacy, convenience, affordability and equity while also adopting decentralized approach involving PRIs and community organizations.

The document begins by commenting on the position taken by India in the global climate change discourse. India has consistently argued from the point of view of developing countries against restrictions on emissions that have been imposed on all countries globally, by stating that developing countries have started the industralisation processes recently and thus have contributed very little to the carbon emissions.

Thus, countries like India should not sacrifice their present development and growth for reducing global emissions. Any legitimate climate mitigation initiative should be just, equitable and secure developing countries' growth patterns.

The document argues that although India 's stand seems justifiable in the global discourse, the climate change issue is still a very sensitive one for India and India has the greatest to lose if it does not take proactive steps to deal with the issue of climate change in the future.

Integrated Hydrological Data Books are a compendium of important hydrological information of twelve non-classified basins (i.e., other than Ganga and Brahmaputra) consolidated at the national level by the Central Water Commission (CWC).

It covers basic hydrological data on gauge, discharge, silt, sedimentation and water quality collected on a regular basis by the CWC regional field offices, who document it in the form of a Water Year Book, Sediment Year Book and Water Quality Year Book. These along with the relevant land use statistics collected by the Ministry of Agriculture are integrated into this Data Book.

The information is of use to planners, researchers, policy makers and the public at large.

Based on the recommendations contained in the Report of the Technical Committee chaired by Dr. C. H. Hanumantha Rao released in 1994, the Common Guidelines (1994) were issued by the Ministry of Rural Areas & Employment (now Ministry of Rural Development) and the watershed approach was adopted for implementation of all Area Development Programmes viz. DPAP, DDP, IWDP and the watershed component of the EAS w.e.f. 1^st April 1995. Taking the above into consideration, Government of India had constituted a Committee on Training under the Chairmanship of Shri V. B. Eswaran to go into all aspects of training under the Common Guidelines.

The report released in 1997, presents a review of the existing training arrangements for watershed development and suggests a system for organizing training for different level of functionaries. The need for detailed guidelines, to be prepared at the State level for this purpose is suggested. There is also a need for developing an institutional mechanism for providing training as soon as there are changes in the incumbent. Once a project is sanctioned, the Project Implementing Agency (PIA) should know the various tasks to be undertaken as regards training and the institutions to be approached for this purpose.  

Jagatguru Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand of Dwarkapeeth sent his personal emissary Swami Dharanand to convey his support to Dr. G.D. Agrawal whose third fast-unto-death to ensure the natural flow in river Bhagirathi (Ganga) from Gangotri to Uttarkashi entered its second day. Yesterday (July 21) Swami Ramdev spent an hour in the evening with Dr. Agrawal and offered his full support.

Intervening at the urgency of the water situation of the country and need in larger interest of the people and nation from political, legal, social, administrative, commerce,trade,cultural, world tourism angles, apart from agricultural and drinking water angle; annual devastation by floods,and loss by drought. One single Authority, with P.M. as Chairman may hopefully bring expected and good results in river management; riverine rejuvenation - National River Authority of India

Here is a draft proposal for such an authority to be created.

We are looking for collaborations on making this a reality.

Please post your comments.

Forwarded to the Portal by: Ayan Biswas
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Shankracharya designate Swami Avimukteshwaranand ji presided over an emergency meeting organized by Manushi Sangathan, Ganga Ahvaan and Ganga Yamuna Jal Biradri to express our strong protest against the patently illegal decision of the Group of Ministers giving clearance to the Loharinag-Pala dam on the Ganga River. The following expert members of the NGRBA also participated in the meeting to express their strong protest having been kept in the dark about the appointment of the GoM which has passed a virtual death sentence on the most sacred river of India: Rashid Hyatt Siddiqui, Rajendra Singh, Rama Raota and Ravi Chopra.

The performance audit report of the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) for the period April 2002 to March 2007, conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), reveals numerous deficiencies in execution and implementation of works such as cases of time and cost-overrun, non-completion & delayed completion of works, non-functional & defunct works, delayed completion & non-completion of water quality mission projects, incorrect prioritization of works, wasteful and unfruitful expenditure, and expenditure on unapproved items.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests released a draft of the regulatory framework for wetland conservation - Wetlands Conservation and Management Rules (2009) for feedback from all stakeholders. The draft framework was prepared by a multi-disciplinary expert group, and final round of comments were invited till June 21st 2010.

The Wetland Conservation Team of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) did a detailed analysis of the draft regulation and submitted several pertinent concerns to the Ministry. The most significant observation is that the new framework (as do much of India's policies and laws) continues to propose unjustifiable State control and interventions over the country's wetlands and livelihoods of people dependent on them. The regulation does not make any constructive suggestions or recommendations for the conservation that the country's wetlands demand, and instead brings all wetlands into complete official control by installing Central, State and District-level wetland regulatory authorities, wherein the majority of the members will be senior government officials.

Desilting is becoming a major component of any Lake Conservation Project now a days. The basic reasons given for necessity of desilting are - increasing the storage capacity and checking eutrophic conditions.

As it is not practicable to reverse the slow process of silting in the bed of lakes through which only silt can be removed, there is no word like 'desilting' in any standard English dictionary. What we are doing in the name of 'desilting' is practically 'digging' or 'excavation' of lake bed. By so called desilting, the original lake bed is disturbed which has far reaching adverse effects on the performance of the lake. Most visible effect is the increase in percolation rate resulting in heavy seepage losses through the lake bed as observed after massive desilting at Pushkar lake in 2009.