When the cities in Odisha grapple with scarce water resources, several significant developments concerning one or many of these water issues surface to shape popular perceptions. Majority of the public opinion favors water as a common resource showing reservations about the policies that seek to move water as commodity of the State.
Some areas inside the State are sourcing more ground water than is being recharged every year. The Government of Odisha should link river within the State as well as with its tributaries to bring about more optimal and equitable use and distribution of water and to encourage conservation and better harnessing of water resources.
The Government should tackle the problem of water supply by taking in to account environment management and healthcare system in the State. The Government should rope in the institutions and line departments who can help in water conservation. Water supply sector should focus on infrastructure creation approach.
For the governance of the drinking water, sanitation, health and hygiene, environment and education can be related to water conservation, where the integration of various components of the plans can be addressed there in. Drinking water and sanitation in Odisha have always been managed by the people individually. In the case of drinking water, its availability has got importance these days. Therefore the State Government can revise the by-laws for mandatory rain water harvesting in all buildings in the urban areas. The major emphasis should be focused on ensuring the sustainability of water and availability in terms of pot ability, adequacy, convenience, affordability and equity by adopting decentralized approach involving local bodies, users’ association, SHGs and community based organisations. Water units can be created by particular slum area, whose operation and maintenance should be taken care of by generating money from the particular slum area.
The key element of this programme is capacity building of local self-Governments in conservation. Trainers in water conservation would directly train Panchayati Raj Institutions in the all districts and villages. For this, there will be initial training of trainers (ToT), who in turn will train the PRIs in water conservation. A cadre of trainers will be created through training of trainers (ToT) who can further train others in their respective districts and villages. A workshop on Training Need Assessment (TNA) can be conducted to finalize training module/design for the ToT/training. The contents of the training would include provisions of 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, role and responsibilities of PRI members in water conservation and other topics to be decided in TNA. Trainers will be identified on the basis of their experience in related topic. They will be drawn from amongst the recent and past elected representatives, NGOs and persons showing interest or who have already worked in water conservation. The created trainers will give training to the target group in their respective districts, villages and at block level. Most water related campaigns stress on bringing about water democracy by ensuring that every drop is conserved, harvested and shared by the people.
(The writer is consultant, ISS, New Delhi. He can be contacted over sahayashok@hotmail.com)