Considering the daunting task in hand to fix the multifaceted water woes the country is facing, the Centre may draft a fresh Act in this direction. The Act would have clear provisions to regulate uses of water for industries, agriculture and domestic purposes by ascertaining its quality and level of treatment. Giving a hint about the new set of legislation, Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, who is also in-charge of river development and Ganga rejuvenation, termed it an urgent need.
“Rivers have lost relevance in our urban planning whereas all the civilisations have come up and prospered along the rivers. Situation is getting alarming and after two years, if not now, the Government will bring an Act. We are in the process of preparing it which would decide who needs treated or untreated water and for what purpose one needs to extract water from a river or even from underground,” said the Minister on Friday while speaking at a seminar on environment protection organised by 'Yugantar Bharti', an NGO.
Idea behind such a regulation is to keep a tab on irrational use of water resources for various purposes. Bharti explained that similar quality of water need not to be used for domestic as well as industrial and irrigation purposes. “We would also do GIS survey of all the river basins and determine their own land. NEERI has been tasked to find out exclusive water of every river. Forest Research Institute would come up with plant species suited for a particular river line. We would also study aqua life of rivers,” said the Minister.
First phase of the Clean Ganga Mission would be completed by October 2016 and firstly the focus is on checking drains flowing directly into the pristine river. The Centre has kept budget of Rs20,000 crore to be spent in four years time against Rs4,000 crore spent in last 29 years without any notable outcome.
Talking about interlinking of rivers, Uma Bharti said it would be done only after proper study and by ensuring that only rivers of similar natures are connected hence any effort to destroy their ecosystem is prevented. The Minister said that help of developed countries that have done miraculous job in rejuvenating their dying rivers would also be sought to accomplish the task of cleaning Ganga along with its tributaries, one of which is Damodar in Jharkhand.
“We have heard about Damodar and know that power houses and coal mines are suffocating it badly. I would talk to Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal in this regard. It is not acceptable that one pollutes and someone else cleans. It is the responsibility of the industries to clear their dirt. My Department has taken entire stretch of Jharkhand and a work plan is being prepared for the State. One thing has to be kept in mind that unified effort of both society and Government can only do the things as some tasks can only be done by society while some only by Governments,” said Uma Bharti.
She also called upon civil society to not only worship rivers but also not let those go untidy by throwing away poly-bags or other pollutants and cited example of other religion in which cleanliness is an integral part of worship. Minister in Jharkhand Government and saviour of 'Save Damodar Movement' Saryu Roy on the occasion also blamed PSUs for disregarding rivers of the State.
“They are bound by the Supreme Court order but have failed collectively in curbing effluent discharge in Damodar, Subarnrekha and other rivers. I complained about this to Piyush Goyal who has given three months' time to the PSUs to mend ways. If it is not done, then we would move to the NGT though it would be an embarrassment for the Government,” he said.
'Waterman' and Magsaysay awardee Rajendra Singh underlined the need to respect 'neer, nari and nadi' (water, women and river) and said that India can become global leader of wisdom only by this way. “For making our rivers clean like before, we just not need technical and engineering solutions but social attachment to the rivers like before. It is worrying that 2/3rd of our rivers and groundwater resources have dried out as we have forgot traditional water conservation methods,” he said and requested the Union Minister for demarcation of water bodies at national level to save those from illegal encroachments. Godda MP Nishikant Dubey, senior Supreme Court advocate MC Mehta, SE Hasnain of IIT-Delhi and other environment activists were also present on the seminar.