Draft National Water Policy strongly opposed

COIMBATORE: The Draft National Water Policy 2012, recently released by the Ministry of Water Resources, which favours privatisation of water services and tariff hike, is being strongly opposed by farmers and consumer activists.The draft policy favours the privatisation of water  delivery services and also suggests that water be priced. This has drawn strong opposition from the public.“Farmers will be affected a lot, if privatisation of water services is enforced. This could lead to private companies swindling money from the farmers. They will determine, which crop a farmer should cultivate in his land and farmers will be forced to work under the instructions of these companies,” Valukkuparai Balu, President of ‘Vivasayikal Sangam’, said. In Israel, the government controls entire supply and usage of water. Drip irrigation is followed in entire Israel, he noted. “But, the same system will not suit our country. Rather, the government should nationalise the water sources of the country and distribute water to all without any discrimination.”The draft policy further proposed, reversal of heavy under-pricing of electricity, which leads to wasteful use of both power and water.P Kandasamy, General Secretary of ‘Vivasayikal Sangam’ said, “Already, the youth are not interested in farming. If this policy is implemented, the entire agricultural sector will collapse.”K Kathirmathiyon, Secretary of the Coimbatore Consumer Cause also objected this draft policy. “This is not at all a good idea. If the government decides to fix a price for water and hand over the water related services to the private sector, public will strongly oppose this,” he said, adding that the government will be forced to face consequences.Kathirmathiyon, further said that there are places, where people have to walk 5-6 kms to fetch water. The government is bound to provide good drinking water facility to its citizen. Ordinary public will suffer, if water is priced.“The reason behind governments coming up with budgets was to get additional revenue and provide various services which are essential to the public. If commodities like water was priced, then there is no need for governments to prepare budgets,” Kathirmathiyon said. The draft policy has been uploaded on the ministry’s website ‘http://wrmin.nic.in’ for comments and suggestions. It will remain open for comments till February 29 and after carrying necessary modifications, the policy would be placed before National Water Commission and National Water Resources Council for finalisation and adoption.