Inter Basin Water Transfer Link Project of India

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Vajpayee stresses need to regulate groundwater use
Times News Network
Friday, February 07, 2003 12:18:10 Am

NEW DELHI: At a time when consumption of bottled water turns out to be injurious to health due to contamination of groundwater sources, none other than the Prime Minister has stressed the need to regulate groundwater use through regulation.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today cited the controversial interlinking of rivers project and legislation to regulate use of ground water as instruments to augment and optimally utilise existing water resources. "We must put an end to the indiscriminate exploitation of groundwater, which we see in some parts of the country. For this purpose, a Model Ground Water Regulation Bill was circulated to all the States for adoption some years ago. I urge the states to take immediate action in this regard," Mr Vajpayee said.

Speaking at a programme to declare '03 as the Year of Fresh Water following a similar UN declaration, Mr Vajpayee defended the controversial interlinking of rivers project and said the task force headed by Suresh Prabhu would chart a plan to implement the feasible and environmentally sound components of the project.

"We have to harness the latest scientific and technological developments in water conservation and recycling. At the same time, we also have to adopt many of our time-tested traditional methods of water harvesting and management. The two tasks are not mutually contradictory. Rather, they supplement each other" he said.

According to him there were misconceptions about the efficacy and desirability of inter-basin transfer of river waters. But such transfers were not new. They had been carried out in the past with all-round benefit to people in these areas and to the country at large. Beas-Sutlej Link, Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana, Periyar-Vaigai Link, and the Sardar Sarovar Project are some of the examples of such success stories. In the Sardar Sarovar Project, water has been transferred across five basins to reach the remotest parts of Gujarat, which suffered from scarcity of drinking water for a long time, he pointed out.

Referring to criticism that in pursuing the ambitious river-linking project, the government was neglecting the imperative of promoting small, village-level water conservation projects, he reiterated that "the two were not mutually exclusive."

Mr Vajpayee pointed out that the government had recently launched two important water-related rural development schemes — Swajaldhara and Yojana Hariyali, both being implemented by Panchayati Raj Institutions. "We want panchayats and community organisations to play a crucial role in maintenance of village-level water conservation projects. State Governments need to actively encourage community participation and make water everybody's business — not just that of government departments. That would be one of the surest ways of ensuring water for all," he said.

With nearly 80% of the water requirement for irrigation (a major consumer of freshwater) met by groundwater resources, it was necessary to properly conserve and equitably distribute our groundwater resources, he added.

Source: Times News Network

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