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Water Woes: No Escape From Ground Realities
By Sudhirendar Sharma
In less than half a century of independent existence,
a water-rich society has been reduced to a water-insecure nation. Between
Cherrapunji’s 11,000 mm and Jaisalmer’s 200 mm, we are averaged to
receive 1,170 mm of annual precipitation, which makes this land one of the
wettest in the world by any standard.
Desert-like conditions are now prevalent all across
the country, and tanker supply of water has become more a rule than
exception. It is apparent that the country’s bustling water-bureaucracy
hasn’t managed the finite supply of nature’s bounty with a futuristic
vision. Over the years, the annual per capita availability of renewable
fresh water in the country has shrunk alarmingly. From a high of around
5,277 cubic metres in 1955 it dipped down to below 2,464 cubic metres in
1990. The projected increase in population by the year 2025 indicates that
the per capita availability is likely to slip below the danger mark of 1,000
cubic metres. But these statistics in no way indicate
equity in water availability. What it does indicate however
is that the country is fast moving to a ‘water emergency’ era, as less
than 1,000 cubic metres of annual per capita is considered critical for
human survival.
But isn’t a vast majority of the population already
surviving below this limit?
Indeed so, as the poor have remained at the end of the
‘pipe dream’ of getting water. In the successive five-year plans, the
benefit of subsidised water delivery system has failed
to reach the poor. Since a majority of the poor, for whom
the subsidy has primarily been directed, have not been linked to the supply
lines, the benefits have flown to the privilege class. The process of water
distribution has continued to encourage
inequality. Not only have the rich been served at the cost
of the poor, they have literally been getting it free. For instance, at the
cost of 1,600 unauthorised colonies and 1,100 slums in Delhi, who have yet
to get piped supply, the privileged class pays Rs 1.6 per cubic metre of
water — the lowest in the country. Such low tariffs can only encourage
wasteful utilisation of water. No wonder, some 30 per cent of potable water
gets flushed through the toilets. This is equivalent to 195 million gallons
a day — or the amount required by the Delhi Jal Board to reach the
un-serviced colonies and slums.
Studies indicate that the poor pay anywhere between 8-20
times what the rich pay to get water from unreliable sources. In contrast,
what the rich pay for piped water is a fraction (less than 10 per cent) of
the actual cost of producing potable water. It is clear that the poor face
the brunt of this inequality. On one extreme are a sizeable number of urban
poor who don’t get assured supply and on the other are the urban rich
whose defecation is subsidised by the state. For the poor, the subsidy acts
like a double-edged sword. First, they don’t seem to benefit from it and
second, the sources of water they depend on get polluted by untreated sewage
that is flushed out by the rich. Can the water utilities ensure equity in
water distribution by reaching out to the unreached? Can the poor be
extended subsidy by readjusting water tariff upward of the prevailing rates
for the rich? Unless intention to change get reflected, electoral politics
will seize every conceivable opportunity to promise water, through mammoth
projects like the ‘interlinking of rivers’.
Ever since water has been moved from the socio-cultural
domain of community control to the techno-economic sphere of bureaucratic
management, it seems to have transformed from being seasonally scarce in the
past to chronically unavailable now. Part of the problem may be rooted in
rising demand due to increasing population but mismanagement remains the
core issue. For the ruling elite, water scarcity is quite simply a political
tool. With water under full jurisdiction and control of the government under
existing laws, communities are dependent on the state for providing better
access during lean periods. However, successive governments have learnt to
evade the crucial governance issues. No one risks opening the
rationalisation of water tariff at the cost of losing electoral base.
Consequently, inefficient municipalities have already been
stretched to their limits. With mounting debts these civic bodies are on the
verge of collapse everywhere. While inept handling of the situation leads to
irregular supplies, the mineral water industry gets the most of the
situation. If current trend is any indication, beleaguered municipalities
will soon find replacement in the private operators. The resultant tariff
hike will push the poor to the margins again. That’s just one part of the
story. Municipalities are not only overstaffed but inefficient too. Delhi
has 21.4 staff members per water connection and the average operations &
maintenance cost per person works out to Rs 355. Water cess recovery on the
other hand is poor 66 per cent.
It needs strong political will to reduce staff, cut
operations costs and increase efficiency. To divert attention from the core
issues of equity and tariff rationalisation, the water bureaucracy instead
presents new projects to ameliorate the conditions. New projects offer new
opportunities of resource (mis)appropriation, however, at the cost of the
poor again. Howsoever one might evade the issue, conditions are getting ripe
for corporatisation of water. Unless the subsidised middle class is made to
pay the true costs of water and sewage, the man-made water scarcity will
continue to haunt the poor.
Courtesy
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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