Draft Bill seeks right to water, 25 litres daily for each

 Tue Jun 25 2013

The Centre on Monday unveiled the draft of its contentious National Water Framework Bill which seeks to provide "right to water", while stating that water allocation and pricing should be based on "economic principles".

"Every individual has a right to a minimum quantity of potable water for essential health and hygiene and within easy reach of the household," states the draft. "The minimum quantity of potable water shall not be less than 25 litres per capita per day," it says, adding that the quantity must be fixed by the "appropriate government".

"The state's responsibility for ensuring people's right to water shall remain despite corporatisation or privatisation of water services, and the privatisation of the service, where considered necessary and appropriate, shall be subject to this provision," says the draft bill, which also mandates that governments should specify the "quality standards" of water supply for various uses like drinking, livestock, irrigation and industries among others.

While noting that the government remains the trustee of water resources, the draft bill gives it the flexibility of roping in a "private agency" for "some of the functions of the state". In this context, it stipulates that "allocation and pricing" should be based "on economic principles to ensure its development costs", and "so that water is not wasted in unnecessary uses and... utilised more gainfully and water infrastructure projects are made financially viable."

For this purpose, "an independent statutory water regulatory authority shall be established by every state for ensuring equitable access to water for all, and its fair pricing for drinking and other uses such as sanitation, agricultural and industrial," it says, adding that the decision of this authority will be subject to judicial review.

The regulatory authority will be entrusted with fixing the water price and its periodical review, and formulating a "principle of differential pricing for water for drinking and sanitation".

The draft bill, prepared on the basis of a report by a committee headed by Y K Alagh, also mandates protection of "ecological integrity necessary to sustain ecosystems dependent on water", that may include restrictions on water usage to maintain minimum natural flow in rivers to meet the ecological needs and regulated groundwater use.

It seeks to make river basins the mandatory basic hydrological unit for planning, development and management of water resources, while stipulating that governments should come up with "specific legislations" for developing, managing and regulating basins of intra-state rivers. Besides, it says, there should be a river basin masterplan.

"All water resources projects shall conform to the river basin masterplan under section 7(7)... and shall take into account all social and environmental aspects, in addition to techno-economic considerations of the project, in consultation with project affected and beneficiary families," it says. Local bodies, including panchayats, municipalities, corporations, and even water users associations will have a say in planning and management of the projects.

The National Water Framework Bill has already drawn criticism from several states, including Congress-ruled ones like Kerala and Haryana, which have claimed that it amounts to infringing upon their rights as water is a state subject.

The draft bill gives time till July 31 for comments.

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