UPA's next is Right to Water; and this even makes sense

As ironies go, this is an unfortunate one.

Barely a month after the report of a Committee for Drafting a National Water Framework Law headed by YK Alagh suggested legislating a right to water, came reports of contaminated water from India’s biggest metropolises.

But, don’t roll your eyes. This right, for once, is bang-on, and moreover is not one of the famous giveaways that UPA has become infamous for. The right to water could come with a lot of caveats and pricing beyond an absolute personal minimum.

The right to water become relevant in the context of recent events where in the capital city of Delhi, over 40 people were hospitalised after drinking contaminated water. This water didn’t come from unsafe sources.

And from Mumbai come separate newspaper reports that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has found that 20 percent of the water samples it picked up for testing in June were contaminated and that residents of central and eastern Mumbai have been getting contaminated water for nearly two weeks.

[caption id=“attachment_945923” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Image used for representation. Reuters[/caption]

Clearly now water stress in our cities has moved far beyond just opening our taps to find no water. Now what kind of water gushes out is a far more serious issue.

Quantity and quality are, of course, linked. As demand outstrips availability, sources of water come under extreme stress. In large parts of India, the source unfortunately is ground water and there is a complete free-for-all in tapping this. The draft Twelfth Five Year Plan document quotes the Central Ground Water Board as saying that groundwater extraction in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi has crossed 100 percent. In Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, extraction is 80 percent and 71 percent respectively.

Now, the deeper one goes to extract groundwater the water quality deteriorates. Groundwater is also more vulnerable to contamination from sewage and industrial effluents. As the draft Twelfth Five Year Plan document so grimly puts it: “India is by far the largest and fastest growing consumer of groundwater in the world. But groundwater is being exploited beyond sustainable levels and with an estimated 30 million groundwater structures in play, India may be hurtling towards a serious crisis of groundwater over-extraction and quality deterioration.”

Grim situations require drastic solutions. And perhaps that is why the Alagh committee has proposed enshrining a Right to Water in its draft National Water Framework Bill, after setting out basic principles for management of water, which it rightly calls a common pool resource.

Section 4 of the proposed law says that every individual has a right to a minimum quality of potable water within easy reach of households. The minimum quantity will be set by appropriate levels of government but will not be less than 25 litres per capita per day.

Unfortunately, thanks to the overuse of the rights-based approach by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government - as a questionable magic wand to address the problem of poor public service delivery - the initial reaction is to laugh out this proposal as well.

But where the proposed right to water law stands out is in steering clear of the economically unsound populism that is the hallmark of all the other existing and proposed rights-conferring laws - education, work, food and housing. Where all the others give short shrift to the basic principles of the market and even distort it, the draft National Water Framework Bill does not.

While acknowledging that the primary responsibility of providing potable water to people is that of the government, it is very clear that this responsibility will have to be fulfilled within the framework of market principles. It also doesn’t rule out corporatisation or privatisation of water services, but insists that this will not in any way dilute the state’s responsibility for ensuring people’s right to water. That’s markedly different from the Right to Education law which is spelling the death-knell of budget private schools even as government schools are unable to meet the demand for education that is emerging from the lower income groups.

The draft Water Framework law proposed the following:

An independent statutory Water Regulatory Authority in every state for ensuring equitable access to water for all and its fair pricing.

Determining water charges on a volumetric basis. These charges are to be reviewed periodically in order to meet equity, efficiency and economic principles.

Incentivising the recycle and reuse of water through an appropriately planned tariff system.

Adopting the principle of differential pricing for water for drinking and sanitation and for ensuring food security and supporting livelihood for the poor may be adopted.

The proposed law allows governments to provide a minimum quantity of water for drinking and sanitation free of cost to eligible households, “being part of pre-emptive need” but insists that after these pre-emptive needs are met, water “shall increasingly be subjected to allocation and pricing on economic principles so that water is not wasted in unnecessary uses and could be utilised more gainfully and water infrastructure projects are made financially viable.”

How significant this is will be evident from the extent of underpricing of water. According to water industry sources, the state spends Rs 3.8 per 1,000 litres on treating water and another Rs 10-12 per 1,000 litres on transporting it to consumers. The tariff charged is around Rs 3.5 per 1,000 litres. So municipalities get just about one-fifth of the cost of providing water.

Unfortunately, the issue of pricing water is even more sensitive than that of pricing other essential services. There’s a cultural issue at work here - water is the first thing you offer guests; even in restaurants non-bottled water is not charged. Water experts have been flagging this issue, but it has not found the kind of traction it needs.

But pricing water appropriately is something we cannot get away from any more. That is the only way to stop the colossal waste of water in cities and by industry.

In the middle class housing complex in Delhi this writer lives in, overhead tankers overflow with abandon during supply time, powered by motors attached to the main water line. The motors run non-stop through the one-hour slots during which water is supplied twice a day. Appeals by fellow residents and warnings by the residents’ welfare association fall on deaf ears. Clearly, neither the water nor the power bills pinch hard enough for people to install water overflow alarms (which cost no more than Rs 600 to install) or keep an eye on their overhead tankers. Or refrain from using potable water for swabbing floors, washing cars and watering plants - a common sight across cities.

The draft Twelfth Plan document also points out that the water cess imposed on discharge of effluent water from industrial units is “not enough of a disincentive for industries to reduce their water footprint”.

The under-pricing of water also means that municipalities are stretched to find ways to augment and improve water supply and distribution systems. Right now, user charges barely cover the cost of operations and maintenance of the water network. This means that ageing pipes are not repaired or replaced. So water pipes crack and leak, leading to higher distribution losses and - more dangerously - sewage getting mixed with drinking water.

This is not a sustainable situation any more. Water is no longer the apparently infinite resource it once was. We have to learn to value it and the draft Bill shows us how.

Unfortunately, this is not a populist enough law for the UPA to take up as a poll promise ahead of the forthcoming elections.

Or perhaps it just might - legislate the right to water minus the provisions about rational pricing. Shudder, shudder.

(Seetha is a senior journalist and author)