Water going private

Flawed policy

By Prafulla Das in Bhubaneswar

ASHOKE CHAKRABARTY

A dried-up canal of the Panasjhar minor irrigation project in Khurda district in Orissa.

ORISSA has 4 per cent of India's population, but possesses 11 per cent of the country's water resources. Yet, water is scarce in the State and the situation does not seem set to improve, with a growing population, rising demands in agriculture and industry and the absence of a comprehensive water policy.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik recently made an ambitious announcement that irrigation facilities would be provided for at least 35 per cent of the cultivable land in all blocks of the State in the next five years. An official report reveals that irrigation coverage extends to less than 35 per cent of the cultivable land in about 200 blocks. Patnaik's promise to reverse this in five years has few takers.

It is the absence of a comprehensive water policy that seems to be in the way of any improvement in the situation. The State formulated a water policy in 1994, based on the national water policy of 1987. When a revised national water policy was adopted in 2002, Orissa decided to review and update its own policy. The process of working it out is still on. "The revised draft policy was submitted to the State government a few months ago by the Water Resource Department. A few changes have been suggested. We are working on the new policy again and it will be submitted soon," U.P. Singh, Secretary of the Water Resource Department, told Frontline.

Some voluntary organisations have alleged that the State government is planning to treat water as a tradable commodity and that the new policy would allow private participation in water management. U.P. Singh said the allegations were "baseless". "Water will continue to be treated as a valuable natural resource and there is nothing in it to conclude that water is being privatised," he said.

However, the final draft of the State Water Plan, drawn up by the Orissa Water Planning Organisation in September 2004, advocates privatisation of water. "The Government of Orissa, in particular, has very limited budgetary resources and cannot find money for new development. There are not even any funds for maintenance of already existing works. Thus, the water service sector is in an unsatisfactory state," the draft says.

The latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General also points to the losses suffered by the major and medium irrigation projects of Orissa. In 2003-04, the 52 major and medium irrigation projects incurred a loss of Rs.193.66 crores. Six of 11 major irrigation projects incurred losses of above Rs.10 crores each.

The State Water Plan says that the answer to the problem lies in seeking private participation in the development and management of water resources. However, it also sounds a word of caution, saying that private participation in all spheres of water management would not be wise. "Only surplus water should be allowed to be exploited commercially and only for production of commercial goods," it suggests.

The Plan also floats the idea of introducing volumetric pricing of water. "A gradual changeover is recommended - the sooner, the better. Immediately, the micro systems may be converted to the volumetric system. Supply to pani panchayats [water users' associations] may be made on volumetric basis," it says.

All this seems to indicate there is some truth in the allegation that the government's much-hyped pani panchayat scheme is a veiled attempt to privatise water in the name of farmers' participation in irrigation management.

The government aims to hand over all irrigation projects to pani panchayats in a phased manner, under the scheme started in 2002. So far, 8.01 lakh hectares of land has been handed over to the 13,284 pani panchayats registered under the Registration of Societies Act, 1860.

The government claims that this participatory irrigation management programme allows farmers to take decisions regarding the distribution and management of water resources in irrigated farmlands. In reality, the programme seems to have created a divide between big farmers on the one hand and small farmers and landless peasants on the other. With the virtual withdrawal of the state from the scene, big farmers exercise more influence.

Landless peasants are not even able to become members of the pani panchayats. "The rich families of our village, who own vast areas of agricultural land, run the pani panchayat. We are just cultivating their land and paying them 50 per cent of the paddy we produce during the kharif season and 25 per cent of the produce during the rabi season," said Musa Badhai, a tribal farmer of Nuapada village of Khurda district who has no land of his own. The Panasjhar minor irrigation project in his village is now being managed by a pani panchayat.

The Orissa government plans to develop 11 river basins, with help from international banks. But the State is not prepared to meet the serious deficit that is bound to arise with growth. A government survey shows that the demand for water will rise from 54,895 million cubic metres (mcum) in 2001 to 83,538 mcum in 2050, a rise of 52 per cent against the total water availability of 91,000 mcum, which will remain unchanged. The study was made in 2004, and the actual demand in 2050 could be far higher because there are many industrial projects that were not taken into account in 2004.

Experts say that the 50-odd steel and aluminium units planned so far are expected to consume a huge volume of water. But the authorities insist that this increased demand will not affect the supply of water for drinking and domestic use.

Public money worth crores has been pumped into irrigation projects, but the State has not been able to manage its water resources efficiently. International aid agencies and foreign banks are now keen to give loans for the management of water. But with water management slowly falling into private hands, it remains to be seen how much the people benefit.