SPEECH
BY SHRI K.R. NARAYANAN, PRESIDENT OF INDIA, ON THE OCCASION OF NATIONAL
CONFERENCE ON WATER HARVESTING : TRADITIONS, TECHNOLOGIES, POLICIES AND
SOCIAL MOBILISATION
NEW DELHI, SATURDAY,
OCTOBER 3, 1998
There
can be no subject more important for humankind than water. A well-managed
society is one that knows how to treat its water with care, with prudence,
with respect. Above all, with a sense of its being a universal asset.
But
this universal asset is being fast depleted. Leading experts on water
resources have been warning that the world is heading towards "a water
shock" which may dwarf the oil crisis. Some 80 countries and 40% of the
world population are already experiencing "water stress". Environmental
degradation and population explosion are making the problem even more
acute with pollution poisoning the water that is available.
Today,
India faces an acute water crisis. The shortage of water and the growing
pollution of water has acquired the proportion of a crisis for our people,
and most of all, for the poorest of our poor. Some estimates show that
almost the whole of India's economic growth gets wiped out by the health
costs of water pollution, which do not get factored into our economic
calculations. Until a few years ago, nobody had heard of bottled water
but today it is a booming industry, as the rich try to protect themselves
from the ravages of the environment. Today, a large proportion of urban
India drinks bottled water. It is sad that water is fast becoming as expensive
as milk. We must ask ourselves if this is the kind of economic growth
we want.
Historically
Indians have been the world's greatest water harvesters. Over centuries
they had developed a range of techniques to harvest every possible form
of water from rainwater to ground water, stream to river water and flood
water. In 1920 when British authorities invited Sir William Willcocks,
an irrigation expert, to advise them on why India was suffering from repeated
famines, he categorically told them that the British would do best to
learn from the natives themselves.
India
to-day needs a people's movement to meet its water needs and to protect
its water sources. Over the years, the state has replaced the traditional
role of communities and households in meeting their water needs. We must
make every household and every community get involved both in the provision
of water and in the protection of water sources.
This
will also lead to re-establishing a strong relationship between the people
and their environment. Water and land go together. If the land is degraded,
the water will run-off fast and the soil carried away into the village
tank and fill it up very fast, thus, reducing the availability of water.
If the land is dirty, it will bring polluted water.
But
encouraging a people's movement means a redefinition of everybody's role.
The state and its various agencies must change from the role of a provider
to that of an enabler and supporter. It means empowerment of rural and
urban communities and households to manage their own affairs. And it means
that the civil society has to play a critical role in encouraging equity
and sustainability in the use of water.
There
is to-day talk about subsidies encouraging wasteful use of water. There
is equally talk today about privatisation of water supply. There is no
doubt that there is to-day extremely wasteful use of water, and our rivers
and groundwaters are becoming dirtier. At the same time, the government
does not have as much funds as is required to deal with the massive problems
we face in water supply and in keeping our waters clean even as we face
the spectre of squandered financial resources because of half-finished
projects and projects lying unused because of lack of repairs.
A people's
movement for water can help to deal with a lot of the ills that we face
to-day. Privatisation need not only mean private companies. Rural and
urban communities and households are also major non-state actors which
can contribute their might. They can make major investments. Even the
poorest of the poor can contribute labour. This will not only add to the
availability of state funds but also greatly reduce the need for perpetual
subsidies. And involvement of the people will mean greater ownership of
the projects by the people.
For
all this we will need a people's technology, a technology that the people
can develop, use and manage themselves. This is where our traditional
technologies of water harvesting can play a critical role. Water harvesting
means capturing the rain where it falls, capturing it in your own town
and village. And taking measures to keep that water clean. But the use
of traditional technologies does not mean that we do not need modern science
and technology. Innovation and upgradation should be an essential part
of our efforts to revive our traditions in water harvesting. A people's
movement does not necessarily mean leaving people to their own resources.
It, of course, means bringing out their initiative, their self-reliance
and their enthusiasm. But it also means that the educated and enlightened
sections of the society should get involved in their development and help
and guide them. The State, the NGOs and the scientists have important
roles to play. New and simple scientific techniques and methods developed
must be disseminated among the people like treatment for preventing evaporation
from traditional water tanks.
To
promote a people's movement, we will also need laws that encourage the
people to take action in their own hands. Urban development rules should
encourage all houses to have their own water harvesting system. It is
encouraging that Chennai has taken a lead in this and several builders
and architects are beginning to recognise the need to do so. This kind
of water harvesting can greatly help to recharge groundwater, keep the
freshwater table up, and in a coastal city like Chennai, keep the sea
water out. The town of Aizawl, similarly, has shown how many of our towns
can meet their drinking water needs through rainwater harvesting, something
in which the government hardly invested anything. All villages must, in
fact be encouraged to construct and maintain their own water harvesting
systems. India's rural development schemes should incorporate water harvesting
into their programmes.
For
a people's movement for good water management we will need a massive programme
to promote water literacy. Water must become a part of the school curriculum.
Water harvesting must become a subject of technical curricula -- in civil
engineering, in architecture, in urban planning, in development studies,
in economic studies and in health and medical sciences. Meanwhile, the
media, especially the electronic medium, must play a very important role
in creating this water literacy. Surely, we cannot allow millions of our
children to continue to die of diarrhoea and dysentery even in the 21st
century.
Reading
through "Dying Wisdom", the report produced by the Centre for Science
and Environment, and other reports of the Centre, I am delighted to note
the excellent work that is being done by numerous rural communities and
non-governmental organisations in creating a new relationship between
people and water. The work of the villagers of Ralegan Siddhi under the
leadership of Krishna Bhaurao Hazare in Ahmednagar district, the villagers
of Sukhomajri under the leadership of P.R. Mishra, and the numerous villages
in Alwar district under the leadership of Rajendra Singh of Tarun Bharat
Sangh is telling us loud and clear that a new relationship can be created.
The inspiration provided by Ralegan Siddhi has already resulted in a government-sponsored
but people-managed watershed development programme in Madhya Pradesh with
excellent results in the extremely-poor and drought-prone, tribal district
of Jhabua. Today, the government of Andhra Pradesh is also trying to develop
a similar watershed development programme. These are all efforts that
should be widely known and widely emulated both in policy and in practice.
Yesterday
was Gandhiji's birthday. His message of a people-centred development remains
even truer for the 21st century. He had thought deeply on the question
of conserving our water resources for the benefit of our people. I should
like to quote what he had specifically to say about this problem. In February
1946 he said at his prayer meeting:
"In
this land of ours, fabulously rich in natural resources, there is the
lofty Himalayas with its ever-lasting snows where, they say, dwells the
Lord of the Universe. It has mighty rivers like the Ganges. But owing
to our neglect and folly, the year's rains are allowed to run down into
the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. If all this water was trapped and
harnessed into irrigational purposes by the construction of dams and tanks,
there should be no famine or food shortage in India." Referring to our
ground water resources Gandhiji added: " ........ we need not pathetically
resign ourselves to fate, fixing our gaze at the skies for the rains to
come. There is an inexhaustible reservoir of water in the bowels of the
earth. It should be tapped, even though we may have to dig two thousand
feet deep for it, and used for growing food. We may not blame fate before
we have exhausted all available means for combating a threatening calamity."
May I congratulate
the Centre for Science and Environment for organising this Conference
as the beginning of a movement in social mobilisation for water harvesting.
I am glad that village engineers and grass roots technologists who are
involved in using traditional rain water harvesting systems are also
present in this conference. I wish the conference all success.
Thank you.
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