Courtesy: International Journal of Studies in Public Leadership, Volume III, Issue 1 (ISSN 2583-3308)
ABSTRACT Water is one of the most precious elements present on Earth that sustains all life forms, though found in abundance, but less than three percent of Earth's water is freshwater. It has been a prime national and international concern to conserve water, and treaties, plans, and policies have been devised to manage water resources. Clean water is essential to achieve better health and sanitation facilities; therefore, both form a nexus and should be dealt with accordingly. India has more than 18% of the world's population but has only 4% of the world's renewable water resources, and 2.4% of its land area; this makes it essential to have efficient policies for effective water resource management and sanitation facilities. India introduced its first National Water policy in 1987, which wassubsequently taken over by new policiesin 2002 and 2012. The Ministry of Drinking water and Sanitation came up with the Model National Water Framework Bill in 2016, which acted as a model for further action. Sanitation has also been prioritised by the central and state governments, along with water resource management. The sanitation programmes in the country which began in the 1950s, failed at the rural front. The focus then went onto developing infrastructure, which later shifted towards addressing behavioural issues. The current phase started in 2014, under Swachh Bharat Mission, and aimed to make India Open Defecation free by 2019. Managing Water and Sanitation facilities for such a vast population is a strenuous task for the government. Setting up institutions, equitable resource sharing, finances and pricing, and sustainable management, are enormous challenges that can be addressed by making stringent laws and inclusive policies. It demands a high degree of political will, participation of institutions, and the community, to address clean water and sanitation for all.
Water And Sanitation Policies In India: A Review Safe and clean drinking water is essential for public health, drinking, sanitation, irrigation, and ensuring a good quality of life. It is therefore highly vital to sustainably manage this precious resource. However, this is a challenging task as sustainable water management implies the continued stable systems and the aspects of sustainable development, poverty reduction, equitable resource sharing, policymaking, and development plans(UNDESA, 2015). The United Nations General Assembly in 2010 recognized the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realisation of all human rights but still 844 million people in the world lack even a basic drinking-water service, including 159 million people who are dependent on surface water, 423 million people take water from unprotected wells and springs and 159 million people collect untreated surface water from lakes, ponds, rivers and streams (WHO, 2017). India has more than 18 % of the world's population but has only 4% of the world'srenewable water resources and 2.4% of the world'sland area; the country is endowed with several annual and seasonal rivers, the seven major rivers of the country namely Indus, Brahmaputra, Narmada, Tapi, Godavari, Krishna and Mahanadi along with their tributaries make up the river system of India (NIH, 2017). On average, India receives annual precipitation (including snowfall) of about 4000 km³; out of the available 4000 km³ water, 1953 km³ is the average yearly potential flow in rivers available as a water resource. Out of this total available water resource, only 1123 km³ is utilisable, making it a highly preciousresource (Kumar et al., 2005). Increasing population and the overutilization of water resources would lead the country to water scarcity by 2025; it has been projected that the per capita average annual availability shall decline from 1816 (m³/year) in 2001 to 1140 (m³/year) in 2050 (UNICEF, FAO& SaciWATERs, 2013). This is a matter of grave concern and makes it essential for the policymakers in India to devise plans and policies that are inclusive and don't compromise on the conservation efforts and people's demands. India's first National Water Policy was implemented in 1987; a new policy took it over in 2002. National Water Policy (2002) laid the guidelines for the planning, developing, and managing of the water resources and calls for the development of separate state water policies. Yet, the future of the country's water resources appears bleak, given the excess pressure exerted on the resources by a growing population (Verma et al., 2020). The Ministry of Water Resources prepared a draft National Water framework bill in 2016 aimed at conservation, protection, and groundwater regulation and includes the "Right to Water" and water use prioritisation principles. Interestingly, it also sets out an institutional framework for planning and regulation based on the Panchayat and Municipal framework provided in Article 243 of the Constitution (Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, 2016). The Central and State governments have been concerned primarily about clean water and sanitation; the sanitation programmesin the country can be divided into four different phases; the first phase started in the 1950s, where adequate attention was not paid to ruralsanitation. From mid-1980s till 1999 was a middle period in which the government focused on infrastructure building and subsidising toilets for poor households; since 1999, a period of more intensive engagement was initiated with increased funding, and a change in approach, shifting from infrastructure building to behavioural change (Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, 2016), the current phase started in 2014 under the name of Swachh Bharat Mission. It aimed to make India ODF free by 2019. The country has progressed from sanitation coverage of 1 percent in 1981 to 31percent in 2011 (Census, 2011) to over 98% in 2019 (Ministry of Jal Shakti, 2019). Various programmes were initiated to eradicate the menace of open defecation and to improvise the health and sanitation facilities in the nation; from the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) in 1999 to Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) in 2012 and the latest one, i.e., Swachh Bharat Mission launched by the government of India on 2nd October 2014. The SBM is an ambitious programme (Bharat et al., 2018) aimed at enhancing the sanitation facilities in the country and ensuring toilets facilities in every household by 2019; another programme called AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) came into existence in 2015 which focused on the urban renewal projects and to establish the infrastructure that would ensure adequate robust sewage networks and water supply for urban transformation.
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