Skip to main content

Poor utilisation of Central funds for drinking water amidst 'indiscriminate' industrial use

By Bharat Dogra* 

Scorching heat has again been accompanied this year by reports of acute drinking water shortages in many villages. The situation was supposed to be different this time because of an unprecedentedly high increase in the budget for drinking water supply in villages announced about 15 months back, but clearly the actual improvement has fallen far short of the high expectations raised at that time.
The budget estimate in the 2021-22 budget for the Jal Jivan Mission, the main programme for rural drinking water supply, was increased to an unprecedented extent to Rs 50,011 crore, while in 2022-23 budget this was again increased to Rs 60,000 crore.
However, only 26% of the previous year’s allocated amount was utilized till January 2022, as pointed out by the Standing Committee on Water Resources (2021-22), 14th Report, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Even if the implementation was hurried in the remaining part of the financial year, such spending squeezed in a short time at the end of the year seldom gives satisfactory results and the possibilities of corruption also increase.
During the previous year also, when the overall allocation too was very low, 10 states had utilization levels lower than 50% till January 2021.
The progress of the Water Quality Sub-Mission has also been slow as some states have not given adequate attention to this aspect ad have not utilized the portion of the funds (about 10 per cent) meant for this purpose despite the worsening quality aspects highlighted in many reports in recent times. 
Similarly the portion of allocated funds meant for improving water quality testing facilities has not been utilized properly. The Standing Committee on Water Resources ( 2021-22) has also drawn attention to this, expressing concern at the decreasing number of water testing labs.
The Jal Jeevan mission has been more concerned with installing pipelines and taps, although it has provision also for water conservation and recharging. Due to overall ecological ruin and global warming as well as more specific harm caused to several water sources, while pipes and taps are certainly increasing, the water sources from which they are to get their water supply are getting depleted in many cases. Hence taps in several villages remain dry during the weeks of water scorching heat when water is most needed.
More scorching summers in days of global warming would by themselves have led to depletion of water sources, but this has been aggravated further by indiscriminate mining, deforestation, other loss of green cover and cropping patterns or technologies which demand water beyond the limits of sustainable use. 
Many water guzzling industries have been set up in areas which cannot bear their excessive water use. About 35% of the total assessment units of groundwater blocks are already classified as critical, semi-critical or over-exploited.
Those who are most powerful get away with practices of excessive water extraction or use, in the process denying even drinking water to the weaker sections. Excessive water use by liquor companies has been seen in several places despite water shortages causing distress in nearby villages.
Powerful and resourceful industrial polluters have been able to go on with pollution of water sources for years despite the high risks this poses to the health of a very large of people. 
Three out of four river monitoring stations in India have posted alarming levels of heavy toxic metals such as lead, iron, nickel, cadmium, arsenic, chromium and copper. As many as 588 water quality stations were monitored for pollution. Out of this, total coliform and biological oxygen demand was high in 239 and 88 stations spread across 21 states.
In the Himalayan region there are all-too-frequent reports of water sources being ravaged by sand mining and other mining, or getting polluted. A very large number of water springs, the basic source of drinking water in villages, have been depleted badly or vanished altogether. Recent reports on highway construction and dam construction have reported big deposition of rubble in rivers.
In the case of the Char Dham project several water resources are reported to have been buried under the construction rubble, not only denying water to several villages but in addition creating very hazardous conditions at several points. Several hundred thousand trees have been felled here in recent times in the course of indiscriminate construction work; much of this damage could have been avoided by better planning.
The Bundelkhand region, spread across 13 districts of Central India, has often attracted attention because of severe water shortages in several places but relentless deforestation, highly indiscriminate mining and quarrying have continued on large scale. Between 2 to 3 million trees are now threatened by the Ken-Betwa link project which has faced heavy criticism for its basic unviability.
This region has been known for its rich water wisdom as reflected in several historical tanks. While several of these have continued to serve well even after a long time, others have fallen victims to encroachments and neglect.
However, while neglecting the work of maintaining several of these, the government has spent most of its resources on expensive large dam projects whose benefits have turned out to be much lower than earlier estimates and which have been been the cause also of some flash floods apart from displacing a large number of people.The Ken-Betwa link with its massive budget of Rs 45,000 crore is likely to be the most wasteful of these projects.
At the national level nearly 30 such river-link projects are being planned, costing around Rs 15 lakh crore, threatening to harm river ecology in several important ways, apart from unleashing large scale displacement and huge loss of forests and biodiversity.
India cannot afford to waste huge funds on such wasteful projects. India is estimated to have only 4% of the world’s freshwater and 18% of the world’s population, hence we have to be much more careful about how we use our limited water resources and how we manage the limited budget we have for meeting the essential needs of our human population as well as other forms of life.
---
*Honorary convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include ‘A Day in 2071’, ‘Planet in Peril' and ‘India’s Quest for Sustainable Farming and Healthy Food'

Comments

TRENDING

Defeat of martial law: Has the decisive moment for change come in South Korea?

By Steven Lee  Late at night on December 3, soldiers stormed into South Korea’s National Assembly in armored vehicles and combat helicopters. Assembly staff desperately blocked their assault with fire extinguishers and barricades. South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol had just declared martial law to “ eliminate ‘anti-state’ forces .”

70,000 migrants, sold on Canadian dream, face uncertain future: Canada reinvents the xenophobic wheel

By Saurav Sarkar*  Bikram Singh is running out of time on his post-study work visa in Canada. Singh is one of about 70,000 migrants who were sold on the Canadian dream of eventually making the country their home but now face an uncertain future with their work permits set to expire by December 2024. They came from places like India, China, and the Philippines, and sold their land and belongings in their home countries, took out loans, or made other enormous commitments to get themselves to Canada.

A groundbreaking non-violent approach: Maharishi’s invincible defense technology

By MajGen (R) Kulwant Singh, Col (R) SP Bakshi, Col (R) Jitendra Jung Karki, LtCol (R) Gunter Chassé & Dr David Leffler*  In today’s turbulent world, achieving lasting peace and ensuring national security are more urgent than ever. Traditional defense methods focus on advanced weapons, military strategies, and tactics, but a groundbreaking approach offers a new non-violent and holistic solution: Maharishi’s Invincible Defense Technology (IDT). 

This Indian British Marxist blamed USSR's collapse in 1991 on Khrushchev's 'revisionism'

By Harsh Thakor*  Harpal Singh Brar, British Indian Marxist scholar and communist leader, has passed away in Chandigarh. He was 85. He was a lifelong supporter of socialism, Marxism, and the working class. He will be remembered among British Communists.

EVMs: Govt must prove beyond reasonable doubt it's upholding mandate for free, fair polls

By Jerald D’souza  With the growth of India’s population, concerns about electoral fraud associated with ballot papers, also began to escalate. In 1989, the People’s Representation Act was amended to enable EVMs to prevent electoral fraud. In 1998, EVMs made their debut during legislative assembly elections and for the first time for general elections in 2004. However, criticisms against the EVMs and questions about their integrity have been raised by political parties, civil society and the general population. On 2 February 2024, there was a noteworthy demonstration of dissent where numerous individuals, including Ambedkarite advocates, legal professionals, and other members of civil society  convened at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar demanding the prohibition of EVMs. In 2024, the Supreme court had slapped down a petition to return to paper ballots on the basis that machines give “absolutely accurate results” unless human bias maligns them. The court stated that it was open to testi...

Chalapathi's death in encounter suggests Maoists' inability to establish broader mass support

By Harsh Thakor* The Maoist movement experienced a significant loss during the Ramagudem encounter on January 21, with the death of Chalapathi (Pratap), a Central Committee member of the CPI (Maoist). His death, along with 15 others, marks a major setback for the movement. Reports suggest that his location was revealed to security forces through a selfie with his wife.

Why do we mostly resist and refrain from communicating on sanitation topic?

By Nikhil Kumar, Mansee Bal Bhargava* According to UN SDG Progress report (2022), at the present moment no targets for SDG 6 are expected to be met by 2030. In 2022, 2.2 billion people had no access to safe drinking water and 3.5 million lacked safe sanitation. Approximately 50% of the world’s population was reported to have been under resourced in enough water for part of the year and a quarter of that population was living under “extremely high” water stress. Add to it, droughts have affected over 1.4 billion people between 2002 and 2021.

Govt of India asked to work for release of 217 Indian fishermen detained in Pakistan since 2021

By A Representative  Members of the fishing communities from Gujarat and Diu, Union Territory, held a press conference in Ahmedabad, urging the Union Government to take proactive measures to secure the release of Indian fishermen currently detained in Pakistan. Presently, 217 Indian fishermen, mostly from Gujarat and Diu, are held in Pakistan’s Malir Jail. Of these, 53 have been incarcerated since 2021 and 130 since 2022.

34 Dalit families in IIT Kanpur without toilets in Open Defecation Free India

By Sandeep Pandey   When Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur was set up in 1959, two villages were uprooted. The farmers were given meagre compensation for the standing crop. No compensation was given for the land to build this institute of national importance. Each family was promised a job but what was not told to them was that one would require specialised skills to get a job at IIT. Some members of these families were, of course, absorbed for menial work. Some washerfolk families were also invited from outside to live on campus to take care of the laundry needs of students, staff and faculty members. One of these men was cajoled by IIT authorities then to forego a regular employment at IIT and instead take up clothes washing work.

अल्पसंख्यक कार्य मंत्रालय का बजट निराशाजनक: 19.3% अल्पसंख्यकों के लिए मात्र 0.0661% ठोस आवंटन

- मुजाहिद नफ़ीस*   1-2-2025 को भारत सरकार द्वारा संसद में वर्ष 2025-26 का बजट वित्त मंत्री निर्मला सीतारमण जी ने पेश किया| इस वर्ष का बजट 5065345 करोड़ है जो कि पिछले साल के संशोधित अनुमान से लगभग 7.39% की बढ़ोतरी हुई है| वहीं अल्पसंख्यक कार्य मंत्रालय का बजट मात्र 3350.00 करोड़ है जो कि कुल बजट का 0.0661% लगभग है|  पिछले साल 2024-25 में 3183.24 करोड़ था|