For a drop to drink: A whole new ministry, Jal Shakti, is born. Will this quench India's thirst for clean water?
Narendra Modi’s govt has created a new ministry which combines several water-related departments under one roof. But can this effectively tackle the huge challenge before it?
A new ministry — ‘Jal Shakti’ — has been created by Narendra Modi’s government. The ministry has come up, reorganising the earlier Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, which was held by Nitin Gadkari previously. Now, drinking water and sanitation also added, PM Modi has placed the Jal Shakti Ministry under the leadership of Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
Under the last government of PM Modi, the project to clean the Ganga was moved from the Ministry of Environment and Forests to the Ministry of Water Resources. Later, the Namami Gange project was launched. Modi in his election campaign had promised the people that access to safe drinking water would be a prime initiative of the NDA government in its second term.
Several Indians don’t have safe drinking water
According to a recent NITI Aayog report, almost 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress — 75% households do not have drinking water in their homes.
The report also raises the alarm in 21 cities — including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad — that will face a massive shortage of water and run out of groundwater by 2020, impacting 100 million people.
Why a new ministry?
One of the reasons to have a separate ministry is to integrate all central agencies which are involved in different capacities like drinking water and sanitation, urban development, housing and urban poverty alleviation and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The tasks of coordination and tracking will become easier for the government thus.
The first challenge:
Is to stop drinking water going towards Pakistan. With the Indus Water Treaty, India has the right to use the entire water of the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers, while the waters of the Chenab, Sindhu and Jhelum rivers was given to Pakistan.
Since both the countries got independence at the same time, India never stopped the waters of Ravi, Beas and Satluj, which came in its share, to go to Pakistan. After the Pulwama attack though, there were growing calls for the Indian government to stop the flow of water going towards Pakistan. This won't be an easy task — India will have to build dams on the rivers and that won't happen overnight — but it can surely be done and Jal Shakti could manage this.
Ensure drinking water for all
Alarmingly, ground water level has been going down in almost all parts of the country.
The ministry needs to find a permanent solution to the pressing issue of how to bring the ground level water up and ensure that everyone can have access to safe drinking water.
Solve water fights
The next big issue this ministry will need to address is that of cross-region conflicts over water between different states — especially the eer-simmering tension between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over Cauvery water.