By FGR Bureau
While addressing one-day workshop on Support to the National Water Mission under Action Plan for Climate Change held on 27 June 2011 at New Delhi by the Central Water Commission and supported by the Asian Development Bank, Sh Vincent Pala, Minister of State for Water Resources said that said that Ministry of Water Resources was given the responsibility to frame the National Water Mission document and also to operationalise the strategies and necessary actions for adaptation. He further stated that his Ministry constituted six Sub-committees to address specifics in respect of Policy and Institutional Framework, Surface Water Management, Ground Water Management, Domestic and Industrial Water Management, Efficient Use of Water for Various Purposes, and Basin Level Planning and Management. The Comprehensive Mission Document was accorded approval by the Union Cabinet in April 2011.
Sh Pala further said: “National Water Mission endeavors to ensure integrated water resource management helping to conserve water, minimize wastage, ensure more equitable distribution both across and within states and develop a framework to optimize water use by increasing water use efficiency by 20% through regulatory mechanisms with differential entitlements and pricing after taking into account National Water Policy… The Mission will also seek to develop new regulatory structures, combined with appropriate entitlements and pricing. Incentive structures will be designed to promote water neutral and water positive technologies, recharging of underground water sources and adoption of large scale irrigation programs which rely on sprinklers, drip irrigation and ridge & furrow irrigation.”
The workshop was attended by office experts from Central Water Commission, representatives from Asian Development Bank and also water experts from abroad. Andrain Young in his presentation at the workshop, while dealing with existing problems related to water resource management, mooted following suggestions to plan water resources for climate change:
- Need a systematic WR planning process for sub basins.
- Strategic Planning to follow IWRM, participative and iterative
- Plans must be mainstreamed into departments and districts for implementation
- projections presently not adequate to make concrete planning decisions-but can support strategies and general direction.
David R. Purkey, water group leader of the US-based Stockholm Environment Institute, in his presentation laid emphasis on following issues:
- Need to refine climate projections to improve the robustness of planning and decision making.
- Important to consider both surface water and groundwater.
- Need to develop a strategic framework of planning that allows a quick diagnosis of issues and broad proposals.
- CWC could provide help source resources to complete the work.
