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National

National

"Make water management a national obsession"

Gargi Parsai

Unless water becomes everybody's business... we will not build a movement for water-secure India, says Manmohan Medha Patkar: "... Senior police officers used abusive language. Some of the women were slapped, boxed, their arms twisted and their clothes torn... "

PHOTO: AP

MEDHA IN THE THICK OF FIRE: Social activist Medha Patkar (centre) stages a protest on World Water Day at the premises of Planning Commission in New Delhi on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: On the World Water Day on Thursday while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave a call for the participation of people and civil society groups in the management of water resources, Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar and 50 others were roughed up by the police outside the office of the Planning Commission.

Ms. Patkar and representatives of various organisations participating in the weeklong Action 2007 programme against "anti-people" policies, were manhandled when they went to give a memorandum to Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on the World Water Day.

They were demanding a pro-people water policy and halting of privatisation of water. They were held at the Parliament Street Police Station. Later in the evening several of the injured women were taken to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital for a check-up. "This could have been avoided. Senior police officers used abusive and filthy language. Some of the women were slapped, boxed, their arms twisted and their clothes torn as they were pushed around," said Ms. PatkarEarlier flagging off a series of functions in the Capital to mark the World Water Day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stressed the need to make water management an individual and combined national obsession.

"It is clear that unless water becomes everybody's business, unless each one of us is engaged in thinking about how we use water and how we can save water, we will not build a movement for water-secure India."

Calling for a massive people's movement for conservation and efficient use of scarce water resources, Dr. Singh commented at the "shocking disregard" for our rivers, most of which were polluted. He said the Ganga Action Plan and the National River Conservation Plan should be reviewed for their effectiveness. "The way we treat our rivers, we may well turn them into a cause of increasing loss of lives. Dirty water is a major cause of childhood mortality in our country. It is also beginning to hurt our farm produce."

Dr. Singh described water as the most critical emerging constraint on our agricultural development and emphasised the need to augment water supply through conservation and reuse. "There is an urgent need to rationalise water use in agriculture by getting `more crop per drop'. This requires economic pricing of water as well as community based cooperation in water use.''

Reminding people about the importance of water for the existence of humanity, the Prime Minister said there was no greater challenge facing mankind than the challenges of harnessing and using water wisely. "We cannot allow human societies to descend into chaos due to conflict on utilisation of water resources, be it within nations or between nations."

Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz said to underscore the importance of conservation of water, 2007 had been declared the Water Year. with the theme, "People's Participation in Conservation of Water resources and Preservation of its Quality."

He said the Government had identified 5,000 villages for focussing on `more crop and income per drop.' A water man and a water woman would be put in place at each of these villages for implementing water conservation and management technologies.

At another function `Waterman' Rajinder Singh of Alwar urged the Government to return to the traditional methods of water conservation and de-centralised water management instead of going in for mammoth projects.

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