To
The Ministry of Water Resources
New Delhi
Sir/Madam,
We are a 700-member strong
organization working to solve consumer, environmental and civic
problems of Mysore City (Karnataka) and its surroundings.
The following are our suggestions on
the Draft National Water Policy – 2012.
1. Sec. 3.3 of the Draft National Water
Policy prioritizes different uses of water. Non-essential activities
which consume a lot of water should be prohibited in areas of water
scarcity.
2. Sec. 6.6 of the Draft National Water
Policy says that water saving in irrigation is of paramount
importance. It discusses ways to save water in irrigation. In our
view, one of the biggest sources of water wastage in irrigation is
the promotion of water-intensive food and cash crops. This has to
change. The National Water Policy should work in tandem with a
National Agricultural Policy and a National Food Policy which
encourage non water intensive food crops (such as millets) in
water-scarce regions and promote the use of millets as food.
Check dams and man-made tanks should
be promoted over large dams for irrigation purposes as they are much
more eco-friendly.
3. Sec. 12 of the Draft National Water
Policy speaks about drinking water supply. If expensive processes
such as desalination or reverse osmosis are required to provide
drinking water in water-scarce areas and areas with endemic ground
water quality problems, drinking water should be delinked from piped
water. Filtered water can be supplied through pipes for all uses
except drinking and potable water (say 5 litres/per head/per day) can
be supplied for drinking purposes either in bottles or through
vending machines (or through some means). More than 99% of the piped
water is used for non-drinking purposes such as washing, bathing,
flushing toilets and gardening and there is no point in purifying
this water at enormous expense to drinking water standards.
Research should be done in alternate
technologies such as river bank filtration and atmospheric water
generators which can produce potable water at very low cost and
viable technologies should be implemented promptly.
Yours sincerely,
V.Mahesha
Working President
Mysore Grahakara Parishat