| PROJECT DESCRIPTION : |
About 70% of India's surface water is contaminated and over 100 million hectares of land/ground is waterlogged, eroded, orsaline . The consequence of such pollution is a very high frequency of waterborne diseases which accounts for two-thirds of all illnesses in India and which also contributes to a very significant loss of productivity. In addition, this leads to losses of agricultural/ aquatic (fishery etc.) productivity and food contamination when such contaminated water is used for irrigation or is disposed of on open lands. This has further contributed to higher application rates of chemical fertilisers. This contributes to non-point sources of water contamination/pollution. All of these dimensions contribute to high social costs of water pollution.
The existing policies and the tools-in-use, that affect the water quality and its availability are either non-existent or are too week and fail to reflect the true value and importance of water. In addition, they also fail to account for the associated intangible costs such as health issues (water borne disease) and loss of productivity (crop/land/human). Further, water issues are dealt-with, separately by different govt. departments - such as Irrigation, Industry, Environment, Health, - this leads to lack of coherence in the water related policies.
Choice for Thematic Network: Several stakeholders that could be broadly grouped under three-sectors (described below) affect the issue of water availability and its quality: (these are also referred as sectors of water use in this project)
1) rural sector including the agriculture,
2) industrial sector
3) urban sector including the service sector
In order to develop an effective sustainable development -policy framework for water resources, all three-sectors need to be addressed. It would also require in-depth assessments of the existing situation, including the socio-economic, technological, and environmental conditions, within each sector of water use. Thus developing a policy framework for water resources involves several stakeholders and must address several issues (requiring multi-disciplinary and multi-ethnic background and skills). This makes it practically impossible to conduct such research by an individual or a small number of institutions. It necessities a network approach to address such problems. Further, the difference in size and capacity of the individual player (stakeholder) needs different emphasis during research and within the policy development model.
Clearly, water, because of its the extensive character in all aspects of society plays a pivotal role in all dimensions of
A) To set-up a thematic network on 'Sustainable Policies for Promoting Water Conservation Technologies and Practises' The network would analyse the following issues for rural, industrial and service/urban sectors:
1. Analysis of the existing policy instruments concerning the 'water quality and its availability', within each of the three sectors of water use, focusing at their efficacy, implementation, weaknesses and barriers, through gaps analyses with sustainability perspectives.
2. Assessment of the awareness levels (on benefits) within each of the three sectors on water conservation technologies and practices.
3. Assessment of Information availability and channels of information-flow on water efficient equipment, appliances and practices within the three sectors
4. Supportive research - on how to promote the adaptation/use of 'water conservation technologies and practices', social / economical/ technical /environmental aspects.
5. Knowledge management /pooling and sharing - organising events, discussion groups, use of Information technology -Info-centre.
B) To outline the key issues to be addressed within different policies at different levels and within different departments to attain sustainable policies for water quality and its availability. Also to outline the barriers and potential facilitating factors to promote and accelerate the implementation of a sustainable water policy.
C) To outline the R&D policies for water conservation (quantity & quality), Govt Policies, Institutional-Structuring and roles. These policies recommendations would be elaborated along the Short, Medium, and long term time-frame.
The development of sustainable policy for water management will be conducted through an establishment of a thematic network that will be responsible to conduct a series of workshops and to catalyse discussions on the electronic media. The summary of workshop and discussions will feed into the final policy recommendations. The following sequence of work packages are prepared in order to attain the above specified objectives.
Identification of policy options for meeting equitable access to quality water (the basic needs). Because water and wastewater are interrelated in most cases, addressing wastewater issues in the Urban sector (one of the focus sector for study) also covers the sanitation issues.
Improved systems of water use (renewable natural resource) in rural and urban areas (also including Industrial sector separately).
Health issues are also addressed indirectly in specific context to water borne decease.
Merges the policy research with integrated water management. Further, one of the focal areas is the rural-sector that also includes agriculture and irrigational aspects.
Increased links between EU and India, for further joint research. The promotion of European scientific and technological expertise, taking into account social and cultural needs of the India.
Three white papers on sustainable water policy for the three sector, outlining the existing policies and socio-economic conditions and raising the issues to be researched/addressed by the network.
Internet Library on water: Database of water efficient technologies and practices, Norms and performance assessment on water use, resource persons/institutions database, FAQ etc.
