Grand distraction called river interlinking

Making water-excreta accounts

How will India supply drinking water in cities? Many argue the problem is not inadequate water. The problem is the lack of investment in building infrastructure in cities and the lack of managerial capacities to operate the systems, once created. This line of thought then leads logically to policy reform, to invite private investment and hand over public water utilities to private parties to operate.

I really have no problem with the World Bank

I write this because of the continued ineptness of its policies. It makes us lose time and direction again and again. Just look at the latest so-called water privatisation programme of the Bank and the Delhi government.

Pipe dreams

Delhi has been waiting. For its neighbour, Uttar Pradesh (up), to release water to its swank Sonia Vihar water treatment plant. The prime minister himself intervenes in the matter. He persuades up to release water. Only to be rebuffed by up political leaders, who say their farmers and cities need water first. Delhi is already water-spoilt, they say. Elsewhere, farmers in Tonk district of Rajasthan protest against a dam whose water, they say, is 'reserved' for neighbouring cities. They want that water.

Water riddles

I travelled in Kerala last fortnight, seeking answers. I wanted to know what government was doing to meet the drinking water needs of people in this wet-drought state. Searching in villages and academic papers, an anomalous statistic caught my eye. According to 1999 estimations of the National Sample Survey Organisation and the 2001 Census, only 11-14 per cent of rural Kerala had access to potable water supply. But the same data showed some 77-85 per cent of people had drinking water supply.

Corporation for Sustainable Development

Under the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of the United Nations (UN), it has been agreed to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015. The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, added a similar global sanitation target.

What about privatisation, then?

Last fortnight I wrote about the different models of water privatisation. Questions continue to haunt me, but let me try and work towards some resolution. Firstly, there is the issue of pricing of water for the relatively rich of the developing world. It is evident that urban and industrial sectors in the developing world do not even begin to pay for the water they use; indeed, they misuse it in their toilets and factories. Therefore municipalities are bankrupt and this, along with all other inefficiencies, makes them lousy service providers.

The true cost of water

Excessive heat and little light is how I would describe discussions on 'privatisation' of water. Protagonists say this is the magic bullet that will deliver safe water for all. Antagonists insist the private sector is interested only in profit, not in public good. Their claim that "Ganga is being sold to multinationals" evokes outrage. So where does the truth -- if there is anything of the kind left -- lie?