Our View on Assam State Water Policy Draft

The Civil Society Groups of Assam has out rightly rejected the Water Policy draft in its state level consultation meet held on the 29th Sept. 2007. Instead it has collectively called to reframe the water policy draft with its own needs and context. The citizens found the same to be at the behest of the private capital and essence of the policy to be commercialization of the nature’s gift. The meet unequivocally held that the implementation of the policy will only lead to denial of access to water to the common masses. The entire exercise of preparation of the draft was carried out in a hush hush manner without making any consultation with the people. However, with all its purposes these consultations have been organized at the initiative of the civil society groups in which the participants out rightly rejected the draft.

Interestingly we found the state policy to be more or less in tune with that of the Asian Development Bank’s Water Policy, 2003, the very aim of which was to make water a commodity. What has, however been most interesting is that in an recent interview one top official from the World Bank candidly admitted that with privatization of water the prices may shoot up unreasonably. Is it not possible for the state to make water policy looking at its own regional realities and people expectations? How many people will afford to meter their tap water and farmer’s irrigational waters gauged under the present form of state water policy draft?

Experiences in other countries have proved that privatization of the water system has neither been successful nor it has been able to serve the interest of the people. Common complaint was about the inflated bills made by the private operators and these agencies were least bothered about the problems of the people. With no accountability to the public these private agencies will be at liberty to do things as they wish that too when there will be no control over them. And finally what the corporate could do is to loot away the resources we have including the ground water. Depletion of ground water and environmental disasters are the other consequences of implementation of such a policy.

Apart from these, the bitter experiences of the public from the process of privatization in the name of reform that has been undergoing in electricity sector of the state of Assam is also enough to create apprehension. It is sure that in case of implementation of such an anti people policy the people of Assam will face similar kind of experience.

Under the circumstances the best thing will be to reframe the water policy keeping in minds our specific needs and wants. We need a policy which can irrigate our land, control the perennial flood and make water accessible to all. And all these will be possible only through a policy prepared for furthering the interest of the people.

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