New Delhi: After initiating reforms in the water sector, Delhi government will soon set up a regulatory body to streamline the water management system and may bring a legislation to put in place stringent norms to check wastage of resource.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who is also chairperson of Delhi Jal Board, said Government was very sincere in improving water management system and the regulator would be on par with city`s power regulator Delhi Electricity Regulator Commission (DERC).
Indicating that government may bring a legislation to curb wastage of water, she said there was a need to "make people pay for every drop of water they use." "At the moment, Delhi is facing a difficult and critical situation with regard to water. Existing water laws are ambivalent and there is need for a strong legislation. We are currently in the process of setting up a water regulatory body on par with the DERC," Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said addressing a seminar.
"India is rather spoilt. People don`t pay for most resources they use, as a result they don`t value what they get. Once you make people pay for every drop of water they use, they will learn to value it more," she said.
Echoing the Chief Minister`s views, Delhi`s Chief Secretary P K Tripathi said, "People have lost value for water. Law is the only force that can bring back respect for the resource. Unless water is priced people won`t value it."
"Water must be priced on par with electricity and it should not be priced according to the whims and fancies of the public but by an independent regulatory system which is not swayed by emotional consideration," he said. Stating that Delhi was in an "odd situation" as most resources are "borrowed" from neighbouring states, the Chief Minister stressed the need to check wastage of water.
"Nothing in Delhi belongs to the capital. Everything is borrowed, including water. So, it is all the more important to value this precious resource," Dikshit said.
The Chief Minister was speaking at a two-day seminar on the legal formulation for sustainable water management in Delhi, organised by the Delhi Jal Board, the Confederation of Indian Industry and International Development Law Organisation here.
The chief minister also noted that over the years the population in the capital had grown inversely proportional to the water supply.
"Demand for drinking water is enormous. The per capita consumption of water in the capital is over 200 kilo litre, which is among the highest in the world. It is difficult to meet these demands. Ground water has also depleted rapidly. We are literally walking above a desert," she said.
She also rued the existing "unscientific and inequitable" water supply in the capital, saying the spurt in the number of unauthorised colonies in the capital was one of the many reasons for this trend.
Claiming water to be the "least regulated" resource in the country, Tripathi stressed the need for a "national framework" to regulate usage of the resource.
"All state governments must come under this framework, which should be broad enough to give leeway to the states to decide on how to use their water resources," he said.
He also voiced the need to map underground water resources in the state and said the government was currently collaborating with a University in Denmark for the same.
Dikshit and Tripathi stated that a sustained aggressive campaign to save water resources was necessary, besides spreading awareness on the need to recycle and reuse it.
The city government has already initiated reforms in water management system by involving private entities in several areas of the city.
PTI