15th May 2003

From Water Wars To Water Democracy

The non-sustainable policies of last 50 years have left our rivers dead and polluted, our ground water depleted and contaminated. The water scarcity induced by manmade policies is creating water riots between people and water conflicts between states.

After having created a water crisis in our water abundant land, endowed with mighty rivers and a rich culture of water conservation, the government is now offering false solutions that will further aggravate the water crisis and intensify water wars.

False Solutions

The two most significant policies announced by government related to water are the Water Policy and the River Linking Project.

The Water Policy is centered on defining water as property, promoting water privatization and commodification. This is a recipe for the rights over water shifting from the people and communities of India to a handful of multinationals such as Suez, Vivendi, Thames Water, Bechtel and others.

While the Water Policy has de facto redefined water rights and undermines the community rights of people, this has never been debated in Parliament, which is the only body which can legislate on resource rights. The Water Policy is therefore a subversion of the Constitution and a hijack of the peoples’ natural rights to water as a vital resources needed for sustenance. This is a surreptitious attempt to establish the Principle of Eminent Domain in water which was always a peoples' resources, in place of the Public Trust Doctrine which define the role of the state with respect to natural resources, the collective wealth of the people.

The 635 million liters Ganga Water project of Suez Degremont at Sonia Vihar is de facto privatizing the Ganga water depriving the people of Uttranchal and farmers of Uttar Pradesh of their lifeline. Mr. Satpal Choudhury, Vice President of Dehat Morcha which is leading the struggle of the UP farmers against the diversion of the Ganga canal to the Suez’s plant, said that “this diversion will turn India’s grain basket into a desert. The farmers will now be robbed of their vital irrigation water”.

This commodification is also an assault on the vary basic cultural values of people. Sri Anshul Sri Kunj of Bharat Jagriti Mishan Nyas, Haridwar, who is mobilizing the public of Haridwar against the Suez privatisation of Ganga, said "Our Mother Ganga is Not for Sale". He also narrated how the Ganga ran dry for the first time at Har-ki-Padi, something that even the British did not dare to do in the Colonial times. The people’s perception is that this un-necessary stoppage of Ganga canal flow was to engineer a crisis and create artificial demand for the Suez plant in Sonia Vihar.

The privatization of rivers have also been shown to be real a danger with the case of the Sheonath river in Chattisgarh.

The River Linking Project is in fact a river privatisation project. It is a fraud on the Indian people for a number of reasons.

1. The government has not clarified where the US$ 200 billion dollars needed for the mega project will come from. The Union Water Secretary has referred to raising finances from private sources. Whether the investment will come from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or from water multinationals such as Bechtel, Suez and Vivendi; privatization of water and our rivers will be the inevitable results.

2. Riparian communities have not been consulted in announcing this mega project even though it is their rights that the project undermines.

3. Rivers that are already dry and in deficit due to ecological devastation and dams and diversion are being treated as “Surplus”.

4. Projects that have already been planned or executed are being shown as “New” projects under river linking

5. The ecological and social costs of the new dams and diversion have not been assessed.

6. Sustainable and equitable alternatives for overcoming the policy induced water crisis have not been explored.

Com. Sureshwar Sinha of Panni Morcha showed that it was un-necessary to bring the Ganga water to the Yamuna in Delhi through the Suez Plant to solve Delhi’s water problems.

Real and Lasting Solutions

Decentralized and ecological alternatives exist for Delhi as well as the rest of the country. While these alternatives are more reliable and have lower costs, corporation and politicians do not like them since they strengthen water democracy instead of increasing corporate profits and political corruption. Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE) / Navdanya’s Jal Swaraj Abhiyan announced the launch of the “Sujalam” campaign to increase people’s participation in water planning and water management. The campaign will promote the saving and sharing of our precious water. Water Parliaments (Jal Sansads) and River Sansads are being organised across the country to assess the impact of the River Linking Projects and to provide peoples’ sustainable and just alternatives.

The Jal Swaraj Abhiyan demands:

A. All documents related to the River Linking Project be put in the public domain to ensure peoples participation and transparency.

B. The alternatives that communities and citizens groups have evolved on the basis of conservation and water democracy be made the backbone of the National Water Policy.

C. No implementation of new projects under River Linking be initiated till Peoples' Water Parliaments and public hearings have provided their plans. To counter the privatisation and commodification logic based on full cost recovery, Jal Swaraj Abhiyan is starting a Full Cost Recovery Campaign to assess the ecological debt and social debt owed by the state and the corporations to nature and people.

D. All existing water privatisation contracts be made public and placed before State Assemblies and Parliament. The Delhi Jal Board contract with Suez Degremont for the privatisation of the Ganga must be annulled.

E. The Water Policy must recognise community rights as the foundation of water rights and delete all references to “water as asset hence private property” of the state (Clause 1) that can be transferred to private control through schemes such as Leasing, BOO, BOT, BOOT and others.

Dr. Vandana Shiva of RFTSE / Navdanya released the report “Sujalam”, Living Waters: The Impact of the River Linking Project published by RFSTE. This report can be had from the address given below.