Need for river basin authorities

In the occasion of World Water Day, 2002, Kofi Annan, the then U.N. Secretary General, had warned that "water issues contain the seeds of violent conflict." Similar sentiments were echoed recently by Ban Ki-moon in his message on World Water Day, 2008, that the problems growing from the scarcity of a vital resource (like water) would spill over state borders creating a high risk of violent conflict. The Hogenakkal project, a drinking water scheme across the interstate Cauvery river planned by Tamil Nadu recently, caused a serious law and order situation both in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu with tempers running high in the States.

Similarly widespread protests raged in Orissa when Andhra Pradesh started works on the Mahendratanaya drinking water and irrigation project in the interstate Vamsadhara river basin. Unfortunately, such situations occur due to hydropolitics encouraging ad hoc measures for resolving problems, ignoring needed actions with long term vision, particularly in the case of interstate rivers. An interstate river physically links not only the upstream and downstream users but also the uses. Conflict of interest is the normal state of affairs when the uneven distribution of rainfall in space and time leads to endemic problems of water shortage in the basin. Consequently, the co-basin States start claiming ownership rights to water flowing through their territories forgetting their obligation to cooperate with each other, thus causing irreparable harm to the principle of federalism of the polity. The Central government, whenever confronted with water disputes among the States, takes the plea that under the Constitution, water is a State subject and Central intervention is possible only when the subject is brought under "Central" or "Concurrent" List.

In this connection, the opinion of the Sarkaria Commission on Centre-State Relations (1988) would be of interest. The Commission had stated that the Centre could take over the regulation and development of interstate river waters by virtue of Entry 56, List 1 (Central List) of the Constitution. It had also pointed out that with more frequent meetings of the National Water Resources Council (NWRC), chaired by the Prime Minister with Chief Ministers as members, the points of difference on water issues between the States could be resolved through accommodation. Unfortunately, NWRC was not able to meet frequently and find time to discuss and sort out the issues with the result that water disputes continued for want of a duly empowered forum to enable mutual consultations among the States and to focus the dialogue on water needs rather than water rights. Water being an emotive issue, only a mandated institution comprising Central and State representatives would be able to provide a platform to build consensus among the States through discussions. Interestingly, the River Boards Act, 1956, has a provision for setting up River Basin Organisations (RBO). But the Act provides only for boards advisory in nature and hence does not give any authority to the Central government to control and develop the interstate rivers or regulate the activities of the State governments in these matters.

Though in 1988, the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Water Resources had recommended setting up of RBOs having authority for regulation and control of the basin under Article 246 by suitable enactments, as of now, there is not a single RBO established for the purpose. A duly empowered, well structured RBO alone would be able to promote ethically based behaviour and action in a river basin and guide all parties towards a common goal and collective good.The composition, powers, etc., of RBOs have to be detailed while planning the organisation to ensure that conflicts do not crop up during the operational stages and thereafter, as happened in the Murray-Darling Basin Organisation in Australia and in the Fracer Basin Council in Canada. Considering the fact that interstate rivers contribute a major share of the utilisable water resources of the country, a legally backed RBO has to be in position to accelerate the consensus building process to optimally utilise the precious water resources of the country, as the demand for fresh water is increasingly taking centre-stage on the economic and political agenda, and more and more disputes are arising between States.

The Hindu, April 20, 2008

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