AIKS Condemns Draft Water Policy

THE All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has condemned the draft National Water Policy proposal to privatise water delivery services and abolish subsidies to agricultural as well as the domestic sector. This retrograde move, according to the AIKS, would allow the profit-seeking corporate sector to rake in huge profits while millions of Indians will be forced to pay hefty amounts for getting water for cultivation as well as daily domestic use. The peasantry who are already reeling under an acute agrarian crisis and facing a situation of stagnant productivity would be the worst hit.

In a statement issued from New Delhi on January 27, the AIKS said the draft is only pushing forward the ideas dictated by the World Bank, as the concept of collecting user charges to fully recover the costs of operation and administration of water-resource projects. A World Bank paper in 2005 had suggested privatisation of water supply and minimal role for the government as a service provider of irrigation, water and sanitation services for “stimulating competition” in the water market. The claim that it is a move towards sustainable water management to address climate change concerns is baseless, given the fact that the government has not done enough to replenish groundwater aquifers through water harvesting and other methods, and that there are no controls over corporate exploitation of groundwater resources.

The AIKS has taken note of the retrograde features of the draft policy which, on the one hand, calls for the abolition of all forms of water subsidies to the agricultural and domestic sectors and, on the other, argues for “subsidies and incentives” for the private industry in the name of recycling and reusing treated effluents. The draft also calls for curtailing subsidy for electricity used for agricultural purposes on the pretext of cutting down wasteful use of both electricity and water. The AIKS said the government is clearly trying to shirk its responsibility as a provider of water to the people including the peasantry. These proposals would ensure a sharp rise in the price of water for both rural and urban users. While the government has failed to ensure access to a minimum quantity of potable water for essential health and hygiene to all citizens, available within easy reach of the household, this draft policy expects the private sector to play this role. Such moves have failed miserably in different parts of the world and only brought greater misery to the poor. Instead of curtailing misuse of scarce water resources, it would only leave the entire sector open for corporate plunder and monopoly.

The AIKS also noted that the farmers who have so far been getting water from rivers and canals will now have to be dependent on the corporates who are only interested in profiteering. Majority of the area under cultivation in India is under rain-fed agriculture. While the farmers are demanding widening of the irrigation infrastructure and completion of ongoing projects, the proposal to privatise water services would only lead to further distress for the peasantry. Agricultural productivity would badly suffer as irrigation costs will increase exponentially. Already the peasantry is facing an acute agrarian crisis and suicides are rising. The government has decontrolled prices of fertilisers, petroleum products and other agricultural inputs and this move will increase costs of cultivation exorbitantly. There is also a proposal to increase railway freight charges which would further burden the masses. The attacks against the peasantry are only increasing day by day under the neo-liberal regime.

The AIKS has warned the government against any such move as would hit against the interests of the peasantry and other sections of the people. The organisation said it would resist with all its might this attack by the World Bank and the government on the livelihood of peasantry. It has also urged all individuals and organisations interested in the welfare of the peasantry and other masses to unitedly fight against this move.