WATER LEGISLATIONS IN INDIA

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WATER LEGISLATIONS IN INDIA EVOLUTION NEED FOR
REFORMATIONS BY I.JAYASINGH MANOHARAN
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• The Constitution of India
• The center point of all statutes
•  
• Preamble
• The goal to be achieved
•  
• Fundamental rights
• The guaranteed rights of every citizen.
•  
• Directive principles of state policy
• Various duties of the government towards
  achieving the goals enshrined in the
  Constitution

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• Right to life
• One of the guaranteed fundamental right
• Can life be defined?
• It depends upon the perceptions and conceptions
  of every individual.
•  
• For the purpose of Article 21, what constitutes
  life?
• Existence of a congenial atmosphere and
  environment is a basic and common
• need for any perception, without which, life
  would be mere existence not
• living.

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Fundamental Right of a citizen is a compulsory
duty cast on the Government. So providing a
congenial atmosphere and environment is the
duty of the Government.   The basic components of
environment like water, air, earth, sunshine
etc., are totally that of the nature and not
man-made.   How Government can modulate any of
these components?   Whether earth is God
created or Origin Unknown, the fact remains
that earth exists with its own components. Unless
disturbed, the natures cyclic rotations like
the seasons, monsoon etc., are almost perfectly
equated.
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• Then, what is the need for a Law?
•  
• The words unless disturbed is the root for an
  enactment.
•  
• When kings ruled the countries, all the
  properties belonged to the respective ruler. The
  resources out of the property were taken to the
  kings treasury and a portion of it was
  distributed to the people in the kingdom.
•  
• Subsequent days have seen disinvestments in the
  hand of the Heads of the provinces for easy and
  better governance.
•  
• Competition among the provincial Heads or
  inter-provincial rivalry, triggered an attempt
  for confinement of natural resources.

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• Among the natural components, sunshine and air
  can not be controlled by human efforts but the
  water courses could be manipulated by human
  efforts.
•  
• This resulted in disruption of equal
  distribution of natural resources.
•  
• Rulers were compelled to issue binding orders on
  provincial Heads not to disrupt water courses.
•  
• When days went on, the principle of not
  interfering with the water courses became a
  customary practice.
•  
• Customary practices were converted as a Law, for
  want of enforceability.

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• When British spread wings to different
  countries, their main intention was to extract
  (exploit ?) the maximum resources out of the
  colonial countries and remit it to the Queens
  treasure.
•  
• Rules of separate kingdoms/provinces were
  binding only within the territory concerned.
•  
• Some areas of India were water-starved but have
  other resources. Without water, habitations and
  cultivations were not possible. But the British
  wanted to extract the best out of every piece of
  land.

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In such scenario, the British were under
compulsion to enact specific acts like      
Northern India Canal and Drainage Act 1873,
      Modern Irrigation Cess Act 1965,      
Punjab Minor Canals Act, 1905,       Uttar
Pradesh Minor Irrigation Works Act, 1920,
      Bihar Private Irrigation Works Act, 1922
and       Bengal Tanks Improvement Act,
1939.   The British governmental attitude was
only exploring and extracting the available
resources without much investment. All
colonial countries were depleted to increase the
wealth of British empire.
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• India became independent.
•  
• The independence of India paved way for the
  democratic government. For easy and efficient
  governance, States were formed with definite
  powers.
•  
• The Law-Makers of independent India, were wise
  enough to analyze and identify the need of both
  the Central and State Governments to manage and
  maintain the water resources in the country and
  incorporated the subject in both the Central and
  State lists in the Constitution of India.

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Schedule VII List I Entry 56 Regulation and
development of inter-State rivers and river
valleys to the extent to which such regulations
and development under the control of the Union
is declared by Parliament by law to be expedient
in the public interest.   Schedule VII List II
Entry 6   Public health and sanitation
hospitals and dispensaries   Schedule VII List
II Entry 17 Water, that is to say, water
supplies, irrigation and canals, drainage and
embankments, water storage and water power
subject to the provisions of Entry 56 of List
1.'
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Water Commissions and Tribunals are the outcome
of the above entries.   The Government of the
independent India, had to face the task of
recouping the Economy of the country due to
exploited resources during the British
regime.   Industrial Development thus became the
need of the hour and the third quarter of the
20th century had seen enormous industrial growth
spread over the country.   Industrial growth,
though the best medication for recouping the
countrys economy and resources, side effects
were enormous.
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• Pollution due to trade effluence and trade
  emissions were the fall out of the Industrial
  Growth.
•  
• Early 20th century never had problems of
  pollution in any noticeable level.
•  
• Irrigation water and drinking water were almost
  the same, except for suspended particles. So
  there was not much said about separate drinking
  water requirement.
•  
• The last quarter of the 20th century had
  witnessed water in any form being affected due
  to industrial pollution.
•  
• Government is under compulsion to prevent the
  pollution of water.

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• The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution)
  Act, 1974 was enacted.
•  
• Pollution control boards were formed with
  statutory powers.
•  
• Laboratories were established to analyze water
  samples to find out the existence of various
  pollutants.
•  
• Test results were compared with tolerance limits
  for drinking water.
•  
• Industries were compelled to get a Consent Order
  for the Pollution Control Board to let out any
  trade effluent in any water courses, even to let
  on land in any form.

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• Samples of trade effluence were taken and
  analyzed in the laboratories, wherever it
  exceeds the tolerance limit, the industries were
  advised to bring down pollution level by
  constructing and operating effluent treatment
  plants.
•  
• There has been severe opposition from the
  Industries, as Construction and Maintenance of
  treatment plants involved, non-revenue
  expenditures.
•  
• Even the developed countries have noticed
  pollution, not only in ground water and coastal
  sea-water but also in the atmospheric water
  particles.
•  
• Environmentalists have alerted the UN Bodies to
  spend specific recommendations to Member
  Countries to enact laws pertaining to the
  prevention of pollution.

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• Thus came the Air (Prevention and Control of
  Pollution) Act, 1981, specifying the limits of
  emissions out of the industries, as the excessive
  emissions dissolve in the water particles in the
  atmosphere and reaches the ground, adding further
  pollution.
•  
• Another milestone, is the Environment
  (Protection) Act, 1986.
•  
• Industrialists found it difficult to adhere to
  the various Provisions of the Pollution Laws.
•  
• The High Courts and the Supreme Court had seen
  the number of cases, filed by the industries
  against the Pollution Control Board, alarmingly
  increasing.

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• On the other hand, environmentalists have been
  cautioning the Governments and the international
  bodies to save lives, as pollution in this order,
  if not controlled, would destroy the basic health
  and ecology.
•  
• The Government is made to sit on judging the
  dichotomy of Industrial Growth vs Natures
  imbalance due pollution.
•  
• Industrial experts said that any hurdle on
  industrial growth would have destabilizing effect
  over the economy of the country.
•  
• Environmental experts said that polluting
  industries would have devastative effect on any
  living thing in the country.

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• Statutory obligations were cast upon the
  industries, which resulted in multiplicity of
  cases in various Courts, to the extent that the
  Government has formed separate Benches in the
  Supreme Court as well as in High Courts, called
  the Green Bench to dispose off the cases
  pertaining to Environment and Pollution.
•  
• The Supreme Court has, in many cases, decided
  thatRight to Life cannot be compromised for
  industrial development.
•  
• The year 2000 and 2001 had seen vibrant judicial
  activism, in disposing of cases pertaining to
  Environment and Pollution, specifically
  exhibiting the non-compromising nature, in any
  form whatsoever in the matter of providing
  sustainable drinking water.

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India being a developing country, advancing to
compete with the developed countries, let us put
all our efforts in eradicating Water Pollution as
it is one of the main components of life itself.
Any dereliction in your duty would warrant a set
back in the countrys manifest of achieving the
Directive Principles of State Policy, as
provision of potable water, a life-component is
entrusted in your hands and achievable too.  
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ABOVE ALL PROVIDING WATER TO A THIRSTY SOUL
IS GODLY