IWRM in Orissa: People's own agenda.

“Believe us, we are best managers of our water resources”

A large number of Farmers conveyed an agenda to the Government of Odisha in India in a public consultation titled “Integrated Water Resources Management in Odisha: A People's Charter.”

SAMBALPUR, 22 Dec 10 -- Farmers in Odisha, India proposed a water management and governance system of water resources by the people themselves instead of the one being pushed by the government of Odisha under a technical assistance (TA) from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

In a day-long public consultation organized by Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO), said TA report titled “Institutional Development of Integrated Water Resources Management in Orissa: India” was put on the table for a thorough discussion and dissection.  After discussing the TA the farmers, who attended from remote and far off villages and also from command areas of irrigation projects along with academicians, researchers and civil society organization representatives, rejected   the ADB’s proposed Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) plan for Odisha.  

“We, the people of the state, are capable of designing and implementing our own IWRM and we propose to do this through our own structure like ‘River Parliaments’ for each river basin and a state level ‘Water Parliament’ for the overall management of water resources of the state,” voiced the participants.  

The participants urged upon the governments of Odisha and India not to consider industries as a stakeholder in water plans and decision making.  They further emphasized that water is an ecological resource and is a fundamental right of the people of the state.  No external agency but the people of the state should be its owners. This can be ensured through formation and strengthening of River Parliaments, which resolved at the end of the consultation.

“At a point of time, when more and more farmers are resorting to committing suicides owing to farm distressed fuelled by water shortage and climate change, the proposed IWRM plan will bring further disasters to the farming community as the plan proposes cost recovery mechanism as the only solution to water management and favors corporate control over water resources,” said Ranjan Panda, convener of WIO, who coordinated the organizing of this consultation. 

All the speakers emphasized on guaranteed right for the people of the state over its water resources. The TA has been strongly rejected on the basis of lack of public consultation organized by the government on this important aspect of life.  

“Neither people of the state nor the active farmers’ organizations have been consulted.  The report, which will impact the farmers the most, has only narrated concerns of the industries and corporate,” argued Mr Lingaraj, Convener, Paschim Odisha Krushak Samanwaya Samiti (a coordination organization of farmers’ organizations of the state). 

“This is clear cut evidence that the plan is to smoothen the path of unsustainable and blind industrialization the state is now carrying out at cost of its own people and environment,” vented Lingaraj. 

IWRM is a concept that the world has learnt from the age-old practice in India and others. The concept of IWRM is good but the plan that is being pushed by the ADB in Odisha is actually biased towards industries and if implemented it will ensure corporate control of water resources of the state. 

“For a proper IWRM plan you need to have complete and up-to-date data on the quality and quantity of water in the state for current as well as future year scenarios.  However, the plan that the TA is prescribing is based on incorrect and insufficient data.  This is not acceptable,” said Panda.

“Water is not government’s property as it has not created it.  People of the state are traditionally the users, preservers and therefore the owners of it. The current system of decision making by the government on water management is influenced by corporate interest and will lead to privatization of water.  We don’t need external agencies to prescribe on water management.  People of the state are capable enough to plan our own IWRM where the government and other technical agencies can at best play assisting role. The government should stop playing a facilitator role for industries and should stop behaving as owner of water.  It’s only the watch group of it,” said Saroj, Researcher and farmer activist.

Majority believed that this plan of the ADB will strengthen the privatization drive of water resources in the country that has begun at the behest of the World Bank in 2001-2002 through its ‘water consolidation project’.
   
In place of River Basin Organizations that is being proposed by the ADB , the public consultation resolved to urge upon the government to form River Parliaments where people of the state will be the only stakeholders.   

“In no circumstances industries should be considered a stakeholder in the management plans.  They are the predators as they not only extract water in unsustainable manner but also pollute it to irreparable extent,” discussed the participants.   

The consultation resolved to take the debate to the villages and make people aware about these dangerous plans of privatizing our water resources by the ADB and the government.  The participants urged upon Water Initiatives Odisha to organize public consultations in each district of the state and push for participatory water management.   A people’s agenda on IWRM was prepared that will be sent to government of Odisha as well as will be discussed at various forums for garnering further support for the recommendations made.



Source: http://www.forum-adb.org/inner.php?sec=4&id=200&b=1