WIO Update on Surface Water Bodies of
Odisha – 12th October 2012
Water Initiatives
Odisha welcomes the High Court judgement asking Government of Odisha to
formulate a law to protect Water Bodies
As we come
to know from media reports, the Honourable High Court of Odisha have directed
the govt. of Odisha to formulate a law to protect water bodies of the state
within two years. WIO welcomes this
judgement and thanks the Honourable Court for this.
On January
28, 2011 the honourable Supreme Court of India, in a historic judgement, had
directed all the State Governments of the country to prepare schemes for
eviction of illegal/unauthorized occupants of Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat/
Poramboke/ Shamlat land saying these must be restored to the Gram Sabha/Gram
Panchayat for the common use of villagers of the village. WIO had then urged upon the Govt. of Odisha
to see to the issues raised by this judgment and take appropriate action to
free all water bodies of the state from all sorts of encroachments and ensure
their protection and revival from the destructive forces including pollution
from industries and urbanization.
As of now we
don’t know what steps the state government has taken in that regard. What we can see from ground realities is that
more and more water bodies are being encroached by the rich and powerful both
in urban and rural areas. Now, after the
High Court judgement, the government must immediately step into action and free
all water bodies of the state from encroachment.
Surface
water bodies play a major role in retaining rain water and recharging the local
ecology. They are also a major
livelihood support system for many poor farmers and communities depending on
fishery. WIO therefore urges upon the
government to immediately declare a Plan of Action to free all water bodies of
state from all forms of encroachment.
Freeing
water bodies from encroachments would also lead to some discontent among local
people and some people might have to be displaced. The government must sensitively look into such
issues and where it involves displacement of poor people the government should
talk to them in a cohesive manner and provide appropriate rehabilitation.
However,
where the water bodies are encroached by the rich and powerful such as estate
developments and private builders they should be heavily fined and directed to
restore the water bodies with their own funds.
Odisha is already a water stressed state and we can no more neglect
water bodies, WIO urges.
WIO has been
urging upon the state government to formulate a Policy on Water Bodies. Time the government starts discussing with
people and experts on this and builds a strong Policy to protect, preserve and
rejuvenate all water bodies of the state.
The state must ensure that not a single water body dies of encroachment,
industrialization, pollution and urbanisation, WIO demands.
For
further information, please contact:
Ranjan
Panda
Convenor
Water
Initiatives Odisha, India: Fighting water woes, combating climate change... more than two decades now!
Lead, Water Core
Group, NGO Forum on ADB, Manila
You can also
mail me at: ranjan.waterman@facebook.com
Skype: ranjan.climatecrusader
Please join our
group 'Save Rivers Save Civilizations' at http://www.facebook.com/groups/220598744649462
Water talks to
me, I speak for Water...
Water
Initiatives Odisha (WIO) is a state level coalition of civil society
organisations, farmers, academia, media and other concerned, which has been
working on water, environment and climate change issues in the state for more
than two decades now.
It is a very good news. All the civil society organizations and social activists should pressurise the government to implement the supreme court order. By ordinance the common properties need to be properly demarcated and encroachers should be kept behind bars.
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