 "Kiran Maheshwari")
About 90 per cent of Rajasthan's population depends on groundwater for its drinking needs. Over-extraction of water, coupled with scanty rains, has forced the state administration to declare drought in 19 districts spanning 15,000 villages. State Public Health Engineering Department Minister Kiran Maheshwari, in charge of water supply, tells Sahil Makkar how the state is coping with the crisis.
How serious is the problem of drinking water in the state?
The problem is quite serious. The situation is challenging because of scarcity of water, low rainfall and lowering of groundwater level. The availability of surface water in Rajasthan is only 1.1 per cent and that of groundwater 1.71 per cent of the total surface and groundwater available in the country. We are facing three problems. First, we don't have enough water and second, its quality is poor. At least 88 per cent of India's villages, which have saline water, are in Rajasthan. Similarly, 54 per cent of villages with fluoride in the water are in our state. Third, the transportation cost is huge because Rajasthan occupies 10.2 per cent of India's total geographical area. Laying pipelines is a costly affair because of the rocky and desert topography.
How are you meeting the shortage?
This is a big challenge for us. Till 2014, we used to provide one hand pump for every 250 people. But when we took over, we changed it to one hand pump for every 100 people, to bring the source of water closer to the households. Currently, 650,000 hand pumps have been provided by the Public Health Engineering Department and an equal number of hand pumps provided by the Panchayati Raj Department (Rajasthan's population is 68 million, according to the 2011 Census).
But there are reports that most of the hand pumps are defunct and repairs take a lot of time....
Earlier, the repair work was undertaken for four months in a year; now, it is done throughout the year. At present, all the hand pumps are functional and we attend to any complaint within seven days. All complaints are put up online and we repair a hand pump within seven days, except in cases where the water has completely dried up. For a population of 1,500 to 4,000 we have a pump (tube well) and tank scheme. We draw water through tube wells, which are 600 to 800 feet deep, and supply it to an overhead tank. The inhabitants are supplied water through pipes. There are only 401 villages with a population of 4,000 that are yet to be connected by this pump and tank scheme. We have sent a proposal of Rs 1,000 crore to the Centre to connect these villages via a pipeline. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that every household should get water from pipelines.
The source of your scheme is groundwater, which is depleting fast. It is estimated that 40 per cent more water is being extracted annually from the ground. What is the point of connecting more villages to the scheme when the existing ones are facing a huge water shortage?
In Rajasthan, around 90 to 92 per cent of the water schemes are dependent on groundwater. To ensure that we have enough groundwater for the sustenance of these schemes, we have launched the Mukhyamantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan to recharge wells and bawaris. Through this campaign we will conserve rainwater in villages and towns. This year we have selected 3,529 villages for the campaign and we plan to cover half the villages in the state in the next three years.
But charging of wells or water bodies depends on rain, which was less last year....
The average rainfall in Rajasthan is half the national average. There is no denying that there is water scarcity in the state because of low rainfall. As we have to manage with the available groundwater, we are not giving fresh permission for new tube wells. At the same time we are connecting more villages with surface water (through canals, rivers, dam, etc). For instance, Bhilwara, one of the worst affected districts, is being connected to the Chambal River. By 2018, we will connect 15 million more people to surface water. (Currently, 10 million people are connected to surface water.) We have also decided to form a surface water grid, for which a detailed project report is being prepared. We have formed a river basin authority for the interlinking of rivers flowing through the state. At present, we have 67 ongoing projects at a total cost of Rs 28,000 crore.
Were these projects started by your government?
There were some schemes pending from our government from 2003 to 2008. Some were started by the previous Congress government (2008-2013), but it had approved the schemes without sanctioning the budget for them. We faced problems when we took over this time, but we did not do politics over it. Our chief minister (Vasundhara Raje) didn't cancel any of the schemes started by the Congress government. She gave us the budget, with a target of completing 12 schemes each year. We have completed 24 schemes in the last two years. Our government started seven major projects worth Rs 7,500 crore.
Do you have an adequate budget to run these schemes?
We have a limited budget of Rs 5,500 crore for our schemes and we are allowed to borrow an equal amount from external sources. We are borrowing from the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the World Bank. We have demanded a special package of around Rs 6,000 crore from the Union government to connect more people to surface water. We are also planning some projects under public-private partnership model.
Recently, the Rajasthan High Court remarked on shifting Indian Premier League matches to the state from Maharashtra, which is facing drought in several districts. Is the situation any different in Rajasthan?
I don't see a problem here. We are not giving extra water for the lawns inside the stadium. The lawns are already being watered for local matches in the stadium. In Jaipur we are already meeting the required water demand of 135 litres per person in urban areas and 40 litres in rural areas. There has been no change in the way people are using water for washing cars or swimming pools. Every resident should contribute in saving water. In the future, water will become a big problem.
