New Delhi, Aug 10 (Inditop.com) Amid prospects of a severe drought, the central government has told the Supreme Court that it has launched a “WAR for water” as per the court’s direction “to address the problem of water scarcity through scientific research on war footing”.
“For achieving the objectives (of ridding the country of the problem of water shortage), a Technology Mission: Winning, Augmentation and Renovation for Water (WAR for Water) has been formulated,” the government said in its affidavit to the apex court about its compliance with the court’s April 28 order.
“The Supreme Court on April 28 this year had passed a detailed order whereby the central government was directed to form a technical expert committee under the chairmanship of the secretary, ministry of science and technology for scientific research on the problem of the water shortage in the country,” the affidavit recalled.
“Accordingly, in pursuance of that order, the central government has constituted on June 29 a technical expert committee. The committee is going to have its first meeting Aug 25,” the government told the court in its affidavit.
Moved by the plight of “exhausted housewives waiting in serpentine queues for hours to fill their water pitchers”, the Supreme Court had April 28 taken a step to solve the country’s water problem and had ordered the government to form a panel of scientists to undertake research to tackle the problem.
A bench of Justice Markandey Katju and Justice H.L. Dattu had ordered the government to form the scientists’ panel within two months and provide it “all the financial, technical and administrative help” to do its job.
“We direct the central government to forthwith constitute a committee to address the problem of water scarcity through scientific research on war footing for solving the water shortage in most parts of our country, because of which our people are suffering terribly,” the bench had said.
The court added that “without water here can be no life and our constitution guarantees the right to life to all persons living in India”.
The order had come on a public interest lawsuit by advocate M.K. Balakrishnan.
The court said the scientists’ panel would be headed by the secretary of the ministry for science and technology with the secretary of the water resources ministry being one of its members along with various scientists to be chosen by the chairman of the committee.
“The members of the committee should regard this work as a patriotic duty and the people of the entire country, including expatriate Indians, should help this committee,” the bench had said in an unusual exhortation.
Exhorting the committee “to begin its work on war footing”, the apex court had also set the line of likely research to be taken by it.
The court first wanted the panel to device an economical scientific method to convert saline water into fresh water.
It said that India is surrounded by seas and oceans on its three sides, and therefore has an infinite reserve of saline water, which however cannot be converted economically into fresh water as the present methods of distillation and reverse osmosis are expensive.
Following the apex court’s direction, the government formed a 23-member panel headed by T. Ramasami, secretary, Department of Science and Technology.
The other members of the panel include Water Resources Ministry secretary U.N. Panjiar, Ministry of Earth Sciences secretary Shailesh Naik, Central Water Commission chairman A.K. Bajaj and other high-ranking bureaucrats and scientists.
The court is to hear the matter Tuesday.
