Press Release
Ensure “Right to Water”
along with “Right to Food”.
Water Security is
essential to ensuring Food Security
§ NPAWP
demanded water security alongwith Food security and claimed to ensure 70 lpcd (litres per capita daily) free of cost water
(10 Kilo-litres to every household in a
month) to all without discrimination; that is essential to live life with dignity
and to guarantee comprehensive food security program.
§
NPAWP
demanded to revive ‘Piao’ (Water kiosk)/ water standpost culture so people at
street can get free drinking water of high quality.
§
NPAWP
also demanded to cancel water privatization scheme and roll-back water projects
under PPP.
§
NPAWP
questioned Delhi Government on withdrawing the public friendly scheme ‘Life Line
Water’ benefit which was provided in 2004 and stopped in 2010
in
a non-transparent manner (under which 6 KL free of cost water was provided by
the government to every household per month in Delhi) .
§
NPAWP
is of the opinion that subsidized Food grains under Food Security has no
meaning without Water Security as no food can be cooked without water.
§
NPAWP
questioned about high rise in water prices in last decade due to which water
has become almost unaffordable to the common people in Delhi.
§
NPAWP
wrote a letter to Chief Minister Delhi demanding Water Security in Delhi.
In a
letter written to Chief Minister and Lt. Governor of Delhi; NPAWP showed its apprehensions
about the food security provisions of the National Food Security Ordinance 2013
which is extremely inadequate, insufficient and inappropriate and it is not the
real solution for ensuring food security to the millions of poor and hungry people
in the country.
NPAWP
demanded for ‘Right to Water’ along with ‘Right to Food’ programme that Delhi Government
is going to launch on 20th August.
Food and
Water are inextricably linked. Water is as important as food. Food security
addresses multiple priority areas. In order to achieve a sustainable and
comprehensive food and nutrition security, the Delhi Government must also
declare ‘Water Security’ along with food entitlements to all community without
any kind of discrimination on the basis of BPL or APL category citizens.
Delhi
Government is going to launch the ‘Food Security Scheme’
on August 20, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to
ensure a “hunger free Delhi”. But on the other hand, Government’s approach towards
water is quite disturbing. Delhi Government is privatizing city’s water supply
to allow corporate control over water through Public Private Partnership that
will lead and result into high water tariffs which would be unaffordable for
the common people, while the private corporations will earn huge profits. Mr.
S.A. Naqvi, National Coordinator of NPAWP claimed that the increase in water
tariffs in last decade was done to ensure profits to Corporate and private
companies.
Mr. Naqvi said that there are several instances which
indicate that private water projects in Delhi
are full of corruption and are not sustainable. It is clear that private
corporations have no ethical agenda to make water a ‘social good’, rather they
have develop markets to make huge profits out of water. We strongly believe
that food security can’t be achieved without ensuring water security for the people
and water security can’t be possible without de-privatizing the water utility
services.
The
United Nation General Assembly in 2010 recognizes human right to safe drinking
water and sanitation. Similarly the UN Human Right Council provides for ensuring
water security at the individual and community level. The Constitution of India
also has various provisions regarding ‘Right to life’ and ‘Right to health’ which
obviously include Right to water. The obligation of the State is to ensure the
creation and then sustain conditions congenial to good health, as enshrined in
our Constitution’s Directive Principles under Article 21, (Protection of Life
and Personal Liberty) of the Indian Constitution under the chapter Fundamental
Rights clearly state that “no person shall be deprived of his life or personal
liberty, except according to the procedure established by the law”. Article
25(1) guarantees that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate
for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food,
clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services…”. Part IV of Article 38, 39, (e), (F), 42, 47 and 48
provisions provides the right to health. It is clear that right to health
cannot be ensured without ensuring right to water.
Consequently Food and water are essential elements that all
human being must have easy access to fulfill their dietary needs and for an
active healthy life. Government must assure water security along with food
security to the citizens of Delhi.
Hence we request and demand the following:
1. Water
is essential for life. Delhi must ensure
provisioning of lifeline water to all its citizens:
The NPAWP demands that
the Government of NCT of Delhi must provide a minimum quantity of 70 Liters per capita daily (LPCD) drinking water free of cost to each
in a family in Delhi to ensure the water security along with food security
scheme. This will be approximately 10 Kilolitres (Kl) of water to every
household every month and this must be declared as “life line water” for the
consumption of drinking, cooking, personal and domestic hygienic requirements
without any discrimination of rich or poor.
2. Revive Piaos (Water
kiosk), install public stand posts for poor and passer bys at required places:
In almost every religion, providing water to thirsty
people is considered as most pious and religious duty. The NPAWP demands that the Government of NCT of Delhi must reinstate the traditional facility of
Water Kiosks (piaos) or public stand posts in different parts of Delhi at convenient locations. The water Kiosks
will be meant for poor in the slums, at juggi jhopries, as well as for passerby
on the roads to ensure availability of free of charge safe drinking water to
the floating population of Delhi
as well as to those who cannot afford to pay for water.
3. Stop Privatization and
Comodification of water supply in Delhi:
Water is life and
an essential element to food security in order to have good health and good
nutrition! Malnutrition is caused by hunger, poor food quality and unsafe
water. Water is an inalienable human right and a public trust. Therefore Water
is our most precious common resource and is essential for all living beings.
NPAWP strongly believes that water is not a
commodity and must not be left to the whims of the market because no person or
entity has the right to profit from it. Water must not, therefore, be
commodified, privatized, traded or exported for commercial gains. Access to
safe and sufficient drinking water must be available and affordable for every
citizen. National and state governments both are responsible to ensure water
services are delivered to all.
We all believe that
local communities are ‘natural protectors and sustainable users’ of water; not
its ‘customers’. Our collective concern is that “Water is a public good and it
should remain in public hands. No attempt to control over water should be
exercised applied through public private partnership (PPP) in drinking water
supply and its distribution”. The privatization or commodification of water is
against the spirit of a welfare state, as enshrined in our Constitution.
Privatization of water leads to corruption, which in turn increases the
financial burden of our citizens. World over, the model of Water Privatisation
has miserably failed and now there is a trend of reversing privatization and
re-municipalization of water to regain public control in countries such as France;
UK; Germany; Canada; Hungary; Finland; Tanzania; Malaysia;
Hamilton, Dar-es-Salaam etc. and
continued strong resistance to water privatization notably in Italy; Portugal;
Greece, Spain, Brazil etc.
It is our humble request
to stop the process of Privatisation of Water in Delhi to ensure an honest approach for the realization of
comprehensive Food Security to the citizens of Delhi.
In view of the above,
the NPAWP strongly reiterates its demands and appeal:
Hence that It is the moral
obligation of the Government of Delhi to provide water security to the people
of Delhi without any discrimination
along with ensuring food security, so that the Father of the nation, Mahatma
Gandhi’s dream of “Hind Swaraj” and a “hunger and thirst-free India”
can be a reality very soon. It is also requested kindly Roll-out the
privatization of water supply; Set up
water kiosk (Piaos), water standpost network to ensure the right to water of
the community.
Feel free to contact
S.A. Naqvi: (National Coordinator of NPAWP)
Sanjay Sharma: (National Advisor)
