March 30, 2002

    The 5^th meeting of National Water Resources Council (NWRC) is being held on 1^st April, 2002. The Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee is the Chairman and the Union Minister for Water Resources, Shri Arjun Charan Sethi is the Vice-Chairman of the NWRC. The Chief Ministers of all States and Heads of Water Resources is the member-secretary. They are expected to attend the said meeting. The NWRC is an apex body to evolve national policies for development and management of water resources keeping in view the national perspectives as well as State and regional needs.

    The National Agenda for Governance of the Government provides for adoption of a National Water Policy for effective and prompt settlement of disputes and time bound implementation of the projects.

    The National Water Policy was adopted by the NWRC in September 1987, for the first time. The Policy needed to be reviewed and updated in view of a number of issues/emerging challenges experienced during its implementation during last 14 years. Some of the important areas, which needed to be incorporated in the existing National Water Policy The draft (revised) Policy lays emphasis on integration of quantity, quality and environmental aspects in the water resources management and proper resettlement and rehabilitation of project affected persons.

    The Draft (revised) National Water Policy was deliberated upon the 4^th Meeting of NWRC held on 7^th July, 2000. The members of the Council were in agreement on most of the provisions of the draft National Water Policy. However, there were differences on the provisions regarding ‘Setting up of River Basin Organisations’ and ‘Water Allocation amongst the States’ besides few other provisions. The Council, therefore, set up a Working Group of Irrigation/Water Resources Ministers of all the States and Union Territories under the chairmanship of the Union Minister of Water Resources to obtain a consensus on the same. Certain modifications in the draft of the Policy have been made to arrive at a near consensus.

    The Working Group has recommended to the NWRC for adoption of updated (revised) National Water Policy.