A seminar was held today to discuss the recent Draft of the National Water Policy proposed by the Ministry of Water Resources, Govt. of India on 31^st January.

The seminar was a joint effort, organized by Water Conservation Committee and Mohan Singh Mehta Memorial Trust at Vidhya Bhawan, today evening.

There was a comprehensive discussion on more than 15 points mentioned in the draft that includes recycling of water, pricing and local availability of water.

According to Nandkishore Sharma, Secretary of the Trust, “They (government) have considered water as a national property, which is good. The policy has many favorable points, but some disagreeable points too”

More than 20 people including the farmers from Udai Sagar locality, volunteers and the team members of Lake Conservation committee including Dr. Tej Rajdhan, Anil Mehta, Dr. L.L Sharma, Tej Shankar Paliwal, Ismail Ali Durga and O.P Mathur came together and conversed on the policy.

The policy points that, ‘Water should be considered as a resource with monetary value; so it should be used with wit and with an attitude to conserve it’. But the question stands that, how our water resources in local, rural and remote would be handled, there exists no strategy to explain this. So the policy should clearly mention all these factors and respective solutions” said Anil Mehta, Principal, Vidhyabhawan Polytechnic College.

Prof. Jagat Mehta, Former Foreign Secretary, Govt. of India said, “Beauty of our city depends on our lakes and citizens are responsible for keeping the lakes clean. The need of water will always grow and will never diminish; it is for us to decide how to use water efficiently and effectively”

“The localization and decentralization of control of water bodies is the only positive approach to handle them as a useful resource”, said Ismail Ali Durga.

HV Paliwal also added his concern and commented, “Government should not act like the owner of the water bodies, instead they should be the trustee for these properties”

Talking about the argument that mentions recycling of water, Nandkishore Sharma added, “While recycling the water, it should be made clear to industries that they do not dispose their waste in water”.