Team Herald
Panjim: Six years after it failed to implement the State Water Policy 2015, drafted to alleviate water shortage issues in Goa, the Government is set to revise the policy to make it adaptable to the current scenario.
A committee under retired Central service officer Chetan Pandit has been constituted to revise the State Water Policy by taking note of the draft State Water Policy 2015.
The policy has to be revised taking into consideration the suggestions and received from the public and other stakeholders that are already in the possession of the Water Resources Department.
The six-member Committee has to finalize the revised draft policy within four months.
The other members of the committee includes Ashwini Pai Panandiker, of The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), Manoj M. Ibrampurkar, Assistant Professor, Department of Geology, Dhempe College of Arts & Science, environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar, Dr. Suresh Kunkalikar, Principal, Don Bosco College of Agriculture and R R Yaragatti, Additional Chief Engineer, WRD.
In line with the National Policy 2012, the State government had in 2015 drafted the Water Policy for Goa with focus on various aspects of protection, development and regulation of the water resources.
Accordingly to the policy document, which remained on paper, Goa has one of the lowest per capita freshwater availability.
It had also claimed that Goa may be one of the States to be hydrologically land locked. The cropping pattern, land use, hydrological conditions and environmental needs of the State of Goa are distinctly different from that of the country as a whole thus creating the need for a State Water Policy.
The policy, which recommended setting up a Water Board, mentioned that the availability of water is limited, but the demand of water increases rapidly due to growing population, rapid urbanization, rapid industrialization and economic development.
