In news:
In order to meet the above demands, Committee on Restructuring the Central Water Commission and the Central Ground Water Board (chaired by Mihir Shah) was constituted.
Mihir Shah Committee has called for a user-centric approach to water management, especially in agriculture.
User-centric approach
- Mihir Shah Committee advocates decentralisation of irrigation commands, offering higher financial flows to well-performing States through a National Irrigation Management Fund.
- It also calls for awarding an index rank, which would help States feel the need to be competitive. It will also foster “competitive and cooperative federalism”.
- The Committee suggests for robust data collection to understand groundwater extraction patterns, as less than 5% of about 12 million wells are now under study.
- The Committee highlights that the growing pace of urbanization calls for a new management paradigm, augmenting sources of clean drinking water supply and treatment technologies that will encourage reuse. Pollution can be curbed by levying suitable costs.
Way forward:
Therefore, all these forward-looking changes would need revamped national and State institutions, and updated laws. A legal mandate will work better than just competition and cooperation; it would make governments accountable.
Wisdom IAS 