Recently during the inauguration of a government office building in Kohima, the Chief Minister of Nagaland mentioned about framing a water policy for the State. In this regard, the Chief Minister has asked the State’s department of Irrigation & Flood Control to give special attention to tap all available water resources so that water will not go short. While framing such a policy is welcome, the question is which department will take such an initiative. The problem with Nagaland’s government machinery is that we have similar departments existing and there is overlapping of works. If we speak of water, there are more than one department. We have Irrigation and Flood Control, Soil & Water Conservation Department, Public Health Engineering Department (PHED). It would have been therefore much better to have some sort of restructuring of the departments so the entire aspect of water resources can be looked after separately. Secondly, policy initiative will have to come from the current crop of officers manning some of the development oriented departments. Although it is another matter as to whether they are capable enough to come up with the necessary solution.
Nevertheless as mentioned, the importance of having a separate water policy must be pursued to its logical conclusion. As the CM revealed, there has been no proposal put up by the State to the Central Ministry. This also shows that our officers and the concerned department/s are not in touch with the latest happening. Along with this lethargy, confusion reigns on who should be doing what. Because there is no clear demarcation of work, accountability cannot be fixed. This will require the CM to take a re-look at the functioning of departments and if needed, restructuring wherever possible should be undertaken so that there is less ambiguity and greater focus in undertaking development. As for the merit of framing a water policy, Nagaland is endowed with a rich and vast diversity of natural resources, water being one of them. And as any student of geography or agriculture will know, development and management of water resource plays a vital role in agriculture production. If we have to move from subsistence to a market economy, the availability or non-availability of water will determine the output of our produce. Until now farmers depend on the monsoon rains. But this is just not enough to reach the level of production that we desire to go beyond our present subsistence economy.
As rightly pointed out by the CM during the monsoon season there is huge availability of water in Nagaland but in winter there is acute scarcity of water for cultivation purpose. The concerned department/s must therefore plan appropriate programmes for conservation of water and ensure that all available water resource is tapped. Our State has a long dry season and during this time if we keep our lands empty, we will not have enough to eat and thereby making our economy more dependent on outside import at huge cost. Now is the right time to save and harvest the large quantity of water available through rain, streams and rivers. The question is whether the concerned department/s has put their strategy in place to do the needful. It is very doubtful. It is time to fix accountability. It is about time to get to work. It is time to wake up from our complacency. And as the CM himself has stated it is high time that the State frames a policy on water.
