Place of Social, Cultural, and Ecological Water Values for Promoting Water Security in Delhi, India
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1. Introduction
However, water values are seldom discussed in academic publications on Delhi, which predominantly promote technical and engineering solutions to water security. Similarly, development plans and water policies do not entertain explicit discussions on water values. The field of water values thus remains largely unexplored. This paper, therefore, attempts to fill this gap by focusing on water values in their variegated forms.
This paper is based on a critical review of the literature and primary data collected through field observations, household surveys, and stakeholder interviews, including of residents, Former Commissioner, DDA, Former Chief Town Planner, Town and Country Planning Organization (TCPO), Executive Engineer, and DJB from 2021–2023. The secondary data sources include the Inter-States Water Sharing Agreement, 1994, Delhi Jal Board Act, 1998, Draft Water Policy for Delhi, 2016, Draft Master Plan for Delhi, 2041, and many more. These sources were examined to identify the underlying water values driving the water management policies and plans in Delhi.
2. Diversity of Water Values: A Critical Exposition
In our view, values are guiding cognitive principles and are influential in making choices from a given set of alternatives to achieve goals. For example, some fundamental values include honesty, trust, respect for others, responsibility, cooperation, perseverance, integrity, and many more. Such values are held by individuals, communities, and institutions. Therefore, decisions on water use and abuse would depend on our predominate values in each context.
2.1. Social Values of Water
In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly approved the Right to Safe and Clean Drinking Water and Sanitation as a basic human right. The recognition of water as a human right can be considered as a social water value, since it applies to every human equally and is aimed at improving the general health and well-being of humanity and ecology. The social values of water imply those water values which underpin social needs (well-being) and are often held by communities. The water values that can be highlighted are accommodation (to fulfill needs), human dignity, equality, equity, respect for diversity, inclusivity, and human rights.
2.2. Cultural Values of Water
2.3. Ecological Values of Water
2.4. Economic Values of Water
3. Dominance of the Economic Values Globally
Neo-Liberal Water Values in India and Delhi
It was not always like this. For example, all guests entering a household in India were welcomed by offering them a glass of water, a sign of welcome and care. Water used to have a social value. Those without money may not have access to clean drinking water. The focus of service providers in the case of water management is to recover infrastructural costs and managerial costs.
The important issue is that, even after infusing the technical–managerial expertise of private players and the consideration of economic values in water management, people are still facing water insecurity all over the world. This raises questions about the values adopted by decision makers in managing water. We assert that viewing water security through the lens of a diversity of water values, including economic values, provides better comprehension of urban water security.
4. Water Values in the NCT of Delhi
4.1. Sustainability and Precarity
“Recently what happened in 2019, DJB went to the Supreme Court of India regarding the amount of water that is required to serve Delhi. This water is required from Haryana. The SC told them to go to the Tribunal. They didn’t go. Now, when the politics changed, Haryana stopped supplies. So, the level of River Yamuna comes to 69 feet from 674 feet. When the case again reaches SC, they scold Delhi government for why they didn’t go to the Tribunal. Now Haryana has BJP government and Delhi has AAP. Both the parties don’t allow interfering in each other’s matters. People from Delhi were asking for help from officials, but we told them that the case is now in the hands of the Irrigation Minister of Haryana. Only when he allows, they can give water. In October, they shut the canal for the sake of cleaning it. We don’t have our water.”
The legalism and formal signing of the MoU may have paved the way for making water available relatively easily to Delhi residents. However, the value of precarity, not sustainability, is the hallmark of these water supply arrangements, because, at any moment, the neighboring state could pull the plug.
4.2. Efficiency and Effectiveness
However, there are no concrete commitments for the existing developed areas suffering from poor water management. As the population increases, the demand supply gap will also rise in future. Precarity stares in the face of Delhi’s residents if 90 percent of water continues to come from neighboring states. Further, ‘over-exploited’ and sub-standard quality of groundwater sources and negligible reuse of wastewater after treatment only exacerbate the challenge of water insecurity.
Further, it is a mandatory provision to install rainwater-harvesting systems on plots measuring 100 sq m and above in Delhi. First, it helps in groundwater recharge, and second, in the use of stored rainwater for non-potable uses, such as gardening, washing cars, and others. However, the full potential of Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) remains untapped, because these systems are yet to be installed in many buildings (Chief Town Planner, TCPO, Personal Communication, 2 July 2022). According to the DJB, people’s co-operation is crucial to make this initiative successful. Hence, the DJB organizes circle- and division-level workshops and awareness programs on water conservation and RWH (Executive Engineer, DJB, Personal Communication, 31 August 2021). This has been being conducted to make the public understand the ecological values of water.
A high dependency on procuring raw water from neighboring states, declining groundwater levels, dying waterbodies, and the highly polluted River Yamuna show that the values embodied in water security do not promote values such as inter-state water equity, intra-state self-sufficiency, and sustainability, etc. On the contrary, Delhi is fast approaching the value of precarity, presenting deep water insecurity in the future.
4.3. Exclusion, Inequality, and Inequity
The value of inequity is also promoted by the DJB by supplying water to informal areas through tankers. A tanker system is a water service for informal settlements, where water is supplied through private-sector- and DJB-owned tankers. It is a low-grade and unfair service, because water could be polluted in the process of transportation from DJB’s water reservoirs to households and community collection points. It is also an unfair service because the entire control remains in the hands of tanker drivers, who generally prefer certain households over others due to rent-seeking tendencies.
4.4. Inequity and Inequality of Time and Space
Third, most middle-class and low-income households connected with the DJB’s piped network receive water only for 2–4 h during the entire day, with uncomfortable timings from 4 am to 6 am, when most people are asleep. Since women are responsible for fetching and storing water, they are facing the most inconveniences (a survey conducted on 18 July 2022).
4.5. Purity and Religiosity: Distressed Conditions of the River Yamuna
5. Discussion
This study shows that diverse water values form part of public discourse. Although economic values continue to dominate water policies at the national and state level under the hegemonic neo-liberal global regime, social and cultural values are largely sidelined. Economic values have dominated public narratives and policies. It is, however, disappointing to note that the values of efficiency and effectiveness have not been successfully actualized. A rising percentage of non-revenue water, an increasing demand–supply gap, and small usage of treated wastewater are stellar examples of inefficiency.
This paper identifies a diverse set of values, including social, cultural, ecological, and economic values. The evidence presented in this paper suggests that economic values continue to predominate water policies, schemes, and development plans under the influential economic system of neo-liberalism. We have also shown that socio-cultural values such as purity and religiosity adversely influence the quality of water in the River Yamuna. However, the government is steadfast in reducing impurities and pollution in the River Yamuna.
Ecological values treat water bodies, including the river, as living organisms who have human rights. Policies and plans allude to ecological values, but do not make explicit references. Consequently, we see disappearing water bodies such as lakes and ponds. The River Yamuna is becoming a storehouse for liquid and solid waste. Reduced numbers of water bodies and the highly polluted river show the duplicity of the value of purity. Policymakers and society want to see regenerated water bodies and a clean river, but only a few actions are effectively taken to achieve these goals.
Sustainability is an important part of ecological values. However, it is strange to see in Delhi that the important value of sustainability is not even held in high regard, as most policies and actions go against this value. A high dependency on raw water from neighboring states, negligible use of wastewater, high pollution of the River Yamuna, fast-disappearing waterbodies, and equally speedily reducing groundwater levels are some of the important factors working against the value of sustainability.
6. Conclusions
This paper identified four sets of values under the broad categories of social, cultural, ecological, and economic values. It appears that these categories of values are enfolded into one another. Non-market values such as socio-cultural values and ecological values are as important as market values. Specifically, values such as equity, equality, purity, religiosity, and sustainability complement the market values of efficiency and effectiveness. For example, fair distribution of water underpinned by the values of equity and equality helps citizens to engage efficiently in productive activities. Likewise, the value of purity, if implemented successfully, has the potential to reduce investments into treating polluted water, thus also complementing the value of sustainability.
Relatively better water policies and plans could be formulated if these are based on a diverse set of values. The analysis in this paper clearly shows that sustainability and precarity have an inverse relationship, while efficiency, sustainability, equality, and equity have a positive co-relation. Decisions made on the basis of a multiplicity of values would be more relatively just than decisions made solely on the basis of economic values.
This is an era of making credible commitments to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). India, along with other nations, has made a commitment to the SDGs. However, the appropriate recognition of social, cultural, and ecological values remains to be made part of the decision-making processes in economically and demographically urban areas. Discussions of such values in the public sphere and their partial achievement are not sufficient for formulating rounded water policies and plans. For example, all four sets of values are being discussed and contested in the public sphere, but they are yet to be made an integral part of water policies and plans. Water policies and plans continue to be dominated by economic values; non-market values are sitting outside and waiting for inclusion in policy arenas.
Delhi’s huge demand–supply gap, unequal spatial distribution, and 40 per cent non-revenue water have forced people to rely on illegal bores and tankers, which has led to the over-exploitation of groundwater, highlighting inequality, inefficiency, inequity, and ignorance about human dignity. Religiosity has been an important factor in decision making, but the purity of the river has been compromised. Eventually, not all values are given fair importance, leading to a lack of integrity and peacefulness in water management in Delhi. Even values like efficiency, which is given due importance in water statutes and policies, are not fiercely implemented.
Further, exclusions are promoted through the predominant water values of formality in the case of Delhi. Accordingly, high priority is given to formal settlements built conforming to planning laws and norms. Another commanding water value that affects the health of water bodies, including the River Yamuna and various lakes and ponds, is the value of religiosity. Like efficiency, the values of purity and religiosity are claimed to be prioritized, without implementation on the ground. We did not find any evidence of water policies and provisioning being greatly affected by religion and cultural beliefs. Although engineers dominate the workings of the DJB, efficiency, which is presumed to be the predominant value, is largely ignored in practice.
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