‘Drinking water should be fundamental right’

Iyer said the constitutional amendment would serve to spread awareness about how water ought to be considered a fundamental right. “At present,in India water is considered a right only through judicial interpretation. But in some other countries,it is part of their constitution. In South Africa,there is a National Water Policy and it is explicitly stated in their constitution. In the European Union,they have stated that it is part of their heritage that needs to be preserved,” Iyer said.

He said water was being looked only as an economic commodity. “Internationally,there has been a push recently to treat water as a tradable commodity,” he said,adding,there was a need to consider other aspects of ecology,livelihood as well.

Citing an example,he said that under the Interstate Water Disputes Act,there was provision for allocation of water where only governments were the stakeholders. There was no system in which displaced people or those raising environment concerns could be heard before the tribunal. While the Narmada water tribunal had made an exception and taken into consideration the displaced people,they could not be heard before the tribunal,he said.

The overarching theme of the workshop held on Monday and Tuesday is to integrate concerns of livelihood and environment when discussing water and the legal interventions that can be set up for water conflicts,said K R Joy,representative of SOPPECOM,that is organising the workshop.

In his presentation later,Joy said that after observing water conflicts across the country,it could be said that ecology and the poor are most affected.