Policies and Laws - Drinking Water

Faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth – An approach to the twelfth five year plan – Draft report by Planning Commission

This draft report by the Planning Commission, which presents an approach to the twelfth five year plan among other things outlines some of the challenges related to agriculture, natural resources management and water resources management. The concerns related to water resources management discussed at length in the report have been summarized below -

Guidelines for drinking water quality - Fourth edition by World Health Organisation (2011)

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has come up with the fourth edition of “Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality”, which integrates the third edition, which was published in 2004, with both the first addendum to the third edition, published in 2006, and the second addendum to the third edition, published in 2008. It supersedes previous editions of the Guidelines and previous International Standards. 

This edition of the Guidelines further develops concepts, approaches and information introduced in previous editions, including the comprehensive preventive risk management approach for ensuring drinking-water quality.

Women at the center of climate friendly approaches to agriculture and water use - A report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

This report by Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy identifies three principles and two sets of policy-level interventions necessary to enhance water and food security for marginalised communities by drawing on the experiences of the Tamilnadu Women’s Collective (WC), a state-level federation of women’s groups from 1,500 villages, in the context where communities all around the world are struggling to find ways to cope with changes affecting food and water security because of the phenomenon of climate change.

The report argues that many a times, new food and water security policies at the national and international level tend to be narrow, look at each of these issues in isolation and  undermine food and water security strategies adopted by individuals and households from marginal groups. Adaptation strategies to address food security focus almost exclusively on increasing agricultural production, while ignoring health and cultural aspects of the food being produced, and the role of agriculture as a means for rural viability.

Environment Policy - Department of Environment, Government of Kerala (2007)

This policy document by the Department of Environment, Government of Kerala highlights the need for conservation of natural resources in the state of Kerala, in the context of increasing exploitation of resources and deterioration of the environment in the state.

The policy aims at mainstreaming environmental concerns in all the developmental activities and  argues that the most secure basis for conservation is to ensure that people dependent on resources obtain better livelihoods from conservation, rather than degradation of resources. Read More