New Delhi: Government policy think-tank NITI Aayog is said to have marked reports on water management in states for the years 2018-19 and 2019-20 for “internal use” after releasing previous editions publicly, the Indian Express has reported.The ‘Composite Water Management Index’ (CWMI), first published in June 2018, ranked states in terms of efficacy of water management on the basis of 28 parameters.The first edition provided data for 2015-16 and 2016-17, and the second edition launched in August 2019 was for 2017-18.The report, published by NITI Aayog, was prepared in association with three ministries – Water Resources, Drinking Water & Sanitation, and Rural Development.According to the report, the apex government policy think tank wrote to the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, seeking their perspective on the “use and applicability” of the report and whether the CWMI should continue. No response was received from the ministry while the third and fourth editions await release, the paper reported.A NITI Aayog spokesperson told the Indian Express that the reports may be clubbed with those for the next two years (2020 and 2021). There have also been talks of other channels being explored for the task of indexing instead of sole reliance on the CWMI, the report said.This was discussed in a meeting between NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand and officers of the Jal Shakti Ministry on December 12, 2022. Nearly five months after this meeting, the NITI Aayog sent letters to Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, both of which come under the Jal Shakti Ministry, saying that “the Member (economist Ramesh Chand) is of the view that other channels need to be explored to undertake the task of indexing rather than relying only on CWMI and that the CWMI is not widely used or applied in Planning, Decision making, Policy Formulation or Research by public or private stakeholders concerned with water sector,” the Indian Express reported.The latest report, a copy of which has been seen by paper, points out that water scarcity is a “national problem”. According to the Jal Shakti Ministry, the average annual per capita water availability is projected to decline to 1,486 cubic meters per person per year by 2021 as compared to 1,545 cubic meters per person per year in 2011.In accordance with the annual water availability norms, a value below 1,700 cubic meter/person/year indicates water shortage while that below 1,000 cubic metre/capita/year is considered as “scarcity”.The government has been under the scanner for suppressing data that may prove electorally unfavourable. In the past the Modi government has delayed the release of data or claimed that it doesn’t have any numbers on key factors like unemployment, poverty, consumer spending, mob lynching, farmer suicides, GDP growth and the caste census among others.
