National Water Policy 2012

Also called: NWP 2012 · Topic: Water Resources of India: Availability, Use and Conservation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 4 "Water Resources"

Meaning

The National Water Policy 2012 (NWP 2012) is India's third national water policy, issued by the Ministry of Water Resources. It treats water as an economic good that is priced to encourage saving, but only after "pre-emptive needs" are met: drinking water, sanitation, food security, the needs of poor people who depend on farming, and minimum ecosystem flows. It also calls for a national water framework law, climate adaptation, water footprints and water audits, a smaller urban-rural gap in water supply, and community management of water.

It matters because it marks India's move away from simply building more dams and canals and towards managing demand, through pricing, measuring and sharing water fairly. Today's water missions build on this approach.

Explanation

Why a new policy was needed

• Water supply is falling, but demand is rising.
• Population, irrigation, industry and cities all need more water every year.

• The amount of usable water per person keeps going down.

• New supply is costly.

• Desalination (removing salt from seawater) uses a lot of energy, so it cannot be the main answer.

• Groundwater carries most of the load and is under stress.

• It meets about 62% of irrigation needs, 85% of rural water use and 50% of urban demand [4].

• Cheap pumps and tube wells have caused water tables to fall across large areas.

• Result: a policy was needed to save, price, measure and share water, not just supply more of it.

• Earlier policies: 1987 and 2002. The 2012 policy is the third.

The main parts of NWP 2012

• National water framework law
• A general "umbrella" law that sets basic principles for all states.

• It also calls for complete laws to manage inter-state rivers (rivers that flow through more than one state).

• Water as an economic good, with priorities set first

• Water is priced so that people value it and waste less.

• But pricing comes only after "pre-emptive needs" are met. Pre-emptive needs are uses that must be served first, before any other use:

  • drinking water
  • sanitation
  • food security
  • the needs of the poor who depend on farming
  • minimum ecosystem flows (the least amount of water a river needs to stay alive)

• Climate adaptation

• Water projects must be designed to cope with more floods and droughts.

• Benchmarks, water footprints and water audits

• A water footprint is the total water used to make a product or run an activity.
• A water audit checks where water is used and where it is lost.

• Benchmarks set targets for efficient use, so that waste can be measured.

• Smaller urban-rural gap

• The amount of water each person is promised should not be much lower in villages than in cities.

• Community management

• Users share control of water projects. Water is not run only by government engineers.

How pricing works and why NCERT stresses it

• Free water gets wasted.

• Examples: flood irrigation, and pumping that runs on free electricity.

• A price changes behaviour.

• People use water more carefully.

• The money raised pays for running and repairing water schemes.

• NCERT calls water pricing the most important tool for water conservation. NWP 2012 makes it policy, but only after the pre-emptive needs are protected.

What has happened since 2012

• Ministry of Jal Shakti (May 2019): formed by merging the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. It now runs most water missions.
• Draft new policy: a committee led by Mihir Shah drafted a new National Water Policy (2020-21). It has not yet been adopted, so NWP 2012 is still the policy in force.

Where it occurs

• Coverage: all of India. It is a national policy issued in 2012 by the Ministry of Water Resources. The Ministry of Jal Shakti (May 2019) now carries this work forward.
• Ideas from NWP 2012 seen in later schemes:
• Community management and water budgets: under the Atal Bhujal Yojana (25 December 2019, with World Bank support), villages prepare community water budgets in 8,213 water-stressed gram panchayats across 80 districts of 7 states [3]: Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
• Water audit in practice: Atal Jal has installed 6,271 Digital Water Level Recorders and 7,419 water level indicators to measure groundwater [4].
• Legal framework: the Model Groundwater (Regulation and Control of Development and Management) Bill has been adopted by 21 States/UTs, including Bihar, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh (January 2026) [4].

• Narrowing the urban-rural gap: the Jal Jeevan Mission (15 August 2019) aims to give every rural home a household tap supplying 55 lpcd (litres per person per day). Rural tap coverage rose from 16.7% to over 82% [2].

• Ecosystem flows and pollution: badly polluted stretches such as the Yamuna between Delhi and Etawah show why minimum river flows and clean water are treated as pre-emptive needs.

Don't confuse with

• National Water Policies of 1987 and 2002: these were the earlier policies. Only the 2012 policy is linked with water as an economic good after pre-emptive needs, water footprints and a national framework law.
• Mihir Shah draft National Water Policy (2020-21): this is only a draft. It has not been adopted, so NWP 2012 is still in force.
• Model Groundwater Bill: a model law that states may copy to control groundwater (21 States/UTs [4]). NWP 2012 is a policy, and the framework law it proposes covers all water, not only groundwater.
• Water footprint vs water audit: a footprint is the total water used to make a product or run an activity. An audit checks where water is used and where it is lost.

Prelims Hooks

• India's National Water Policies came in 1987, 2002 and 2012. NWP 2012 came from the Ministry of Water Resources. The Ministry of Jal Shakti was formed later, in May 2019.
• Pre-emptive needs under NWP 2012: drinking water, sanitation, food security, the needs of the poor who depend on farming, and minimum ecosystem flows. Water is priced as an economic good only after these are met.
• Trap: NWP 2012 does not say water should be priced before basic needs are met. Priority comes first, pricing second.
• NWP 2012 calls for a national water framework law (a general law with basic principles) and complete laws for inter-state rivers.
• Water footprint = total water used to make a product or run an activity. Water audit = a check of where water is used and lost. Both are NWP 2012 tools.
• Trap: the Mihir Shah committee draft (2020-21) is not yet adopted, so NWP 2012 is still the policy in force.

Mains Points

• From supply to demand (GS-III): dams, river links and desalination cannot keep pace with rising demand. NWP 2012's tools fit this need:
• water pricing after pre-emptive needs are met;
• water audits and footprints to find waste;
• benchmarks for efficient use.

• These matter most in agriculture, which uses the most water. Micro-irrigation and water-wise crop choice can put them into practice.

• Governance and equity: NWP 2012's call for a framework law and community management shows up in Atal Jal's community water budgets and in the Model Groundwater Bill (21 States/UTs [4]). But enforcement is still weak.

• The urban-rural gap is narrowing as JJM coverage rises from 16.7% to over 82% [2].

• These taps will keep working only if their water sources last.

• Climate and ecology: NWP 2012 asks for projects built for more floods and droughts, and for minimum ecosystem flows.

• Polluted stretches such as the Yamuna (Delhi–Etawah) show that river flows and clean water must be protected along with supply.
• The Mihir Shah draft that would update the policy has still not been adopted.

Related concepts

• Water conservation and management
• Recycling and reuse of water
• Desalination
• Jal Kranti Abhiyan
• Jal Jeevan Mission
• Atal Bhujal Yojana
• Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain
• Mission Amrit Sarovar

Read more

• Conservation, policy and the water missions