Nagaland Water Policy.

The overall objective of the Nagaland Water Policy is to create an integrated vision, policy and institutional framework.
The Policy contributes to food security and ryral poverty reduction. Two of the objectives of the Policy are: (i) Development of all utilizable water resources including surface water, sub-surface water, groundwater and wastewater, to the maximum possible extent for food security, economic development and social well-being; (ii) Equitable and judicious allocation of all utilizable water resources with drinking water and domestic water use as the first priority. The Policy explicitly recognizes the fundamental right to water for drinking, sanitation and domestic use of all inhabitants of the State irrespective of their tribe, creed, gender and nationality in conformity with prevailing Naga traditions and customs; (iii) Promoting participatory water resource developmental planning with Village Councils as the nodal agencies for the joint planning, management and implementation of water related schemes and projects. Progressively, promoting formation of Water User Associations (WUA) intended to manage water supplies for irrigation, physically and financially.
The Policy contributes to making agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable. The following broad water resources development and management objectives are conceived: (1) To ensure conservation, protection, safeguard restoration and rejuvenation of water resources in the state of Nagaland to optimize their utilization. (2) To ensure fulfilment of basic right to water of present and future generations. (3) To launch a statewide campaign to spread “conservation consciousness” and water sensitization through education, regulation, incentives and disincentives. (4)Adoption of an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach to planning and implementation of water resources projects within the framework of community participatory eco-development model by involving traditional village institutions. (5) Maintenance of water quality at prevailing standards and reduction of water resources' pollution by urban sewage and industrial effluents. (6) Mainstream basin and sub-basin level planning by notifying river basins and involving traditional and customary institutions in this process. (7) Development of institutional capacity for promoting optimization and conjunctive use of available surface and ground water in the state through training and education. Creating scientific capacity for water and land use planning at the Village Council level including Village Land Use Committee. (8) Encouraging water conservation and management through appropriate and socially acceptable water tariff towards promoting the goal of water use efficiency. (9)Encouraging and facilitating private sector initiatives in the planning, development, operation and management of water resources projects with prior informed consultative process with village council, government and stakeholder agencies. (10)To provide for a conflict resolution mechanisms in consonance with the traditional justice dispensation mechanism between water users.
The Policy contributes to increasing the resilience of livelihoods to disasters. The following objectives are proposed in the Policy: (i) Encouraging efforts to create infrastructure for water supplies in urban and rural areas and raise the level of reliability of water supplies by water resource exploitation; (ii)Development of robust infrastructure for flood protection, flood plain zoning, prevention of soil erosion and to mitigate and deal with impacts of river meandering. Use of existing traditional knowledge coupled with scientific inputs and assessment in the resource conservation and catchment area treatment.