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The North East Water Management Authority, or Newma, was meant to manage all projects related to hydropower, agriculture, biodiversity conservation, flood control, inland water transport, forestry, fishery, and eco-tourism in the northeastern states—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and Sikkim.
Newma was also meant to help spearhead India’s efforts to establish prior user rights to water from rivers originating in China.
In these past five years, though, Newma hasn’t made it off the drawing board for various political and administrative reasons. Government officials now say the proposed water resources authority is back on the priority list.
Also read | Urban flooding havoc: Dig deeper for root causes
The North East Water Management Authority will replace the Brahmaputra Board after parliamentary approvals, two officials said. Cabinet notes and a draft bill to establish the new entity have been prepared, which will likely be tabled in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha in the coming winter session, they said.
The officials added that Assam, Sikkim and West Bengal, which were not on board earlier have now agreed to the establishment of the new water resources body. West Bengal, on India’s east, shares the waters of its neighbouring northeastern states.
“Due to political shifts in some northeastern states, we are having fresh consultations with them. We will get a resolution soon as all states are on board except one or two,” one of the officials told Mint.
“All discussions have taken place and inputs have been taken from all stakeholder states… Newma will soon be established after cabinet approval and the passing of the draft law (in Parliament),” said the other official. Both of them declined to be identified.
Buy why does the government want to replace the Brahmaputra Board with Newma? Mint explains:
What is the mandate of the Brahmaputra Board?
The Union government established the Brahmaputra Board in Guwahati in 1980 to plan and implement measures to control floods, stem bank erosion, and handle related matters in the northeastern states and parts of West Bengal that fall under the Brahmaputra River Basin. The board is also responsible for developing projects related to irrigation, hydropower, navigation, and dam construction in the region.
Was the board able to achieve its objectives?
The Brahmaputra Board has been unable to serve its purpose for several years due to a severe staff crunch, especially at the leadership level.
Last year, Arunachal Pradesh’s water resources minister Mama Natung apprised the Brahmaputra Board of technical and financial constraints faced by the state in implementing projects under the flood management and border area programme. The then Union Jal Shakti minister, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, asked the board to “work in tandem with the Central Water Commission, expand the scope of work, and fast-track the studies and strategies for a robust roadmap.”
But more than 200 posts in the Brahmaputra Board out of the required 415 are vacant. This has been a persistent issue as people recruited through the Union Public Service Commission or the Staff Selection Commission are not eager to be posted in the northeastern states.
Were other attempts made to replace the Brahmaputra Board?
A restructuring of the Brahmaputra Board was discussed in 2012 after the Brahmaputra River washed away more than 400,000 hectares of land. In 2015, Uma Bharti, the then Union minister for water resources, river development, and Ganga rejuvenation, announced that a bill to restructure the Brahmaputra Board as the North East Brahmaputra River Rejuvenation Authority would be introduced in Parliament.
But that did not take off due to the concerns of the chief ministers of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh at the time over the Union government’s plans to construct dams in Arunachal Pradesh’s Siang district.
The Union government then proposed Newma as a possible panacea for Assam’s twin problem of flood and erosion that the Brahmaputra Board had failed to address.
Newma is proposed to be bestowed with greater powers and a broader mandate than the Brahmaputra Board, the officials mentioned above said, adding that it would not have to seek approval from the Central Water Commission even for projects above ₹25,000 crore.
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