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RAS question

Consider the following statements about the National Water Policy 2012: 1. Drinking water is assigned the highest priority in water allocation. 2. Irrigation is placed at higher priority than hydropower generation. 3. The policy mandates that water be treated as an economic good and priced accordingly. 4. Ecological needs of rivers are given the lowest priority. Which of the statements given above are correct?

Correct answer: (B) 1, 2 and 3 only.

Under the National Water Policy 2012, drinking water has the highest allocation priority, irrigation ranks above hydropower, and water is to be treated as an economic good after essential social and ecological needs are met.

  1. (A)

    1 and 2 only

  2. (B)

    1, 2 and 3 only

  3. (C)

    1 and 3 only

  4. (D)

    1, 2 and 4 only

Explanation

The correct set is statements 1, 2 and 3. The given priority order in the National Water Policy 2012 places drinking water first, ecological needs of rivers second, irrigation third, hydropower fourth and other uses after that. PIB's summary of the policy supports this framing: water is to be treated as an economic good only after meeting pre-emptive needs such as safe drinking water and sanitation, food security, the needs of poor people dependent on agriculture, and minimum ecosystem needs. That is why drinking water outranks all other uses, irrigation stands above hydropower, and the economic-good principle is not a blanket commercialisation rule. Statement 4 fails because ecological needs are protected near the top, not pushed to the bottom.

Why the other options are wrong

  • (A) It leaves out statement 3, although the policy does recognise water as an economic good after essential drinking-water, food-security, livelihood and ecosystem needs are addressed.
  • (C) It omits statement 2, even though the supplied policy priority order places irrigation above hydropower generation.
  • (D) It includes statement 4, but ecological needs of rivers are placed second in the priority order, not at the lowest level.

Concept

This tests water-resource governance in Indian geography, especially how policy priorities balance drinking water, agriculture, energy and river ecology. It recurs in RAS because Rajasthan's scarcity context makes allocation principles central to irrigation and environment questions.

Source

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