Plea to include water, and waste water sectors in ECLGS 2.0

Water Alliance India, Ion Exchange Limited, Swach Environment, Nangloi Water Services, industry associations and other companies dealing with water management services have appealed to the Government to include water and waste water sectors in the Emergency Credit Guarantee Limit Scheme (ECLGS 2.0) in order to seek financial support from lending institutions.

A press release issued by Water Alliance said, the water sector in India is under severe financial stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic with various drinking water and sanitation projects suffering immensely on account of restrictions imposed on activities, lack of manpower, credit crunch and shortage of raw material.

With no financial support in the face of cautious lending by financial institutions, a failure to define the water and waste water projects under any of the pre-defined sub-sectors of Infrastructure or construction in the ECLGS will spell doom for the viability of projects which are battling enormous financial distress, it said further.

Sourav Daspatnaik, Managing Trustee, Water Alliance India, said: “It is a matter of great concern that water, waste water and sanitation sectors which have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 crisis are not considered in the eligible sectors. Just like power and electricity, Water, waste management and sanitation must be considered as an essential service and cannot be subservient to other sectors. The life line of water infrastructure development in India will tumble if such reliefs under the Government policies are not made available to water, waste water and sanitation sector.”