A national symposium in New Delhi on "Ground water governance: ownership of ground water and its pricing" has called for a new national water policy that should spell out the demarcation needs between the ownership and the right to use the ground water resource by enacting integrated water laws. The thrust of the recommendations and indeed the symposium, organised by the Central Ground Water Board and the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, was to move towards pricing of ground water, which was likely to mainly affect farmers.