Groundwater Management and the Human Right to Water in India: The Need for a Decentralised Approach
This chapter explores the case of bottled water industry in India where over-exploitation of groundwater by industrial giants in the sector leaves the right-holders unprotected, thwarting their enjoyment of the right to water. Soft drink manufacturing com
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Groundwater Management and the Human Right to Water in India: The Need for a Decentralised Approach Mahesh Menon
Abstract This chapter explores the case of bottled water industry in India where over-exploitation of groundwater by industrial giants in the sector leaves the rightholders unprotected, thwarting their enjoyment of the right to water. Soft drink manufacturing companies and bottled water companies have been progressively establishing manufacturing units all over the country, exploiting, primarily, groundwater for their production needs. Water mining practised by these companies affects the communities dependent upon these resources, but the regulatory atmosphere of groundwater is weak and allows no voice to the dependents of a resource on water use. Decisions regarding groundwater management and exploitation are taken far away from these communities, and institutional structures have not created the spaces for the representation of their interests. In this context, the chapter explores the legal possibility for an alternate approach, namely, decentralised groundwater management, one that is based on the local self-government institutions. Keywords Groundwater • Regulation • Decentralization • India • Plachimada
Groundwater in India: The Contexts Beyond the six decades that has passed since independence, majority of Indians continue to lack access to public piped water supply. Groundwater, extracted through open and bored wells, is relied on to meet the water needs of 80 % of all population (Planning Commission 2010), and by some estimates the figure could be as high as 90% (Hoering 2008). The World Bank estimates that 80 % of all drinking water demands in the country are met exclusively through groundwater extraction (World Bank 2010). However, the water demands that we must be concerned about are not just domestic ones. Irrigation, for agricultural purposes, also relies on groundwater. The Government of India officially acknowledges that 58 % of all M. Menon (*) Assistant Professor of Law, The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, India e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 N. Singh (ed.), The Human Right to Water, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40286-4_8
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irrigated areas in the country depend on groundwater (Planning Commission 2010). More importantly, 60 % of the source of water for irrigated food production comes through groundwater (Gandhi and Namboodiri 2009). Agriculture accounts for no more than 14.1 % of the GDP, and yet its role in the economy is a crucial one as this sector employs nearly 58.2 % of all workforce (GOI 2013). Groundwater availability is hence a concern that touches not just the issue of water for domestic consumption – it traverses across issues relating to livelihood, work, employment and food security. Scholars have already explored the linkages between these issues to point out that sustainable management of groundwater is central to ensuring food security and achieving pov
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