Local Governance and Participative Water Management in Urban Contexts
Water governance has traditionally been in the hands of local communities. During the British Colonial period, and later in Independent India, the State arrogated control. While intentions were good, the outcomes were not. On the other hand, local water g
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Local Governance and Participative Water Management in Urban Contexts Nitya Jacob
Abstract Water governance has traditionally been in the hands of local communities. During the British Colonial period, and later in Independent India, the State arrogated control. While intentions were good, the outcomes were not. On the other hand, local water governance deteriorated with the decline of local institutions. While macro management should have taken a wider view of the resource, micro management had to ensure equitable distribution. Neither achieved their outcomes owing to limited abilities and vision. Further, the ability of local government institutions varies from state to state and, more often than not, declines with its size, i.e., smaller urban local bodies or panchayats are less capable than larger ones in water management. To address this, both the national and state institutions need to build capacities of local institutions while transferring power and finances to enable them to do their job. On their part, local institutions need to see their role as managers and not merely implementers of national or state policies and programmes. Keywords Local water management · Community ownership · Water governance · Mansagar Lake · Jaipur · Bhopal · Odisha · Arvari Sansad A poster on water shows a tree, roots and all. The caption says water from the top has no effect till it reaches the ground. That sums up how water ought to be managed, from the ground up. It also shows how it is managed in a top-down manner, by looking mostly only the higher levels of management and ignoring the local levels. There is a clear demarcation between macro and micro management in policy and practice. While macro management must take a wider view of the resource, micro management has to ensure equitable distribution. There are several problems with both levels of management originating from the ways macro managers view water (as an input) and micro managers lack the capacity to discharge their responsibilities. As per the national water policy which has been largely adopted by the states, the drinking water for human and other consumption has been given highest priority followed by agriculture and industrial uses in that order. N. Jacob (B) New Delhi, India e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 G. Chadha and A. B. Pandya (eds.), Water Governance and Management in India, Water Resources Development and Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6400-6_6
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N. Jacob
Integrated water resources management (IWRM) requires the multiple sources and uses to be factored in. It considers water as a resource to be managed, rather than just an input for other uses. The sources are surface water and ground water. The major uses are domestic, livelihoods, agriculture and ecological. The quality and quantity of water from the different sources and uses vary sharply. The least quantity is for water for domestic use, but this demands the highest quality. Agriculture on the other hand needs the most water but
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