Research - Groundwater

Toolkit for integrated urban water management, developed by Institute for Resource Analysis and Policy

This toolkit published by the Institute for Resource Analysis and Policy (IRAP) is an outcome of a study that involved exhaustive review of research undertaken all over the world on various aspects of urban water management by scholars and practitioners. It is not only relevant for water managers of urban local bodies, but also senior policy makers, scholars and practitioners concerned with water resources, particularly urban water.

Lessons for rural water supply - Assessing progress towards sustainable service delivery - India - IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, The Hague

This report by the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre describes the findings of a study that was conducted in India as a part of a 13 country study that aimed at reviewing and better understanding the trends within rural water supply and identifying factors that appeared to contribute to or constrain the delivery of sustainable services at scale. The study also aimed at identifying organisational incentives and barriers that shaped the way in which sector institutions approached rural water services.

Dynamic groundwater resources of Karnataka (2009) - Report by Department of Mines and Geology and Central Groundwater Board

This report by the Department of Mines and Geology, Government of Karnataka and the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Southwestern Region provides information on groundwater resource available and the status of utilisation of groundwater in Karnataka as on March 2009, both on watershed (sub catchment) and taluk wise areas having 2008-2009 as the base year. The methodology is improved as the estimations are carried out on watershed basis for both command and non command separately than apportioned to taluks.

The report can be very useful for planning, decision making, implementation of minor irrigation schemes, financing well schemes. The report is helpful to concentrate on such areas where immediate protective measures are to be taken to conserve irrigation and drinking water supply in order to sustain groundwater resource.

Democratisation of water management - The experience of Tamil Nadu with governance reforms

Through these three papers, the authors argue that the solutions to the global water crisis do not lie in investing more and more money into the water sector or in the introduction of better technology. Nor is the introduction of the private sector and the reduction in the role of the government going to help. Rather, the time has come to introduce changes at the basic or the fundamental level in the way in which the water sector functions.

There is an urgent need to bring about reforms in governance by moving towards decentralisation and democratisation, leading to  involvement of people from all the sections of the society, who know and understand that they are responsible for the system and its functioning, as well as by introducing principles of equity and social justice. The papers demonstrate the successful implementation of this approach by describing the experience of Tamil Nadu at democratising water management through introduction of reforms at the level of governance, through involvement of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD).