Groundwater regulation under consideration for Andhra Pradesh

Alarmed at the unsustainable groundwater usage in farming and resulting enormous public distress, the AP government is working on legislation to remedy the situation. The legislation is likely to be in the form of an upgrade to the AP Water Land and Trees Act (WALTA).

Click here for the current Act 

Attached are two working documents that are being used to frame the discussion for the new regulations.

PLEASE NOTE: These in no way represent final or official positions of the AP Government or other organisations and are not to be taken as such.

• Inventory of Norms and Regulatory Instruments 13 July 2010

• Managing Groundwater with Equity - Concept and Proposal - draft for discussion 11th version 1.0

Your (informed!) input could prove very useful to the process of coming up with the new legislation. Please add your input. The working group in particular requests information on instruments that can be used by the community to enforce groundwater management. Some of the instruments already discussed by the group are attached and your input on them is welcome.

If you would like to get involved in the process of framing the regulation more seriously, please contact Mr. Ravindra at raviwn@gmail.com

We look forward to your useful contribution in this critical area.

As a follow-up the group had a discussion with Principal Secretary and Commissioner which gave some more clarity on the design of the participatory groundwater management (legislation and program).

The attached presentation captures the discussion

Image Credits: Wikipedia