Irrigation

This paper published in the journal Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability draws attention to the serious issue of poor water quality in the developing economies and argues that among the water challenges in the 21st century, the water quality health nexus is one of the most serious challenges that will need to be addressed at an urgent level.The paper directs attention at the rapid and unequal growth and development patterns emerging in developing economies and the impact of this development on the environment and human populations. The paper directs attention to the negative impact of this development on one of the important natural resources such as water and the linkages between water quality and public health of populations.

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The India Infrastructure Report (2011) brought out by the Infrastructure Development Finance Company focuses on 'water' and seeks to 'evolve an appropriate policy framework from the perspective of rights, entitlements, and conflict resolution mechanisms'. The report aims to answer the following questions:

• How clear is the strategic vision for water resource management and sustainable development?
• How effective and equitable is the legal framework?
• Given that only the supply-side approach will not help in meeting future demand, what legal, regulatory, institutional, and pricing mechanisms will be necessary to efficiently manage and restrain demand?

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This lecture by Ramaswamy Iyer delivered at the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) highlights the conflicts over water sharing in India and Pakistan by tracing the roots of the conflicts to the strained relations between India and Pakistan following the partition and the framing of the Indus Water Treaty in 1960. The paper highlights the acute sense of anxiety over water in Pakistan, the reasons for blaming of India by Pakistan in this context, what India can do about it and the sense of insecurity and vulnerability that Pakistan has harboured since then, which the paper argues, exists even today. Read More

The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) is a policy document prepared by the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change. It gives the direction which India needs to take, to mitigate and adapt to climate change. It has been prepared keeping in mind that India's economic need to tap its natural resources needs to be tempered with the need to maintain ecological balance.

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