Water Governance

Kashmir was originally home to an elaborate network of farmer owned and managed canal based irrigation systems. Gradually, with the increase in planned development, several irrigation canals were taken under the control of the irrigation department. This paper compares the management of irrigation systems by farmers and government. 

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These five papers on Women and Water published in the Economic and Political Weekly, examine the relationship of women to water in the context of the new decentralised  governance structures that are based on the assumption that domestic water supply is the legitimate domain of women and thus power and authority needs to be granted to women to manage water resources.

However, there is a very little understanding of how this has benefited women and what are the challenges experienced during the process of implementation or the outcomes gained from these processes, in the context of the Indian society that continues to propogate patriarchal values and is based on structures that are inherently hierarchical and inequitable.

Some of the papers dwell on and explore the inherent biases in the literature and make an attempt to understand their implications for women in managing water resources, while some of the papers share case studies on the outcomes of the implementation of the decentralised water management policies at the village level.Read More

This report is based on the experience of women’s collectives promoted by Sahjeevan and of several member organizations of Abhiyan on local water governance, in particular on the demonstrated models of decentralized drinking water that they have taken up in several villages. Based on these experiences, Sahjeevan has formulated water governance guidelines for practitioners, which has been presented in this report.

Water has been the central theme for development in Kutch. In the last two decades, a scaling up process of decentralized drinking water, popularly known as Pani Thiye Panjo, has been initiated in around hundred villages of Abdasa taluka in Kutch district of Gujarat focusing on development of local drinking water sources, their strengthening and building capacities of communities for maintenance and management of the systems to develop drinking water security at the village level.

The concept of Pani Thiye Panjo, has been well accepted as Abdasa model, which besides providing drinking water security, initiated policy dialogues at the local level on issues such as protection of groundwater, pricing mechanism of water (local vis-à-vis external sources), role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in water governance, role of local youth in developing their technical capacities and development of social capital in management of drinking water systems.

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These reports by the APSF (Action Plan Support Facility) Environment project supported by the Government of Kerala and its Pamba River Authority under a European Union funded project deal with the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) roadmap for the Pamba River Basin and present a replicable model for river basin management of intra-state rivers in India. The Pamba Pilot Project’s aim was to deliver “Policy Support to Integrated River Basin Management” and to contribute to the continuing EU-India policy dialogue in the water sector.

The Pamba Basin IWRM pilot project has been implemented through targeted training/working sessions, consultations, a broad stakeholder forum as well as a final dialogue on the IWRM Roadmap for the Pamba River Basin. Moreover, the press was invited at several occasions assuring that the process towards IWRM in the Pamba Basin reached an even broader group of stakeh olders. The end result was an IWRM Roadmap for the Pamba River Basin that was presented in December 2010 in a stakeholder dialogue by the Government of Kerala.

The present document aims to provide relevant background information on global experiences in IWRM approaches as well as experience gained in river management planning in Kerala State that may be replicable in other parts of India.

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