This article published in the Economic and Political Weekly begins by arguing that India’s annually renewable water resources are finite and are subject to uncertain climatic variability and that these resources need to be systematically monitored and managed to meet the needs of a diverse society.

India will thus benefit from a unifying national water policy that combines scientific knowledge of India’s water resource systems with the nation’s democratic ideals so as to achieve an equitable sharing of this vital resource among all segments of society.

Critical to the national policy are three elements:

• The hydrological cycle, the dictating natural phenomenon
• India’s water endowments, the reality that demands adaptation
• Science-society interface, the human challenge.

The authors comment on the criticality of the science-society interface in forming the water policy and argue that a credible water policy has to be guided by the best available science, which can contribute effectively to a policy by participating in a harmonious coming-together of knowledge and values, a harmony, which can best be achieved through the constitutional path.

The article argues that the water policy needs to:

• Accommodate a consistent set of alternative approaches to address issues at many interconnected levels
• Reflect participation of an informed citizenry that comprehends the imperatives of a just sharing of a finite resource, and an obligation to safeguard its integrity.
• Guide water management within different states (intra-state management), and among different states (interstate management), giving consideration to existing and historical water-use practices and local cultural traditions.
•  Adapt a legal framework that enables uniform application of principles throughout the country, considering India's breadth and diversity

India is in the state of transition related to water. Although the required science knowledge exists to help the transition, it remains unassimilated in the prevailing ideas and practices that drive the distribution, use and development of the country’s water resources.

The article ends by emphasising that the challenge of harmonising this knowledge with a sense of the future and sensibility to equity and justice remains one of the most serious challenges that India will have to face in the future.

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