India’s water economy: Bracing for a turbulent future

This report by the World Bank examines the evolution of the management of India’s waters, describes the achievements of the past, and the looming set of challenges. The report draws heavily on a set of twelve background documents by eminent Indian practitioners and policy analysts, and addresses two basic questions - 

• What are the major water development and management challenges facing India? 
• What are the critical measures to be taken to address these? 

India faces a turbulent water future and its current water development and management system is not sustainable unless dramatic changes are made in the way in which government manages water. The net result is a large and growing ‘financial gap’, which can only be met by a combination of methods which include greater allocations of budgetary resources, more efficient use of those resources, and greater contributions from water users. This decline in the quality of public irrigation and water supply services would normally be expected to produce social unrest and political pressure. But to the temporary rescue of Indian society came the tubewell technology.

A central element of a new approach must be that users have well defined entitlements to water. The role of the Indian water state must change from that of builder and controller to creator of an enabling environment, and facilitator of the actions of water users, large and small. As per this report, India needs a re-invigorated set of public water institutions, which are built on the following imperatives: 

• Focusing on developing a set of instruments (including water entitlements, contracts between providers and users, and pricing) and incentives which govern the use of water; 
• Stimulating competition in and for the market for irrigation, water, and sanitation services; 
• Empowering users by giving them clear, enforceable water entitlements; 
• Ending the culture of secrecy and making transparency the rule; 
• Introducing incentive-based, participatory regulation of services and water resources; 
• Putting the sector on a sound financial footing; 
• Investing heavily in the development of a new generation of multi-disciplinary water resource professionals; 
• Making the environment a high priority; 
• Making local people the first beneficiaries of major water projects. 

This will mean greater emphasis on ‘instruments’ that stimulate efficiency, accountability, and flexibility (such as water entitlements, information, regulation, competition, and pricing). It will also mean greater attention to the ‘hidden groundwater economy’ and more attention on building capacity in the public sector. The full report can be downloaded at the World Bank site here