Subrat Singh

Enabling better water governance

There is a need to bring in a paradigm shift towards democratisation of water

Posted on 18 May, 2022 02:41 PM

When UNICEF brought borewell rigs to India in early 1970s to help deal with water shortage, little did we know that it would become a tool for privatising the groundwater in the decades to come. Today, this practice of treating groundwater as a private resource has led to over-exploitation and an increase in mineral contamination as we drill into deeper aquifers in search of water.

Rice farmer irrigating from a shallow well to complement irrigation water from the Nagarjuna irrigation scheme in Krishna river basin, Andhra Pradesh (Image: François Molle, Water Alternatives)

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