SAWAS: Changing water governance in India

Image and Content Courtesy: SaciWATERs, SAWAS

SAWAS (South Asian Water Studies) calls for papers on longer-term perspectives on water governance and management (reform) in India. The papers should not exceed 5000 words (including references and footnotes). We are inviting original, well argued and accessibly written analyses of water sector reform experiences, assessments of future developments, discussion of dilemmas and contradictions, accounts of policy processes and policy instruments, etc.

Papers are to be submitted to Dr Daphne Gondhalekhar at ZEF, Bonn (daphneg@mit.edu) not later than September 30, 2009. Papers will be peer reviewed. Accepted (and eventually revised) papers will be published in a forthcoming issue of SAWAS (South Asian Water Studies)

For more information on the broad thematic aimed at, please download the Information Click here SAWASaims to provide space for creative and free thinking on water, fostering debate, eliciting innovative alternatives, promoting original analyses and constructive critiques.

Its publications aim to broaden the South Asian water resources knowledge base by critically analyzing the water issues that play out at South Asian level. Background The European Commission funded research project called STRIVER has over the past three years (July 2006 – June 2009) looked at issues of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and water governance in the Tungabhadra sub‐basin of the Krishna basin. On June 30, 2009, a seminar‐workshop was held in Hyderabad discussing some of the findings of that research and other South Indian experience. Instead of focusing on the immediately pressing issues of today, the seminar‐workshop deliberated on the longer‐term scenario and trends in water governance in the present context of a fast‐growing economy and globalisation. The following papers were presented. 1. IWRM in the upper‐Tungabhadra basin: tanks and watershed management (Suhas Paranjape, Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management, SOPPECOM, Pune) 2. IWRM in the lower Tungabhadra basin: canal irrigation and rainfed agriculture (Peter Mollinga and Rahul Pillai, Center for Development Research, ZEF, Bonn, and R. Doraiswamy, Jalaspandana, Bangalore) 3. The appropriateness of the Water Disputes Tribunal framework: the case of Cauvery (Narendar Pani, National Institute of Advanced Studies, NIAS, Bangalore) 4. Regulatory authorities for water resources: the case of Maharashtra (Subodh Wagle, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, TISS, Mumbai and Sachin Warghade, Prayas, Pune) 5. Water sector reform in South India: the case of Andhra Pradesh (Sanjay Gupta, Irrigation & Command Area Development, I&CAD, Andhra Pradesh) Following the discussion at the workshop‐seminar a broader call for papers is released, inviting papers taking a longer view on water governance and management (reform) in India. The generic nature of the questions addressed will also make this discussion relevant for water resources governance in other South Asian countries.