water conflict in india essay

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When properly managed, water can be a peacemaking platform for long lasting cooperation

Water is a growing concern in many parts of the world. Countries can improve their water resilience through transboundary water cooperation over shared waters.

Many of the most pressing challenges in the world are about water: too little, too much or too inferior. Such challenges can only be effectively addressed through adequate governance of available water resources.

In 2015, the global community launched the 2030 Agenda, with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that should be reached by 2030. Some progress has been made, but for most of the goals, the world is not on track to meet the deadline. Water can help us do better.

Groundwater is the regulator of the entire freshwater cycle, but its invisibility makes it difficult to manage and protect.

The climate crisis is essentially a water crisis. When we treat it as such, we get new tools to mitigate climate change and adapt to consequences that are unavoidable.

Insufficient supply and inadequate infrastructure leaves millions of people in the world without water.

How to increase the productivity of agriculture around the world through better water management.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has pushed millions of people back into poverty and exposed unacceptable gaps between the rich and the poor. One in three people are still not able to wash their hands with soap and water at home.

Indigenous peoples are the custodians of many of the world’s most fragile and important ecosystems. They also possess invaluable knowledge about sustainability and resilience, so they have a vital role in protecting our environment.

The source-to-sea approach focuses on the strong connection between what happens on land, along waterways, and in the sea.

A growing number of people, societies and companies are discovering the power of resilient landscapes. It is still possible to shift to more sustainable practices that recharge water, restore soil health, sequester carbon, and strengthen biodiversity – but we need to make the transformation now.

More than two billion people in the world lack safely managed drinking water and twice as many lack safely managed sanitation, making WASH one of the most urgent development challenges.

While we all depend heavily on rivers for our survival, many rivers are under constant threat from unsustainable human activities

More and more young people offer important contributions to solving the growing water challenges they are inheriting.

Having access to water and sanitation has been recognized as a human right since 2010. But water is also essential to ensuring the fulfilment of many other rights.

To improve water governance, we need to take a close look at gender roles.

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The Water Crisis In India: Everything You Need To Know

With the planets second largest population at 1.3 billion, and expectant growth to 1.7 billion by 2050, India finds itself unable to serve the vast majority of that populace with safe, clean water.

Supporting 16% of the world’s inhabitants is daunting enough, but it is even more so when recognizing that population is crammed into an area one-third the size of the United States. Then consider that India only possesses 4% of the world’s fresh water and the crisis can be more fully realized.

India may not be the only nation in this predicament, but theirs is at a stage more critical than most. Severe lack of regulation, over privatization, general neglect and rampant government corruption have led to multiple generations thirsting for more than just a few drops of hazard free water.

The situation has grown to the point that regional disputes have risen over access to rivers in the country’s interior. Those disputes take on a global scale in conflicts with Pakistan over the River Indus and River Sutley in the west and north and with China to the east with the River Brahmaputra.

Surface water isn’t the only source reaching a breaking point.

Tracing back several generations, the critical situation in India can be linked to a myriad of causes. In modern times though, the concern has moved from the surface to the ground. And it’s there where India’s freshwater is under the greatest stress.

Causes: Groundwater and A History of Indifference

Over the past 50 years, policies have allowed what amounts to a free-for-all in groundwater development and as the crisis has grown it has been met with continued neglect, mismanagement and overall indifference.

Estimates put India’s groundwater use at roughly one-quarter of the global usage with total usage surpassing that of China and the United States combined. With farmers provided electricity subsidies to help power the groundwater pumping, the water table has seen a drop of up to 4 meters in some parts of the country. This unfettered draining of groundwater sources has accelerated over the past two decades.

With the aggressive pumping, particularly in rural areas, where agriculture provides the livelihood for upwards of 600 million Indians, Mother Nature is often the difference in a good year and a devastating one. Relying on monsoon rains without proper irrigation or water management techniques has been a recipe for disaster.

Mismanagement and corruption often draw the largest headlines, but many of India’s leaders have also been slow or unwilling to adapt to newer technologies or cohesive plans to address the issues.

The response can at best be described as irresponsible. Consider China, a country with roughly 50 million more people, uses a quarter less freshwater.

Growing Demand, Declining Health

Not only is India the world’s second most populated country, but it has a fast growing middle class that is raising the demands on clean, safe water. Then consider close to half of the country practises open defecation and you have a dichotomy of two very different populations desperately pulling at the same limited resource.

One group wanting to grow and flourish and the other wanting to survive.

A few numbers from the World Bank highlight the plight the country is facing:

• 163 Million Indians lack access to safe drinking water
• 210 Million Indians lack access to improved sanitation
• 21% of communicable diseases are linked to unsafe water
• 500 children under the age of five die from diarrhea each day in India

More than half of the rivers in India are highly polluted with numerous others at levels considered unsafe by modern standards. The waters of the Yamuna, Ganga and Sabarmati flow the dirtiest with a deadly mix of pollutants both hazardous and organic.

Aside from commonplace industrial pollution and waste, India’s rivers are open use across much of the country. From dumping human waste as previously noted to bathing to washing clothes, the human element contributes to the epidemic of health related concerns.

Adding to the human toll is the reliance on seasonal rains, which are often sporadic in some years and over abundant in others. Rain totals can vary greatly and do not always arrive in the places they are needed most. The drought and flooding that results from this inconsistent cycle often leads to crop failures and farmer suicides.

Much of the above affects rural citizens where poverty is rampant, but even more developed urban areas face their own challenges.

Even with a robustly growing middle class, when combining rural and urban populations, over half of India still lives at or below the poverty level. Furthermore, no city in India can provide clean, consumable tap water full-time.

Should the crisis continue unabated, the scarcity of water will have a negative impact on the industrial health of the country.

Recent drops in manufacturing jobs can be tied to companies being unable to access clean water. Along with the inability to properly cultivate agriculture areas and the water crisis quickly becomes an economic one.

Look to the Future

It may seem a foregone conclusion that the water will soon enough dry up and along with it India as a whole. That need not be the case.

There are even bright spots in the current environment. The Rivers Narmada and Chamabal run clean with water fit for consumption. Several projects are currently underway that aim to move water to areas that need it the most.

But it will take a long-term commitment of the Indian government not previously shown and the heavy assistance of outside resources.

Common sense practices and training will also aid in reducing the damage done to groundwater sources. Teaching farmers updated irrigation techniques, such as drip irrigation, and utilizing more rainwater harvesting are small, effective steps in stemming the loss of freshwater sources.

Much of India will also need modern sanitation policies that both conserve and wisely utilize water sources. Recognizing physical and economic growth directly ties to the amount of safe, usable water is another step in right direction.

Yes, all of these changes take the long view, but a crisis of this magnitude will not be solved with lip service and short sided solutions.

However daunting, the goals are not unattainable. India is still a developing society, and there is time to reverse the crisis that has been decades in the making.

Given the right commitment and dedication, India can soon enough have safe, clean water. https://businessconnectworld.com/2018/01/11/water-crisis-in-india/

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The Water Wars Myth: India, China and the Brahmaputra

What the hydrology and geopolitics of the Brahmaputra River mean for India-China water relations.

By: Mark Giordano; Anya Wahal

Publication Type: Analysis

South Asia’s Brahmaputra has been cited as one of the basins most at risk for interstate water conflict. While violent conflict has occurred between China and India within the Brahmaputra’s basin boundaries, the risks of conflict over water are in fact low. This is in part because China functionally contributes less to the Brahmaputra’s flow than is commonly perceived and in part because, despite its massive volume, the river can contribute little to solving India’s significant water security challenges. Nonetheless, the Brahmaputra is and will continue to be intimately connected to Sino-Indian tensions largely through the use of water infrastructure investment as a form of territorial demarcation and control.

The Water Wars Theory and Brahmaputra Basin Realities

A simplified version of the water wars argument is that per capita water availability will drop as populations grow and water supplies remain constant. At the same time, economic growth will multiply demand as effective supplies are reduced with quality declines. Climate change will only worsen the situation. For internationally shared rivers, conflict over the vital resource will occur when some tipping point is reached, particularly if tensions over other issues are high and there is no history of institutionalizing cooperation over water through treaties or other mechanisms. 

The Brahmaputra would appear to be at the top of the list of conflict hotspots. The river is shared between four states, including the world’s two most populous, China and India. Both have rapidly growing economies and both are already among the most water stressed in the world. The challenges for cooperatively managing the Brahmaputra are heightened by a changing monsoon season and melting glaciers, the complete absence of formal water sharing agreements, a limited history of even basic hydrologic data exchange and strained diplomatic relations. In addition, China has shown little interest in cooperative transboundary water management in the Brahmaputra or elsewhere. As the upstream state, China controls more than half the Brahmaputra basin’s area and is building infrastructure — in particular dams — to control water without consultation with downstream neighbors. 

To understand why, despite these factors, water conflict is less likely than commonly perceived, it is important to understand the hydrology of the Brahmaputra basin and its overall context. While China controls most of the basin’s area, most of that area lies in a rain shadow, formed when monsoon winds rise over Himalayan peaks and then descend again onto the Tibetan Plateau. In contrast, the Indian, Bhutanese and Bangladeshi portions of the basin lie in some of the world’s highest precipitation areas, with rainfall consistently above 98 inches per year. In fact, the state of Meghalaya, in the Indian portion of the basin, is often referenced as the wettest place in the world, with 433 inches of annual precipitation in some areas.   

As a result, China’s contribution to overall flow is undoubtedly lower than its share of basin area. How much lower is unclear, however, because of limited gauging stations and access to what data might exist (even within India, water data is not consistently shared between and across government levels). The result has been that both public and policy discussion about Sino-Indian water relations have relied on a limited number of poorly attributed and understood statistics. At one extreme, figures from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) put China’s contribution to Brahmaputra flow at 30% while at the other anonymous Government of India sources put the figure at 7%. Both figures have been cited to support differing positions.

To provide context for such figures, we compiled data from a range of sources and computed China’s implied contribution to flow along the Brahmaputra’s course. From this work, it appears that the FAO figure is based on estimates of all Brahmaputra basin waters entering India from China (the Brahmaputra mainstem and tributaries including the Lohit and Subashiri) as a share of the Brahmaputra’s flow at Guwahati, about 75 miles from the border with Bangladesh. The Government of India’s 7% figure appears to include only water entering India from China via the Brahmaputra’s mainstem (i.e., excluding tributaries, as a percentage of all Brahmaputra flow up to the confluence of the Padma/Ganges in Bangladesh). Since China’s infrastructure development is and will continue to be limited to its mainstem waters, the 30% figure, by including flows from other tributaries, overstates China’s hydrologic advantage and potential leverage over India. In contrast, the 7% figure underestimates it, by including flows that enter the Brahmaputra in Bangladesh.

While the appropriate figure to use depends on its purpose, any focus on China’s contributions to flow detracts from an understanding of the larger context in which the Brahmaputra basin must be seen. Since the Indian portion of the basin is in one of the highest rainfall regions in the world, India has little need to draw from the river now or in the future for agriculture or other purposes. Even India’s most grandiose plans to transfer water out of the basin to more arid areas would have little impact on total flow because of the Brahmaputra’s great volume.

Given China’s limited contribution to flow and the lack of capacity for the Brahmaputra’s waters to alleviate India’s water insecurity, conflict over water per se is unlikely. Climate change is expected to intensify the hydrological cycle. In this case, as temperatures rise, precipitation is expected to increase in the basin, due to a decrease on the Tibetan Plateau (China’s portion of the basin), which is more than offset by increases elsewhere. As such, increased temperatures are expected to increase flow, reduce glacial mass within China and, eventually, lower China’s contribution to flow.

Competition Through Water Infrastructure

While the competition between China and India over the quantity of Brahmaputra water may not be significant, another form of competition is manifesting itself through water infrastructure. China’s first project in the basin was a hydropower station completed in 1998. China has since built or is planning a series of publicly discussed dams on the Brahmaputra mainstem. An additional 18 dams on mainstem tributaries have been identified with satellite imagery by the Stimson Center’s Energy, Water, and Sustainability Program and Planet Labs. Of all the additional dams under discussion, by far the most ambitious and controversial is the “Great Bend Dam,” which would divert water through a tunnel with a 6,562-foot drop, generating twice the power of China’s famed Three Gorges dam. 

Even if Chinese infrastructure is not designed to withdraw water from the river, it does have the potential to impact the timing of flows, potentially increasing flood risk. But coordinated operation with India could also be a means for decreasing flood risks. The Government of India has historically downplayed risks from Chinese infrastructure, sometimes citing the minimal 7% of flow contributed by China mentioned above. However, this stance recently changed, as evidenced by a 2020 announcement by the Ministry of Water Resources to build a 10-gigawatt hydropower project on the Brahmaputra, specifically to “mitigate the adverse impact of the Chinese dam projects.” Part of the rationale was given as creating storage capacity to mitigate the negative effects of Chinese dam operations.

Though framed in terms hydropower production and flood control, water infrastructure in the Brahmaputra also serves as a form of territorial demarcation and control along a contested frontier. As one Indian official stated in 2016 with respect to one of China’s dams, “The strategic value of the Lalho project lies also in the fact that Shigatse is only a few hours driving distance from the junction of Bhutan and Sikkim, and the city from which the Chinese plan to extend their railroads to Nepal.” The Great Bend Dam, if constructed, would for the first time move Chinese infrastructure off the Tibetan Plateau onto the southern slopes of the Himalaya toward the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, a region China calls “South Tibet.” India, for its part, would place its mega-dam near its border with China, likewise signaling control of not only water but territory. The Indian megadam is also part of larger planning begun in the early 2000s for up to 150 dams within Arunachal Pradesh.

The Brahmaputra in the 21st Century

The Brahmaputra is and will be used by both India and China to influence the geopolitics of Southern Asia in other ways as well. Historically, India has been considered the regional hegemon on water relations with its smaller South Asian neighbors. China is now using India’s perceived intransigence on water issues with its neighbors to build relationships at India’s expense. For example, India continues to irritate Bangladesh by failing to sign a 2011 agreement on dredging the Indian portion of the Brahmaputra’s Teetsa tributary. China has now offered to finance the dredging of the Bangladeshi section of the river and build additional storage to ensure dry season flows for transport. Beyond the water sector, China is now Bangladesh's largest investor, while India is associated with exiling Bengali Muslims. Similarly, with Nepal, China has invested in one of the most costly hydropower projects ever executed, the 30 megawatt Chameliya Hydropower Project , while India refuses to buy electricity from projects with Chinese investment. As if to punctuate its approach, China provides data on Brahmaputra flows to India for $125,000 per year and has blamed occasional interruptions in data sharing on technical issues. Beijing has consistently provided the same data to Bangladesh at no cost.

In the early 20th century, China and the United Kingdom placed stones to demarcate territorial ambitions in the Brahmaputra basin. In the early 21st century, China and India are using dams as the new boundary markers and water investments — or a lack thereof — as a way to build or assert regional power. Infrastructure may not drive water conflict in the Brahmaputra basin, but it plays a significant role in the contest for space and influence.

Mark Giordano is professor of Geography, vice dean for Undergraduate Affairs and the Cinco Hermanos chair in Environment and International Affairs in Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Anya Wahal is a senior majoring in Science, Technology, & International Affairs at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.

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Inter-State River Water Disputes in India: Is it time for a new mechanism rather than tribunals?

Last updated on September 18, 2023 by ClearIAS Team

Various Inter-State Water Disputes Tribunals have been constituted so far, but it had its own problems. In this article, we analyze whether it’s time for a new mechanism.

Table of Contents

Water in the Constitution of India

Water is a State subject as per entry 17 of State List and thus states are empowered to enact legislation on water.

• Entry 17 of State List deals with water i.e. water supply, irrigation, canal, drainage, embankments, water storage and water power.
• Entry 56 of Union List gives power to the Union Government for the regulation and development of inter-state rivers and river valleys to the extent declared by Parliament to be expedient in the public interest.

Article 262 of the Indian Constitution:

Constituent Assembly anticipated the emergence of water disputes in future. A specific provision of Article 262 is mentioned in the constitution itself due to the sensitivity of such disputes.

In the case of disputes relating to waters, Article 262 provides:

• Parliament may by law provide for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint with respect to the use, distribution or control of the waters of, or in, any inter-State river or river valley.
• Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, Parliament may, by law provide that neither the Supreme Court nor any other court shall exercise jurisdiction in respect of any such dispute or complaint.

Parliament has enacted two laws according to Article 262:

1) river board act, 1956.

The purpose of this Act was to enable the Union Government to create Boards for Interstate Rivers and river valleys in consultation with State Governments. The objective of Boards is to advise on the inter-state basin to prepare development scheme and to prevent the emergence of conflicts.

Note: Till date, no river board as per above Act has been created.

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2) Inter-State Water Dispute Act, 1956

Provisions of the Act: In case, if a particular state or states approach to Union Government for the constitution of the tribunal:

• Central Government should try to resolve the matter by consultation among the aggrieved states.
• In case, if it does not work, then it may constitute the tribunal .

Note: Supreme Court shall not question the Award or formula given by tribunal but it can question the working of the tribunal.

The composition of the River Water Tribunal: Tribunal is constituted by the Chief Justice of India and it consists of the sitting judge of Supreme Court and the other two judges who can be from Supreme Court or High Court.

The Present Mechanism to resolve the inter-state river water disputes in India

Thus it can be seen that – the resolution of water dispute is governed by the Inter-State Water Disputes Act, 1956. According to its provisions, a state government can approach the Centre to refer the dispute to a tribunal, whose decision is considered final.

Active River Water sharing Tribunals in India

• Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal II (2004) – Karnataka, Telengana,Andra Pradesh, Maharashtra
• Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal (2018) – Odisha& Chattisgarh
• Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal (2010)- Goa,Karnataka, Maharashtra
• Ravi& Beas Water Tribunal (1986)- Punjab, Haryana,Rajasthan
• Vansdhara Water Disputes Tribunal (2010)- Andra Pradesh & Odisha.

Inter-State river water disputes under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act (ISRWD), 1956

Note: You can check the verdicts and latest status of each of these river water tribunals in this link .

Inter-State Water Dispute Act, 1956: Extra Ordinary Delays in the execution and implementation

• Many times there have been extraordinary delays in constituting the tribunal. For example, in the case of Godavari water dispute , the request was made in 1962. The tribunal was constituted in 1968 and the award was given in 1979 which was published in the Gazette in 1980.
• Similarly, in Cauvery Water Dispute, Tamil Nadu Government requested to constitute the tribunal in 1970. Only after the intervention of Supreme Court, the tribunal was constituted in 1990.
• Due to delay in constituting the tribunal, state governments continued to invest resources in the construction and modification of dams, thus strengthening their claims.

Solution: Amendments to the Act in 2002

• In 2002, an Amendment was made in the Act by which the tribunal has to be constituted within a year of getting the request.
• It has also been mandated that the tribunal should give the award within 3 years. In certain situations, two more years can be given. Thus the maximum time period was 5 years within which the tribunal should give the award.
• Tribunal award is not immediately implemented. Concerned parties may seek clarification within 3 months of the award.
• It has also been clarified that the Tribunal Awards will have the same force as the order or decree of Supreme Court. The award is final and beyond the jurisdiction of Supreme Court.

But still, there were issues…

• Though Award is final and beyond the jurisdiction of Courts, either States approach Supreme Court under Article 136 (Special Leave Petition) or private persons approach Supreme Court under Article 32 linking issue with the violation of Article 21 (Right to Life).
• The composition of the tribunal is not multidisciplinary and it consists of persons only from the judiciary. Thus there is not much difference in tribunal and Supreme Court Bench.
• Tribunals work gets delayed due to the lack of availability of the data.

New Solution: Inter-State Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2017 –  Dispute Resolution Committee and Single Permanent Tribunal

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• The government has introduced this Bill in the present session of the Lok Sabha seeking to speed up the interstate water dispute resolution.
• The centre is to set up Dispute Resolution Committee having experts from the different fields in case of water disputes. The Committee will try to resolve the dispute within 1 year. The tribunal will be approached only when this committee fails to settle the dispute.
• According to this Bill, a Single Permanent Tribunal is to be set up which will have multiple benches.
• The Bill calls for the transparent data collection system at the national level for each river basin and a single agency to maintain data bank and information system.

The Case Studies of recent Inter-State River Water Disputes in the news

1) cauvery water dispute.

Cauvery is an inter‐State basin having its origin Karnataka and flowing through Tamil Nadu and Puducherry before out falling in the Bay of Bengal. The states concerned are Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (UT).

• In 1892, there was an agreement between the princely state of Mysore and British province of Madras.
• In 1924, a new agreement for 50 years i.e. till 1974.
• In 1970, Tamil Nadu Government approached to Central Government to constitute the tribunal and also in the same year Tamil Nadu Farmers Association filed a civil suit in Supreme Court.
• In 1986, Tamil Nadu again made a formal request to constitute the tribunal.
• In 1990, the tribunal was set up on the directions of Supreme Court.
• The Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal passed an Interim order in 1991 directing the State of Karnataka to release Water from its reservoirs in Karnataka so as to ensure 205 Thousand Million Cubic Feet (TMC) of water into Mettur reservoir of Tamil Nadu in a water year (1 st  June to 31st May) with monthly and weekly stipulations. Karnataka government refused to obey the interim award.
• After 16 years of hearing and an interim order, the Tribunal announced its final order in 2007 allocating 419 tmcft water to Tamil Nadu and 270 tmcft to Karnataka. Kerala was given 30 tmcft and Puducherry got 7 tmc ft. Both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu filed review petitions in Supreme Court.
• Karnataka has not accepted the order and refused to release the water to Tamil Nadu. In 2013, Contempt of Court was issued against Karnataka.
•  In 2016, a petition was filed in Supreme Court to seeking the release of water by Karnataka as per the guidelines of the tribunal. When Supreme Court ordered Karnataka to release water, Kannada people protested the decision saying they do not have enough water.
• The matter is still sub judice (under judicial consideration).

2) Satluj Yamuna Link Canal Issue

• The issue links to the dispute between Punjab and Haryana after the formation of the Haryana in 1966. The parties involved are Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan.
• To enable Haryana to use its share of the waters of the Satluj and Beas, a canal linking the Satluj with the Yamuna was planned and in 1982 its construction was started.
• Due to the protest by Punjab, the tribunal was set up in 1986 which gave an award in 1987 recommending Punjab’s share as 5 Million Acre Feet (MAF) of water and Haryana’s as 3.83 MAF.
• Punjab contested the award and held that the tribunal overestimated the availability of the water. Haryana approached Supreme Court for the construction of the SYL canal in 2002. Supreme Court directed Punjab to complete the construction of canal within 12 months.
• In July 2004, Punjab Assembly passed Punjab Termination of Agreements Act scrapping water-sharing agreements with other states and thus jeopardising the construction of the canal. This Act has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2016 under President Advice (Article 143). In response, Punjab Assembly passed the Act according to which the land acquired for the canal would be denotified and returned to the original owners.
• Supreme Court has directed both Punjab and Haryana to maintain status quo in the Sutlej Yamuna Link canal controversy .
• In the recent hearing, Centre has offered as a mediator to both Punjab and Haryana.

Inter-State River Water Disputes: The Conclusion

India has 2.4% of the World’s land, 18% of the world population but only 4% of the renewable water resource. If sufficient steps are not taken, the uneven water distribution will increase the possibility of water conflicts.

Inter-state river water disputes hinder the cooperative federalism of our nation and provide parochial mindset making regional issues superior to national issues. One should realise that our nation is a family in which all states are its members.

So disputes must be resolved by dialogue and talks and the political opportunism must be avoided. The issue can be resolved by discussing the dispute in Inter-State Council which can be beneficial in providing a platform for the talks. Such disputes must be resolved as early as possible to ensure greater cooperation between the states.

Article by: Rahul Sharma, UPSC Topper 2016, With All India Rank 76

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Reader Interactions

April 18, 2017 at 8:09 am

October 2, 2017 at 1:55 pm

Wise information

January 17, 2018 at 4:55 am

Thanks a lot.

March 15, 2018 at 1:59 am

Supper .Thanks a lot

July 12, 2018 at 3:01 pm

excellent please provide more essays related to current issues useful for both upsc and ssc

September 3, 2018 at 12:08 pm

Very concise and to the point. Thank you clearIAS.

January 15, 2019 at 10:36 pm

Quite informativ

June 8, 2019 at 3:45 pm

Superb. Thank you !

September 26, 2023 at 7:57 pm

thanks very good information

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Mapping the Water Disputes in India: Nature, Issues and Emerging Trends

• First Online: 15 December 2019

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• Ruchi Shree 2  

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This chapter traces the genealogy of water disputes primarily focusing upon post-independence India. The complexity of politics around water and the disputes over its allocation as a natural resource have been analysed at many levels. At one level, it deals with actors (local and global, state and non-state, etc.), on the other it maps the issues (groundwater depletion, privatization, inter-sectoral allocation, etc.) as well as laws, policies and institutional framework on water. Further, the chapter critically engages with the nature and emerging trends of disputes over water such as convergence of macro and micro aspects, manifest and latent conflicts, politics of perspectives/world views, dominance of development discourse to name a few. Based on interdisciplinary approach, it uses the method of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to capture the complexities of laws and policies shaping the disputes over water in India.

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Silva, S. N. (2009, May 10). Conflict Resolution: How Lord Buddha’s Way Offers an Answer. The Sunday Times . http://www.sundaytimes.lk/090510/News/sundaytimesnews_29.html . Accessed November 24, 2018.

Biswas, P., & Iyer, K. (2018, November 22). East and West: Maharashtra Districts Fight Water Wars. The Indian Express . https://indianexpress.com/article/india/east-and-west-maharashtra-districts-fight-water-wars-drought-5458259/ . Accessed November 24, 2018.

Linton, J. (2010). What Is Water? The History of a Modern Abstraction (p. 1). Vancouver and Toronto: UBC Press.

Illich, I. (1986). H 2 O and the Waters of Forgetfulness . New York: Marion Boyars.

Nandy, A. (2003). The Romance of the State: And the Fate of Dissent in the Tropics . New Delhi: Oxford University Press (OUP).

State in the role of planner and designer. For details, please see Shree, R. (2018). Rivers as Commons: Reality or Myth? as guest blog on SANDRP website. https://sandrp.in/2018/03/14/rivsers-as-commons-reality-or-myth/ . Accessed March 18, 2018.

Joy, K. J., et al. (2008). Water Conflicts in India: A Million Revolts in the Making . New Delhi: Routledge. This book has summarized 63 case studies from all over India by categorizing them into eight categories—(i) Contending Water Uses (ii) Equity, Access and Allocations (iii) Conflicts Around Water Quality (iv) Sand Mining (v) Micro-level Conflicts (vi) Dams and Displacement (vii) Tran boundary Water Conflicts (viii) Privatisation.

SOPPECOM is an NGO based in Pune (Maharashtra) and works on issues such as watershed management, participatory development, etc.

Critical discourse analysis is a relatively new method in social sciences for doing analytical research. Some of its tenets could be traced in the critical theory of the Frankfurt school in the before the Second World War. CDA gained popularity in 1990s and Van Dijk writes that the CDA is a type of discourse analytical research which primarily aims to study the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. T. A. Van Dijk. (n.d.). Chapter 18: ‘Critical Discourse Analysis’ , 352–371. http://www.discourses.org/OldArticles/Critical%20discourse%20analysis.pdf . Accessed June 24, 2013. To Dijk, through such dissident research, critical discourse analysts take explicit position, and thus want to understand, expose, and ultimately resist social inequality.

Anupam Mishra (1948–2016) was a noted Gandhian and environmentalist and his writings on water focused on traditional ways of water harvesting is known worldwide. For details see Shree, R. (2018, February). No Pretense, No Armour: Anupam Mishra and His Great Contributions. The New Leam, 4 (33). http://thenewleam.com/2018/03/no-pretense-no-armour-anupam-mishra-great-contributions/ . One may also see his TED talk https://www.ted.com/talks/anupam_mishra_the_ancient_ingenuity_of_water_harvesting?language=en .

Philippe Cullet is professor of Law at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, London) and written on water and sanitation laws and policies in India.

Amita Baviskar is professor of sociology and has immensely worked on politics of water, especially from the vantage point of social movements and cultural politics of water as a natural resource. Her books In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts over Development in the Narmada Valley (OUP, 1995) and (ed.) Waterscapes: The Cultural Politics of a Natural Resource (Permanent Black, 2007).

Some of them are Shree, R. (Forthcoming). Politics of Water as Natural Resource: Prospects of Commons Perspective , NMML Occasional Paper; ‘Money Can’t Buy the Elixir of Life’ in The Pioneer (Op-Ed), April 29, 2016. http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/oped/money-cant-buy-elixir-of-life.html . ‘Are We Serious About Our Rivers’ in The Pioneer (Op-Ed), March 30, 2017. http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/oped/are-we-serious-about-our-rivers.html . Rivers as Commons: Reality or Myth? as guest blog on SANDRP website. https://sandrp.in/2018/03/14/rivsers-as-commons-reality-or-myth/ .

Dutt, K. L., & Wasson, R. J. (Eds.). (2008). Water First: Issues and Challenges for Nations and Communities in South Asia . New Delhi: Sage.

Mollinga, P. P., & Gondhalekar, D. (2012). Theorising Structured Diversity: An Approach to Comparative Research on Water Resources Management (ICCWaDS Working Paper No. 1).

Conca, K. (2006). Governing Water: Contentious Transnational Politics and Global Institution Building . Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Under the Modi government at the Centre, the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) has been renamed as Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation as this govt. has taken up the cause of cleaning the River Ganga to a new level through its Namami Gange Yojana.

For details, see http://cgwb.gov.in/aboutcgwa.html .

Indian Constitution, Schedule 7, List 1, Entry 56.

Iyer, R. (2003). Water: Perspectives, Issues, Concerns (p. 101). New Delhi: Sage.

This part of the chapter heavily relies on one of the chapters of my unpublished Ph.D. thesis titled ‘Politics of Water as Natural Resource: Study of Two Movements (Plachimada and Tarun Bharat Sangh)’ (2014) at Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Some other parts of the chapter also draw partly from the same.

Sinha, U. K. (2014). The Strategic Politics of Water in South Asia. In J. Miklian & A. Kolas (Eds.), India’s Human Security: Lost Debates, Forgotten People, Intractable Challenges . New Delhi: Routledge.

Ibid., Uttam Kumar Sinha.

Mehta, L. (2013). Contexts and Constructions of Water Scarcity. EPW, 38 (48). She has focused on the ‘water-scarce’ Kutch and its relationship with the controversial Sardar Sarovar Project.

An important study has been done by David Mosse (2003) in the context of South India.

Under the Indian Easement Act, 1882, Indian law recognizes the right of a riparian owner i.e. someone who owns the land adjoining a river or water stream to have unpolluted waters. Section 7 of the Act provides that every riparian owner has the right to the continued flow of waters of a natural stream in its natural condition without destruction or unreasonable pollution. There are various court cases in which the rights of the riparian have been reinforced.

The Easement Act also recognizes the customary rights of the people which are required under two rules: long usage or prescription and local custom. However, these rules were also subject to the government’s right to regulate the collection, retention and distribution of water of rivers and streams flowing in natural channel.

Pant, R. (2003). From Communities’ Hands to the MNCs’ BOOTs: A Case Study from India on Right to Water . Uttaranchal, India: Ecoserve, also available at 16 Rights and Humanity, UK (Right to Water Project). http://www.righttowater.org.uk/pdfs/india_cs.pdf .

Narmada Bachao Andolan v. Union of India AIR 2000 SC 3751; 248(2000) 10 SCC 664.

Subhash Kumar v. State of Bihar AIR 1991 SC 420. In this case, the person had filed the case under Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to prevent the pollution of the Bokaro river water from the sludge/slurry discharged by the Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO). But later on, the court found the petitioner to have made a false allegation due to a personal grudge against the company. However, the recognition of ‘right to pollution free water’ makes this case very important. For details, one may see Ruchi Pant’s article (2003: 14–15).

Narain, V. (2009). Water as a Fundamental Right: A Perspective from India. Vermont Law Review, 34 , 1–9.

Muralidhar, S. (2006). The Right to Water: An Overview of the Indian Legal Regime. In E. Riedel & P. Rothen (Eds.), The Human Right to Water (pp. 65–81). http://www.ielrc.org/content/a0604.pdf . Accessed March 9, 2011. He has mentioned about various cases like M.C. Mehta v. Union of India AIR 1988 SC 1037; M.C. Mehta v. Kamal Nath (1997) 1 SCC 388; S. Jagannath v. Union of India (1997) 2 SCC 87; A.P. Pollution Control Board v. Prof. M.V. Naydu (1999) 2 SCC 718; A.P. Pollution Control Board (II) v. Prof. M.V. Nayudu (2001) 2 SCC 62.

Cullet, P., & Gupta, J. (2009). India: Evolution of Water Law and Policy. In J. W. Dellapenna & J. Gupta (Eds.), The Evolution of the Law and Politics of Water (pp. 159–175). Dordrecht: Springer.

D’Souza, R. (2006). Interstate Dispute over Krishna—Law, Science and Imperialism . Hyderabad: Orient Longman.

D’Souza, R. (2007, April 21–27). Water as Dispute and Conflict (Review of Interstate Dispute over Krishna—Law, Science and Imperialism by Radha D’Souza; Conflict and Collective Action: The Sardar Sarovar Project in India by Ranjit Dwivedi). Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), 42 (16), 1431–1432.

For details, please read Cullet, P. (Ed.). (2007). Sardar Sarovar Dam Project: Selected Documents . Aldershot: Ashgate.

Ibid., Iyer, R. (2003); Iyer, R. (2007). Towards Water Wisdom: Limits, Justice, Harmony . New Delhi: Sage; Guhan, S. (1993). The Cauvery River Dispute: Towards Conciliation . Chennai: Frontline Publications.

Anonymous, HT Correspondent. (2018, February 16). From 1924–2018: Twists and Turns in the Cauvery Water Dispute. Hindustan Times . https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/from-1924-to-2018-the-twists-and-turns-in-the-cauvery-water-dispute-case/story-d5PuU5mSuUZot2NNlI7ZEJ.html . Accessed November 28, 2018.

Ibid., Shah, Mihir (2018).

Cullet, P., Bhullar, L., & Koonan, S. (2015). Inter-Sectoral Water Allocation and Conflicts: Perspectives from Rajasthan. EPW, L (34), 61–69.

For details, kindly refer to Nayak, A. K. (2010). Big Dams and Protests in India: A Study of Hirakud Dam. EPW, XLV (2), 69–73.

Bhatacharjee, J. (2013). Dams and Environmental Movements: The Case for India’s North-East. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publication, 13 (11), 1–11.

For a brief history of the struggle famous as NBA, see Sangvai, S. (2000). The River and Life: People’s Struggle in the Narmada Valley . Mumbai: Earth Care Books.

Paranjape, S., & Joy, K. J. (2006, February 18). Alternative Restructuring of the Sardar Sarovar: Breaking the Deadlock. EPW , 601–602.

Mimi, R. (2010, December 10). Anti-dam Protests Get Louder in North-East . https://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/anti-dam-protests-get-louder-in-northeast-india-1689 . Accessed November 25, 2018.

Mihir Shah in an interview titled ‘The Answer to Our Water Crises Lies in the Democratization of Water Resources’, Geography and You , Vol. 18, Issue 2, No. 113 (2018), pp. 22–24.

After the division of the state of Madhya Pradesh, that part of Sheonath River fell into Chhattisgarh. For details, see Das, B., & Pangare, G. (2006, February 18). In Chhattisgarh, a River Becomes Private Property. Economic and Political Weekly , 611–612.

For details, see Shree, R. Plachimada Against Coke: People’s Struggle for Water (published by SOPPECOM on the website of India Water Portal in 2012). http://www.conflicts.indiawaterportal.org/node/147 .

Pranjape, M. (2016, October 17). Privatisating India’s Water Is a Bad Idea . https://thewire.in/politics/water-privatisation . Accessed November 25, 2018.

Anti coca-cola protests by the local people and also considered as part of new social movements (NSMs).

Dwivedi and others (2006: 35).

Shiva, V. (2012). Making Peace with the Earth: Beyond Resource, Land and Food Wars (pp. 96–97). New Delhi: Woman Unlimited, An Associate of Kali for Women.

Ibid., Shah (2018: 23).

Iyer, R. (2011, June 25). National Water Policy: An Alternative Draft for Consideration. EPW, 46 (26–27).

M.C. Mehta v. Kamal Nath AIR 2000 SC 1997 34.

Ibid., Muralidhar (2006).

The Hindu . (2012, May 11). Water, and Justice, for Bhopal.

Escobar, A. (1995). Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World .

Ibid., Iyer, R. (2007); Ibid., p. 130.

Ibid., Khagram, Sanjeev (2000).

Ibid., Khagram (2000: 43).

Vatsyayan, K. (2010). Introduction: The Ecology and Myth of Water. In Water: Culture, Politics and Management, India International Centre . New Delhi: Pearson.

Ibid., Nandy (2003).

Ibid., Sinha, U. K. (2014).

Jacob, N. (2018). A Scarcity of Management. Geography and You , Vol. 18, Issue 2, No. 113, pp. 6–7.

UNESC. (2002). Substantive Issues Arising in the Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (General Comment No. 15). Geneva: United Nations Economic and Social Council. www.unchr.ch . One may also see Shree, R. (2010, December). Water as a Natural Resource: Right Versus Need Debate. Rajagiri Journal of Social Development, 2 (1), 1–24.

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Shree, R. (2020). Mapping the Water Disputes in India: Nature, Issues and Emerging Trends. In: Ranjan, A. (eds) Water Issues in Himalayan South Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9614-5_5

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Water conflict and cooperation between india and pakistan.

Water disputes between India and Pakistan are deepening. For almost sixty years the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) survived diplomatic tensions but recent upstream water infrastructure projects have rekindled conflicts. Meanwhile, the territorial conflict over Kashmir threatens to undermine the treaty. The worsening effects of climate change on the Himalayan glaciers could increase the likelihood of disasters and threaten the long-term water security of communities. These factors all have implications for future interstate cooperation and regional developments.

Conceptual Model

Conflict history.

For over a half century, rivalry over river resources has been a source of interstate tension between India and Pakistan ( Wirsing & Jasparro, 2006 ). During the partition of British India in 1947 and the formation of the two states, border lines were drawn following what was defined as the “Indus watershed” ( Gardner, 2019 ). The position of the lines meant that India gained control of upstream barrages, which regulated water flow into Pakistan ( TBL, 2014 ). As the boundary between India and Pakistan cut across many of the river’s tributaries, an upstream-downstream power structure emerged, which has been the source of tensions between the two countries, particularly in response to dam projects in Indian-administered territory (see Kishanganga Dam conflict ).

The Indus’ transboundary course

Glaciers and tributaries originating in the high mountains of the Ngari Prefecture in western Tibet, the Himalayas, Hindu Kush in Afghanistan and the Karakoram feed the extensive Indus river system. Its floodplain, where most of Pakistan’s population live, is one of the largest agricultural regions in Asia. Around 90% of Pakistan's food and 65% of its employment depend on farming and animal husbandry, which are sustained by the Indus ( Pohl & Schmeier, 2014 ).

The river system is split primarily between India (39%) and Pakistan (47%) with small sections in Tibet and eastern Afghanistan ( FAO, 2011a ). In the mountains, the courses of its tributaries played a key role in the definition and contestation of the “Line of Control” (LOC), a land boundary splitting Indian and Pakistani territory ( Gardner, 2019 ). Many tributaries run through and along the LOC, which separates the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir from the Pakistani-administrated regions of Gilgit-Baltistan and Asad Kashmir.

Increasing water stress

Many communities in the Indus Basin face water scarcity under current usage and storage patterns. According to NASA, the Indus Basin is the world’s second most over-stressed aquifer ( Buis & Wilson, 2015 ). Unlike India, Pakistan relies almost exclusively on the Indus, and southern downstream areas are especially vulnerable to strains on the basin’s water supply. This makes Pakistan one of the most water-stressed countries in the world, although there are significant disparities in how this is experienced (see Kalabagh Dam conflict ).

Over-extraction of its finite groundwater resources is a major challenge in the Indus Basin ( Kugelman, 2016 ).  In the long run, groundwater recharge is expected to significantly decline ( Jayaram, 2016 ), reducing water availability for the whole basin ( Dharmadhikary, 2008 ; Diamond, 2014 ).  Meanwhile, total water demand in Pakistan is projected to increase from 163 km3 in 2015 to 225 km3 in 2050 ( Amir & Habib, 2015 ).  In northern India where the Indus tributaries flow, irrigation is particularly intensive, and groundwater depletion may increase by up to 75% in 2050, putting further pressure on the upstream portions of the Indus River ( Dhawan, 2017 ).

Compounding effect of climate change

Although water scarcity in the Indus Basin is often attributed to water mismanagement, climate change also plays an important role ( Diamond, 2014 ). The Himalayan Glaciers, which feed the Indus Basin, are predicted to diminish further in the coming years. This may increase water flow in the short term, but it will also deplete groundwater recharge in the long run, thus reducing available water resources ( Jayaram, 2016 ). At the same time, heavy rains during the monsoon are predicted to become more irregular, bringing further challenges to address potential flood risks ( Stolbova et al., 2016 ). This is likely to aggravate tensions around issues of water distribution and flow management ( Diamond, 2014 ).

Strains on diplomatic relations

Fears of future water shortages due to the construction of dams are causing diplomatic tensions between India and Pakistan. Divisive political narratives in both India and Pakistan are generally seen to increase the likelihood of conflict. In India, a narrative of Pakistani-affiliated Islamic terror cells attacking civilians has been used to justify backing away from diplomacy and even threatening to reduce Pakistan’s water supply ( Al Jazeera, 2019 ; Roy, 2019 ). Meanwhile, nationalist media in Pakistan have blamed floods in the country on poor water management in India ( Mustafa et al., 2017 ).

Pakistanis also fear that India will use its upstream dams to control how much water flows down into Pakistan via the Indus. It is this inherent suspicion and mistrust between the two states that has also been used to provoke anti-Indian sentiment in Pakistan, providing fertile ground for further hostility and conflict ( Katchinoff, 2010 ).

Opposition to upstream dam projects

Over the past two decades Pakistan has launched multiple attempts to prevent India from building dams on both the Chenab and the Neelum rivers (see Kishanganga dam conflict ). The Neelum is a tributary of the Jhelum River and Pakistan has opposed both projects on the grounds that they contravene the Indus Waters Treaty signed by the two countries in 1960 ( Gupta & Ebrahim, 2017 ).

Conflict resolution

The indus water treaty.

Water issues in the Indus Basin are mainly regulated through the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). It was signed in 1960, and mediated by the World Bank to avoid water conflict between India and Pakistan. The treaty defined the principles for interstate water sharing from the Indus ( The Indus Waters Treaty, 1960 ). It has generally been considered a success, surviving multiple interstate tensions. The UN, the World Bank as well as other Asian countries have some power to force compliance with the treaty ( Abas et al., 2019 ). Under the IWT, control over the three eastern tributaries of the Indus River—Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas—is granted to India before they flow into Pakistan, and the three western tributaries—Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab—to Pakistan ( FAO, 2011b ).

Although its framework regulating water distribution between the two states was generally accepted by both parties, the treaty came under increasing tension as the conflict in the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir deepened. The allocation of control over the tributaries of the Indus is still contested, and certain ambiguities have allowed India to build infrastructure legally, which Pakistan claims undermines its water security and the treaty itself. This ambiguity has led to polarised interpretations on both sides.

How the treaty works

Under the IWT, the Permanent Indus Commission was established, composed of equal numbers of representatives from both India and Pakistan ( Wolf & Newton, n.d. ). All developments along the Indus must be reported to the other party. Any differences in opinion with regards to interpreting the application of the treaty is first referred to the Commission.

Should a disagreement emerge, an independent third party may be approached. If the difference in opinion is regarded as a dispute by the neutral party, a court of arbitration can be established to resolve the issue ( Wasi, 2009 ). This process of conflict resolution has been invoked only once since the signing of the treaty. It was successful in settling the disagreement over the Baglihar dam. However, Pakistan continues to express its dissatisfaction with the IWT and has suggested that the treaty be reviewed ( Kokab & Nawaz, 2013 ). Others have also claimed that the treaty is no longer fit for its purpose as it only covers surface water but not groundwater ( Jayaram, 2016 ).

International mediation

The World Bank was instrumental in brokering negotiations for the IWT. As an incentive for both states to sign, the World Bank supported both Pakistan and India with aid to build storage and conveyance facilities to provide water supplies that were supposedly lost by the agreement ( Mustafa, 2010 ). As the World Bank backed up India’s plans to develop infrastructure on the river’s tributaries, Pakistan appealed to other potential mediators. Among them was the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Meanwhile, bilateral talks have fallen into difficulty due to the ongoing Kashmir conflict. Pakistan also turned to its ally China through the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with China seeking greater economic influence in the region through the enactment of economic projects with Pakistan, while at the same time supporting Pakistan’s independent sovereignty and territorial integrity ( Woo, 2019 ).

As the influence of the United States through the World Bank has waned ( Akhter, 2015 ; Gupta & Ebrahim, 2017 ), new dynamics could redefine the importance of the landmark treaty. Pakistan has been unable to prevent projects which could threaten its water, energy and internal security. Further, the internationalisation of decisions over dams may have detrimental consequences to principles of local participation. Current mediation by the World Bank under the IWT has been state-centred rather than pertaining to the inclusion of affected local communities in the decision-making process ( Akhter, 2015 ).

Shortcoming

Observers from both sides have criticised the treaty as outdated and for being an obstruction to effective exploitation of the Indus River’s resources, as it limits possibilities for storage ( Jayaram, 2016 ). Furthermore, the IWT does not promote collaborative development of the Indus Basin between the two states, and considers neither the effect of climate change on overall water availability nor regional distribution beyond the national level (see Kalabagh Dam conflict ). It has also been pointed out that there are no restrictions on how many dams India can build in the Indus Basin, nor does it provide any quantitative measure for water distribution, thus creating a “loophole” allowing for potential over-exploitation by India ( Kokab & Nawaz, 2013 ).

The treaty is increasingly strained as both sides pursue hydro-development projects to mitigate water and energy shortages. The shortcomings of the IWT arguably highlight the need for the development of international laws to govern transboundary rivers and lakes, comparable to the UN Law of the Sea ( Abas et al., 2019 ). Further, in the context of climate change, arrangements will likely need to take pre-emptive action against natural disasters such as flooding or drought, which are becoming more frequent and intense.

The wider political context also affects water cooperation. In the aftermath of the killing of 18 Indian soldiers by Pakistani insurgents in Kashmir in 2016, the Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson hinted that India may withdraw from the IWT ( Kugelman, 2016 ). This has put the treaty in a fragile position, where it must either be backed up, updated, or provided with a viable alternative to maintain cooperative relations.

Resilience and Peace Building

Treaty/agreement.

The IWT of 1960 defined the principles of sharing water from the Indus River. The treaty has been criticised for being outdated, for not specifying the use of the river’s resources within its possible limits, and for neglecting the effects of climate change. Pakistan has suggested that the treaty be reviewed because it facilitates exploitation by India.

Mediation & arbitration

The IWT established the Permanent Indus Commission consisting of representatives from both India and Pakistan to broker any disagreements between the parties. Negotiations around the IWT are brokered by the World Bank, while Pakistan in particular has appealed to additional bodies such as the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

Tensions over water resources in the Indus river system are currently driven by both India and Pakistan’s pursuits in gaining territory and resources from one another in the name of perceived national interests. Improvements in regional cooperation and diplomacy would therefore be possible responses to the conflict. This is unlikely to be possible through the IWT alone, meaning that political structures that address the threat of climate change and potential ecological and economic shocks caused by melting glaciers may play a more vital role in conflict de-escalation.

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• TBL (2014). Indus Basin Irrigation System of Pakistan. Triple Bottom Line (TBL).
• The Indus Waters Treaty 1960, India-Pakistan, Sep., 19, 1960.
• Wasi, N. (2009). Harnessing the Indus Waters: Perspectives from Pakistan. IPCS Issue Brief 128. New Delhi: IPCS.
• Wirsing, A. & Jasparro, C. (2006). Spotlight on Indus River Democracy: India, Pakistan and Baglihar Dam Dispute. Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.
• Wolf, A.T. & Newton, J.T. (n.d.). Case Study of Transboundary Dispute Resolution: The Indus Waters Treaty.
• Woo, R. (2019). China says it supports Pakistan in safeguarding its independent sovereignty. Reuters.

Inter-State Water Disputes in India: Challenges, Solutions, and the Path to Equitable Sharing

Table of Contents

INEQUITABLE SHARING OF RESOURCES: INTER-STATE WATER DISPUTES

(relevant for general   studies paper prelims/mains).

In a world where the significance of water resources for sustenance and development is widely acknowledged, ensuring fair and adequate access to water remains an urgent concern.

In a diverse and populous country like India, the recurring challenge of inter-state river water disputes has sparked tensions among regions and hindered progress. These disputes go beyond the realm of politics and often spill over into social life and discussions. Consequently, finding a lasting solution becomes imperative to avoid delays in water resources utilization, cost overruns, and even law and order issues.

The equitable sharing of river waters is not only vital for meeting the immediate needs of communities and agriculture but also crucial for promoting harmonious interstate relations and fostering sustainable growth.

Scenario of Inter-State Water Disputes

• Recently, the Pennaiyar river dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has been making headlines. This issue is followed by the Mahadayi river dispute, a longstanding water dispute, between Karnataka and Goa.
• Numerous other disputes, such as the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal, Krishna Water Dispute involving Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, Mahanadi Water Dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh, and the Cauvery Water Dispute involving Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, and Puducherry, are frequently seen in the news.

Challenges in Effective Functioning of ISRWD Tribunals

• A tribunal is established to adjudicate ISRWDs (Inter-State River Water Disputes) only when the Center grants its approval.
• The lack of universally accepted water data currently poses challenges in establishing a baseline for adjudication.
• The current mechanism of these tribunals is marked by prolonged delays and non-compliance with the awards given by ISRWD Tribunals.
• A commonly held perspective is that adjudication may not be the ideal approach to settle ISRWDs. Many of these disputes do not involve legal questions but rather pertain to matters in the domain of hydrology, environment, engineering, agriculture, climate, sociology, and other related fields.
• Frequently, there are challenges in sharing data and discrepancies in data between the states involved in the disputes.
• Political parties often exploit these disputes for political gains, making it challenging to approach the issue objectively and reach consensus-based solutions.
• The rising demand for water, driven by population growth, urbanization, and industrialization, intensifies the competition among states for water resources.

Can Equitable Distribution of Resources Resolve ISRWDs

• A crucial element in finding a lasting and acceptable solution lies in ensuring fair, equitable, and reasonable use of natural resources.
• However , the lack of a clear definition for fair, equitable, and reasonable use can pose challenges during implementation of this concept.
• Such usage can typically be determined through the assessment of various factors, considering the historical context, present circumstances, and social conditions in the regions of interest.
• The allocation of equitable shares should be designed in a manner that maximizes the benefits for each party using water while causing minimal harm to others.
• Scientifically determining equitable distribution can be challenging due to the limited availability of data.
• As stated in the Berlin Rules of 2004 , the transparency of information concerning water resources is crucial for achieving equity.
• States should be incentivized and encouraged to adopt best practices in water usage to derive maximum benefits while ensuring equitable utilization and minimizing harm to others.

Effective governance in sustainable water management can be most effectively accomplished by comprehending gender disparities and actively addressing the unique obstacles they present.

To master these intricacies and fare well in the Sociology Optional Syllabus , aspiring sociologists might benefit from guidance by the Best Sociology Optional Teacher and participation in the Best Sociology Optional Coaching . These avenues provide comprehensive assistance, ensuring a solid understanding of sociology’s diverse methodologies and techniques.

Inter-State Water Disputes, ISRWD, Equitable Sharing, Water Resources, River Disputes, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Sutlej-Yamuna link canal, Krishna Water Dispute, Mahanadi Water Dispute, Cauvery Water Dispute, ISRWD Tribunals, Water Management, Sustainable Growth, Pennaiyar river, Mahadayi river, Gender Disparities in Water Management, Berlin Rules, Hydrology, Environment, Agriculture, Urbanization, Best Sociology Optional Coaching, Sociology Optional Syllabus, cooperative based economic development

Sociology Optional Syllabus Course Commencement Information

• Enrolment is limited to a maximum of 250 Seats.
• Course Timings: Evening Batch
• Course Duration: 4.5 Months
• Class Schedule: Monday to Saturday
• Batch Starts from: Admission Open Online Batch 

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Instructional Format:

• Each class session is scheduled for a duration of two hours.
• At the conclusion of each lecture, an assignment will be distributed by Vikash Ranjan Sir for Paper-I & Paper-II coverage.

Study Material:

• A set of printed booklets will be provided for each topic. These materials are succinct, thoroughly updated, and tailored for examination preparation.
• A compilation of previous years’ question papers (spanning the last 27 years) will be supplied for answer writing practice.
• Access to PDF versions of toppers’ answer booklets will be available on our website.
• Post-course, you will receive two practice workbooks containing a total of 10 sets of mock test papers based on the UPSC format for self-assessment.

Additional Provisions:

• In the event of missed classes, video lectures will be temporarily available on the online portal for reference.
• Daily one-on-one doubt resolution sessions with Vikash Ranjan Sir will be organized post-class.

Syllabus of Sociology Optional

FUNDAMENTALS OF SOCIOLOGY

• Modernity and social changes in Europe and emergence of sociology.
• Scope of the subject and comparison with other social sciences.
• Sociology and common sense.
• Science, scientific method and critique.
• Major theoretical strands of research methodology.
• Positivism and its critique.
• Fact value and objectivity.
• Non- positivist methodologies.
• Qualitative and quantitative methods.
• Techniques of data collection.
• Variables, sampling, hypothesis, reliability and validity.
• Karl Marx- Historical materialism, mode of production, alienation, class struggle.
• Emile Durkheim- Division of labour, social fact, suicide, religion and society.
• Max Weber- Social action, ideal types, authority, bureaucracy, protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism.
• Talcott Parsons- Social system, pattern variables.
• Robert K. Merton- Latent and manifest functions, conformity and deviance, reference groups.
• Mead – Self and identity.
• Concepts- equality, inequality, hierarchy, exclusion, poverty and deprivation.
• Theories of social stratification- Structural functionalist theory, Marxist theory, Weberian theory.
• Dimensions – Social stratification of class, status groups, gender, ethnicity and race.
• Social mobility- open and closed systems, types of mobility, sources and causes of mobility.
• Social organization of work in different types of society- slave society, feudal society, industrial /capitalist society
• Formal and informal organization of work.
• Labour and society.
• Sociological theories of power.
• Power elite, bureaucracy, pressure groups, and political parties.
• Nation, state, citizenship, democracy, civil society, ideology.
• Protest, agitation, social movements, collective action, revolution.
• Sociological theories of religion.
• Types of religious practices: animism, monism, pluralism, sects, cults.
• Religion in modern society: religion and science, secularization, religious revivalism, fundamentalism.
• Family, household, marriage.
• Types and forms of family.
• Lineage and descent.
• Patriarchy and sexual division of labour.
• Contemporary trends.
• Sociological theories of social change.
• Development and dependency.
• Agents of social change.
• Education and social change.
• Science, technology and social change.

INDIAN SOCIETY: STRUCTURE AND CHANGE

Introducing indian society.

• Indology (GS. Ghurye).
• Structural functionalism (M N Srinivas).
• Marxist sociology (A R Desai).
• Social background of Indian nationalism.
• Modernization of Indian tradition.
• Protests and movements during the colonial period.
• Social reforms.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

• The idea of Indian village and village studies.
• Agrarian social structure – evolution of land tenure system, land reforms.
• Perspectives on the study of caste systems: GS Ghurye, M N Srinivas, Louis Dumont, Andre Beteille.
• Features of caste system.
• Untouchability – forms and perspectives.
• Definitional problems.
• Geographical spread.
• Colonial policies and tribes.
• Issues of integration and autonomy.
• Social Classes in India:
• Agrarian class structure.
• Industrial class structure.
• Middle classes in India.
• Lineage and descent in India.
• Types of kinship systems.
• Family and marriage in India.
• Household dimensions of the family.
• Patriarchy, entitlements and sexual division of labour
• Religious communities in India.
• Problems of religious minorities.

SOCIAL CHANGES IN INDIA

• Idea of development planning and mixed economy
• Constitution, law and social change.
• Programmes of rural development, Community Development Programme, cooperatives,poverty alleviation schemes
• Green revolution and social change.
• Changing modes of production in Indian agriculture.
• Problems of rural labour, bondage, migration.

3. Industrialization and Urbanisation in India:

• Evolution of modern industry in India.
• Growth of urban settlements in India.
• Working class: structure, growth, class mobilization.
• Informal sector, child labour
• Slums and deprivation in urban areas.

4. Politics and Society:

• Nation, democracy and citizenship.
• Political parties, pressure groups , social and political elite
• Regionalism and decentralization of power.
• Secularization

5. Social Movements in Modern India:

• Peasants and farmers movements.
• Women’s movement.
• Backward classes & Dalit movement.
• Environmental movements.
• Ethnicity and Identity movements.

6. Population Dynamics:

• Population size, growth, composition and distribution
• Components of population growth: birth, death, migration.
• Population policy and family planning.
• Emerging issues: ageing, sex ratios, child and infant mortality, reproductive health.

7. Challenges of Social Transformation:

• Crisis of development: displacement, environmental problems and sustainability
• Poverty, deprivation and inequalities.
• Violence against women.
• Caste conflicts.
• Ethnic conflicts, communalism, religious revivalism.
• Illiteracy and disparities in education.

Mr. Vikash Ranjan, arguably the Best Sociology Optional Teacher , has emerged as a versatile genius in teaching and writing books on Sociology & General Studies. His approach to the Sociology Optional Syllabus / Sociology Syllabus is remarkable, and his Sociological Themes and Perspectives are excellent. His teaching aptitude is Simple, Easy and Exam Focused. He is often chosen as the Best Sociology Teacher for Sociology Optional UPSC aspirants.

About Triumph IAS

Innovating Knowledge, Inspiring Success We, at Triumph IAS , pride ourselves on being the best sociology optional coaching platform. We believe that each Individual Aspirant is unique and requires Individual Guidance and Care, hence the need for the Best Sociology Teacher . We prepare students keeping in mind his or her strength and weakness, paying particular attention to the Sociology Optional Syllabus / Sociology Syllabus , which forms a significant part of our Sociology Foundation Course .

Course Features

Every day, the Best Sociology Optional Teacher spends 2 hours with the students, covering each aspect of the Sociology Optional Syllabus / Sociology Syllabus and the Sociology Course . Students are given assignments related to the Topic based on Previous Year Question to ensure they’re ready for the Sociology Optional UPSC examination.

Regular one-on-one interaction & individual counseling for stress management and refinement of strategy for Exam by Vikash Ranjan Sir , the Best Sociology Teacher , is part of the package. We specialize in sociology optional coaching and are hence fully equipped to guide you to your dream space in the civil service final list.

Specialist Guidance of Vikash Ranjan Sir

The Best Sociology Teacher helps students to get a complete conceptual understanding of each and every topic of the Sociology Optional Syllabus / Sociology Syllabus , enabling them to attempt any of the questions, be direct or applied, ensuring 300+ Marks in Sociology Optional .

Classrooms Interaction & Participatory Discussion

The Best Sociology Teacher, Vikash Sir , ensures that there’s explanation & DISCUSSION on every topic of the Sociology Optional Syllabus / Sociology Syllabus in the class. The emphasis is not just on teaching but also on understanding, which is why we are known as the Best Sociology Optional Coaching institution.

Preparatory-Study Support

Online Support System (Oss)

Get access to an online forum for value addition study material, journals, and articles relevant to Sociology on www.triumphias.com . Ask preparation related queries directly to the Best Sociology Teacher , Vikash Sir, via mail or WhatsApp.

Strategic Classroom Preparation

Comprehensive Study Material

We provide printed booklets of concise, well-researched, exam-ready study material for every unit of the Sociology Optional Syllabus / Sociology Syllabus , making us the Best Sociology Optional Coaching platform.

Why Vikash Ranjan’s Classes for Sociology?

Proper guidance and assistance are required to learn the skill of interlinking current happenings with the conventional topics. VIKASH RANJAN SIR at TRIUMPH IAS guides students according to the Recent Trends of UPSC, making him the Best Sociology Teacher for Sociology Optional UPSC.

At Triumph IAS, the Best Sociology Optional Coaching platform, we not only provide the best study material and applied classes for Sociology for IAS but also conduct regular assignments and class tests to assess candidates’ writing skills and understanding of the subject.

Choose T he Best Sociology Optional Teacher for IAS Preparation?

At the beginning of the journey for Civil Services Examination preparation, many students face a pivotal decision – selecting their optional subject. Questions such as “ which optional subject is the best? ” and “ which optional subject is the most scoring? ” frequently come to mind. Choosing the right optional subject, like choosing the best sociology optional teacher , is a subjective yet vital step that requires a thoughtful decision based on facts. A misstep in this crucial decision can indeed prove disastrous.

Ever since the exam pattern was revamped in 2013, the UPSC has eliminated the need for a second optional subject. Now, candidates have to choose only one optional subject for the UPSC Mains , which has two papers of 250 marks each. One of the compelling choices for many has been the sociology optional. However, it’s strongly advised to decide on your optional subject for mains well ahead of time to get sufficient time to complete the syllabus. After all, most students score similarly in General Studies Papers; it’s the score in the optional subject & essay that contributes significantly to the final selection.

“ A sound strategy does not rely solely on the popular Opinion of toppers or famous YouTubers cum teachers. ”

It requires understanding one’s ability, interest, and the relevance of the subject, not just for the exam but also for life in general. Hence, when selecting the best sociology teacher, one must consider the usefulness of sociology optional coaching in General Studies, Essay, and Personality Test.

The choice of the optional subject should be based on objective criteria, such as the nature, scope, and size of the syllabus, uniformity and stability in the question pattern, relevance of the syllabic content in daily life in society, and the availability of study material and guidance. For example, choosing the best sociology optional coaching can ensure access to top-quality study materials and experienced teachers. Always remember, the approach of the UPSC optional subject differs from your academic studies of subjects. Therefore, before settling for sociology optional , you need to analyze the syllabus, previous years’ pattern, subject requirements (be it ideal, visionary, numerical, conceptual theoretical), and your comfort level with the subject.

This decision marks a critical point in your UPSC – CSE journey , potentially determining your success in a career in IAS/Civil Services. Therefore, it’s crucial to choose wisely, whether it’s the optional subject or the best sociology optional teacher . Always base your decision on accurate facts, and never let your emotional biases guide your choices. After all, the search for the best sociology optional coaching is about finding the perfect fit for your unique academic needs and aspirations.

To master these intricacies and fare well in the Sociology Optional Syllabus , aspiring sociologists might benefit from guidance by the Best Sociology Optional Teacher and participation in the Best Sociology Optional Coaching . These avenues provide comprehensive assistance, ensuring a solid understanding of sociology’s diverse methodologies and techniques. Sociology, Social theory, Best Sociology Optional Teacher, Best Sociology Optional Coaching, Sociology Optional Syllabus. Best Sociology Optional Teacher, Sociology Syllabus, Sociology Optional, Sociology Optional Coaching, Best Sociology Optional Coaching, Best Sociology Teacher, Sociology Course, Sociology Teacher, Sociology Foundation, Sociology Foundation Course, Sociology Optional UPSC, Sociology for IAS,

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Hydropolitics News and Intelligence

Water Security: Issues and challenges for India

By neeraj singh manhas, director of research in the indo-pacific consortium at raisina house, new delhi.

22 Feb 2023 by The Water Diplomat

Water security in India refers to the availability of adequate and clean water resources to meet the country's growing water demand, while ensuring the sustainability of the water ecosystems. This is in line with the definition of water security provided by UN Water, which is a United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism on all freshwater-related issues. It involves ensuring access to safe drinking water, managing water resources effectively, and reducing the risk of water-borne diseases. In India, water security is a major challenge due to over-extraction of groundwater, water pollution, and unequal distribution of water resources. Addressing water security is critical for the country's economic and social development, as well as the health and well-being of its citizens.

Concept of Traditional and Non-Traditional Threat

Water security has been recognized as a critical issue within government policy circles and among various stakeholders such as civil society organizations, academics, and researchers. The growing recognition of water as a finite and valuable resource, coupled with the increasing risks and impacts of water-related issues, has led to water security being perceived as a threat to India's development and sustainability. Therefore, various measures have been taken to address the challenges related to water security in India, including the implementation of policies, programs, and initiatives aimed at improving water management, conservation, and governance.

Traditionally, water security was seen as a technical issue of water supply and management, with a focus on meeting water demand through infrastructure development. However, it has now expanded to encompass a broader range of social, economic, and environmental factors, including water quality, water allocation, and water governance.

In India, water security has been recognized as a non-traditional threat due to the interlinkages between water and other critical sectors such as agriculture, energy, health, and the environment. The country faces a range of water-related challenges, including water scarcity, water pollution, floods, and droughts, which have significant impacts on various aspects of society and the economy.

The concept of non-traditional threat recognises water security as a complex and interconnected issue that requires a holistic and integrated approach, involving multiple stakeholders and a range of policies and practices. This approach recognises the need for better water governance, enhanced water management practices, and increased investment in water infrastructure and technology.

Source: Next IAS

Issues and Challenges

Water security in India faces several issues and challenges that threaten the sustainability and development of the country. These include over-extraction of groundwater, water pollution, inadequate distribution, lack of proper water management, climate change, and conflicts over water. India relies heavily on groundwater, which is being depleted at an alarming rate due to over-extraction for irrigation, industrial, and domestic use. The increasing industrialization and urbanization has led to widespread water pollution, contaminating rivers and groundwater, and making it unsafe for consumption. There is unequal distribution of water resources across the country, with some regions facing severe water scarcity while others have surplus water. India lacks proper water management systems, with inefficient irrigation systems, leaky water supply networks, and insufficient wastewater treatment facilities. Climate change has resulted in irregular monsoon patterns and increased frequency of natural disasters, causing further strain on India's water resources. With increasing water scarcity, there are growing conflicts between different states, communities, and sectors over the distribution and use of water. Addressing these challenges is crucial for ensuring water security in India and sustainable development of the country.

Way Forward

Improving India's water security will require a combination of policy, technology, and behavioral solutions. One essential strategy is to enhance water governance systems, with clear policies, laws, and institutions to manage and allocate water resources effectively and equitably. Efficient water management practices like rainwater harvesting, conservation, and recharge should be adopted to reduce water waste and increase availability.

The country needs to invest in water infrastructure such as dams, reservoirs, and canals, to improve water storage capacity, distribution, and mitigate the impacts of water-related disasters. Promoting the adoption of water-saving technologies like drip irrigation, micro-irrigation, and water-efficient appliances can significantly reduce water consumption and improve productivity. Additionally, the government should implement and enforce regulations to prevent water pollution and ensure access to safe drinking water, especially in rural and urban areas. Changing behavior is also critical, such as reducing water usage, avoiding water waste, and improving water hygiene practices. Collaboration and active engagement of various stakeholders including the government, civil society, private sector, and communities are essential to addressing these challenges.

Addressing these challenges requires a collaborative and multi-stakeholder approach, with the active engagement of government, civil society, private sector, and communities. Investing in water security will not only improve water availability and quality, but will also contribute to the overall economic and social development of India.

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India’s Water Crisis – How to Solve it?

From Current Affairs Notes for UPSC » Editorials & In-depths » This topic

Water is the most valuable natural resource as it is essential for human survival and life on earth. However, the availability of freshwater for human consumption is highly under stress because of a variety of factors. This crisis of water scarcity is most visible in India as well as in other developing countries.

This topic of “India’s Water Crisis – How to Solve it?” is important from the perspective of the UPSC IAS Examination , which falls under General Studies Portion.

What is water scarcity?

• Water scarcity is the lack of freshwater resources to satisfy water demand.
• It is manifested by partial or no satisfaction of expressed demand, economic competition for water quantity or quality, disputes between users, irreversible groundwater depletion, and negative effects on the environment.
• It affects every continent and was categorised in 2019 by the World Economic Forum as one of the largest global risks with respect to its potential impact over the next decade.
• One-third of the global population (2 billion people) live under situations of severe water scarcity at least one month of the year.
• Half a billion people in the world affected by severe water scarcity all year round.
• Half of the world’s largest cities have been facing water scarcity.

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How is the water scarcity measured?

• The absolute minimum water requirement for domestic usage is 50 litres per person per day, though 100-200 litres is often recommended.
• Considering the needs of agriculture, industry and energy sectors, the recommended minimum annual per capita requirement is about 1700 cubic meters .
• If a country like India has only about 1700 cu. meters water per person per year, it will experience only occasional or local water distress .
• If the availability falls below this threshold level, the country will start to experience periodic or regular water stress .
• If the water availability declines below 1000 cu. meters, the country will suffer from chronic water scarcity . Lack of water will then start to severely affect human health and well-being as well as economic development.
• If the annual per capita supply declines below 500 cu. meters, the country will reach the stage of absolute scarcity .

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What is the status of water availability in India?

• India receives 4000 bcm (billion cubic metres) rainfall each year. Out of this, 1869 bcm remains after evaporation = The actual availability is only 1137 bcm.
• Even in that 1137 bcm of water, there is a lot of temporal as well as regional variations in the availability.
• For instance, on the one side, there are water surplus states such as Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and on the other side, there are water scarce states such as Maharashtra (Vidarbha, Beed), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and parts of Gujarat.
• Moreover, some states that are known to be water abundant such as Punjab, Haryana have their own issues.

What is the magnitude of the water crisis in India?

• Currently, the annual availability of water is 1123 bcm in India and the demand is around 750 bcm. However, by 2050 the annual demand for water will be 1180 bcm which will exceed the water availability = wide ramifications for the country.
• 70% of India’s water is contaminated.
• 75% of households do not have drinking water on its premises.
• 84% of rural households do not have access to piped water.
• 54% of the country’s groundwater is declining rapidly than it is being replenished.
• India’s water table is declining in most regions. Also, there is a presence of toxic elements like fluoride, arsenic, mercury, even uranium in our groundwater.
• Water levels in India’s major reservoirs have fallen to 21% of the average of the last decade.
• Hundreds of small and seasonal rivers are perishing permanently.
• Almost all the major perennial rivers remain stagnant.
• Cauvery and its tributaries haven’t met the ocean for decades; the upstream dams choke its flows downstream, affecting people in Tamil Nadu.
• Krishna river runs dry in her delta region for most of the year.
• According to NITI Aayog’s water quality index, India ranks 120 th among 122 countries.

What is the recent water crisis in India?

• Maharashtra is facing a water crisis of unprecedented proportions. After years of drought, the river currents have ebbed, water in dams and reservoirs have depleted and over-exploitation of groundwater has raised concerns regarding the long-term availability of water.
• Meanwhile, media reports claim IT firms in Chennai are asking employees to work from home. The reason is that they don’t have enough water to sustain their operations. It hasn’t rained for almost 200 days in the city and it may not get adequate rain to get over the water crisis for the next 3 months.
• In North India, the people of arid Thar Desert of Rajasthan are spending Rs. 2500 for getting 2500 litres of water which they share with their cattle.
• With Punjab facing the threat of desertification and the state struggling to break away from the wheat-paddy cycle, farmers in the state have been adopting a decade-old scheme to utilise underground pipeline system for irrigation.
• In light of this crisis, Central government on its part has created a Jal Shakti Ministry under a full-fledged cabinet minister to resolve the water crisis but a lot more needs to be done.

What are the reasons for this crisis?

Monsoon dependence:.

There is a huge dependence on monsoon rains to replenish most of India’s important water sources such as underground aquifers, lakes, rivers, and reservoirs . But monsoon is vulnerable to factors such as climate change, El-Nino , etc.

Uneven distribution of water and Rainfall pattern :

Certain regions have surplus amounts of water for their need while others face perennial droughts for most of the year. For instance, Drought is a recurrent phenomenon in Andhra Pradesh where no district is entirely free of droughts. Rajasthan is one of the most drought-prone areas of India.

Increasing demand :

Population growth, industrialization, rapid urbanisation, rising needs of irrigation and increase in domestic water usage have accelerated the demand for water. Since urbanization increases in India at a rapid pace = water demand will increase rapidly as city dwellers consume more water than rural people.

Urbanisation & Water scarcity:

• Currently, about 285 million or 33% of India’s total population resides in urban areas. By 2050 this figure will reach 50%.
• Rapid urbanisation is adding to the water scarcity issue in the country.
• Presence of buildings, tar, and cement roads = even if a city like Mumbai gets good rains, the rainwater is not retained in the area as the water is not allowed to percolate underground.
• Therefore, water required for cities is largely drawn from neighbouring villages and far-off rivers and lakes = threatening the availability in those areas.
• Large cities also generate large quantities of urban sewage which pollutes the freshwater sources and ocean waters. However, only about 20% of urban wastewater is currently treated globally. In India, the figure is even lower.

Overexploitation :

• In developing countries like India, groundwater fulfills nearly 80% of irrigation requirement = resulted in a fast depletion of groundwater sources.
• Free power and inefficient utilisation of water by farmers has added to the issue of groundwater depletion.
• The groundwater and sand extraction from most river beds and basins has turned unsustainable.
• Tanks and ponds are encroached upon.
• Dug-wells and borewells are carelessly built to slide deeper and deeper to suck water from greater depths.

Shift to cash-crops:

Water is being diverted from food crops to cash crops that consume an enormous quantity of water.

Inefficient cultivation practices:

• In India, around 70% of the population is still dependent on agriculture for its livelihood.
• Since the adoption of Green Revolution in the 1960s, nearly 50% of the food production comes from irrigated land.
• But inefficient cultivation practices have led to the flooding of fertile land which in turn has caused salinization, siltation of reservoirs, etc = causing groundwater reserves of major agricultural states to be depleted at an alarming rate.

Water Pollution :

• Release of industrial and domestic waste, including urban sewage, into rivers, lakes, and estuaries has polluted freshwater sources at an alarming rate in India = those fresh water sources are not fit for drinking or other activities.
• Eutrophication of surface water and coastal zones is expected to increase almost everywhere leads to nitrogen pollution .

What are the impacts of the water crisis?

Economic growth: A Niti Aayog report predicted that water demand will be twice the present supply by 2030 and India could lose up to 6% of its GDP during that time.

Power supply: Water shortages are hurting India’s capacity to generate electricity because 40% of thermal power plants are located in areas where water scarcity is high.

Agricultural crisis: Indian agriculture is heavily dependent on monsoon (not dependable) + Ineffective agricultural practices in irrigated areas = Water stress in agriculture = Poor Cultivation = Farmer suicides .

Drinking water scarcity: Not only farmers are affected by the water crisis, urban dwellers in cities and towns across India are also facing a never seen before drinking water scarcity.

Conflicts over water : In India, there are conflicts between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over sharing of Cauvery waters, between Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh over sharing of Narmada waters, between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana over sharing of Krishna waters, etc.

What are the measures taken by the government?

Across the country, states are taking the lead:.

• In Rajasthan, there is a scheme named ‘Mukhya Mantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan’. One of its objectives is to facilitate effective implementation of water conservation and water harvesting related activities in rural areas.
• Maharashtra has launched a project called ‘Jalyukt-Shivar’, which seeks to make 5000 villages free of water scarcity every year.
• accelerating the development of minor irrigation infrastructure,
• strengthening community-based irrigation management and
• adopting a comprehensive programme for restoration of tanks.

Jal Shakti Abhiyan:

• It is a collaborative initiative of various Union Ministries and State Governments, being coordinated by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS).
• Focus Area: is water-stressed districts (256) and blocks (1592).
• Team: Central government officers, headed by joint secretaries and additional secretaries, are assigned to these 256 districts and district administration will also select 2 members to join the team. This team of officers from the central government and district administration will visit and work on water-stressed districts and blocks to ensure water conservation initiatives.
• The campaign is centered on 5 aspects
• Water conservation and rainwater harvesting
• Renovation of traditional and other water bodies/tanks
• Reuse of water and recharging of structures like bore well
• Watershed development
• Intensive afforestation
• Significance: With this initiative, the government seeks to provide drinking water to all households on a priority and in a sustainable way. It is also expected to bring a positive mindset in people for water conservation. The campaign will assist people to work for rainwater harvesting, maintenance, and upkeep of ponds and village tanks and conservation of water.

Jal Shakti Mantralaya

• The government has created a new Ministry named ‘Jal Shakti’after merging Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
• Providing clean drinking water,
• International and inter-states water disputes,
• Namami Gange project aimed at cleaning Ganga and its tributaries, and sub-tributaries.
• The ministry will launch the government’s ambitious plan (‘Nal se Jal’ scheme under jal jivan plan) to provide piped drinking water supply to every household in India by 2024.
• This Move seeks to consolidate the administration and bringing water-related issues such as conservation, development, management, and abatement of pollution under a single ministry.
• National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) is responsible for implementing the centrally sponsored national river conservation plan for all rivers across the country except river Ganga and its tributaries (as issues regarding Ganga and its tributaries are taken up by National Mission for Clean Ganga).

Jal Jeevan Mission *

Atal Bhujal Yojana *

•  It is a world bank funded central scheme that aims to improve groundwater management at the national level… Read More .

Can a new water ministry tackle the worst water crisis in Indian history?

• Experts are of the opinion that an exclusive ministry can only bring about a cosmetic but not a real change.
• Water is a state subject = Unless states make specific requests the centre cannot intervene.

What are the solutions to the water crisis in India?

Good water management practices :

• India receives adequate annual rainfall through the south-west monsoon. However, most regions of the country are still water deficient mainly because of inefficient water management practices.
• Rainwater harvesting should be encouraged on a large scale, especially, in cities where the surface runoff of rainwater is very high.
• Roof-top rainwater harvesting can also be utilised to recharge groundwater by digging percolation pits around the house and filling it with gravel.
• Indian cities need to learn from Cape Town of South Africa which when faced with the water crisis in 2018 had announced “ Day Zero “. During that day, water-taps in the city turned off = people had to use communal water-taps to conserve water. Restrictions on water use per person were also fixed.
• Since water is a state subject in India state governments should take active measures and create awareness for the minimal use of water.

Interlinking of rivers :

• Interlinking of rivers is a topic that has been discussed and debated for several years as a possible permanent solution to the water crisis in the country.
• The 3 primary advantages mentioned in favour of the scheme are (1) droughts will never occur (2) there will be no more floods in the major rivers and (3) an additional 30,000 MW of hydropower will be generated.

Coordination in aquifer usage: There is an urgent need for coordination among users for aquifers. There should be laws and contracts for sharing of aquifers. Groundwater aquifer mapping has started only recently in India which is a welcome step.

River basin authority: There should be a River Basin Authority for sharing information among states since most of the rivers in India pass through different states.

Coordinated efforts among states for management of groundwater at a localized level.

Community-level management: At the village level, there can be decentralized management of water at the community level.

Charging money for efficient use of water (like electricity). For example- Water ATMs at Marathwada provide water @25 paisa per litre a day.

Good Cultivation practices:

• Changing the cropping pattern, crop diversification and encouraging water use efficiency in agriculture by moving towards food crops from cash crops.
• Innovative farming practices like precision farming , zero budget natural farming , etc. could be employed for efficient water utilisation.

Incentive-based water conservation in rural parts of the water-stressed regions is another solution.

• For example, if a particular level of groundwater level is maintained, higher MSP can be provided to the farmers of that region.
• MSP can also be provided based on crop’s water usage = Crops that consume a high amount of water will get less MSP.

Way forward

India is not a water deficit country, but due to severe neglect and lack of monitoring of water resource development projects, many regions in the country face water stress from time to time. Therefore balancing water demand with available supply is the need of the hour for future economic growth and development as well as for the sustenance of human life.

New National Water Policy (NWP)

In November 2019, the Ministry of Jal Shakti had set up a committee to draft the new National Water Policy (NWP). This was the first time that the government asked a committee of independent experts to draft the policy.

Highlights of NWP

1) demand-side: diversification of public procurement operations.

• Irrigation utilizes 80-90% of India’s water , most of which is used by rice, wheat, and sugarcane.
• Therefore, crop diversification is the single most crucial step in addressing India’s water crisis.
• The policy recommends diversifying public procurement operations to include Nutri-cereals, pulses, and oilseeds.
• This would incentivize farmers to diversify their cropping patterns, resulting in huge savings of water.

2) Reduce-Recycle-Reuse

• Reduce-Recycle-Reuse has been suggested as the basic mantra of integrated urban water supply and wastewater management, with the treatment of sewage and eco-restoration of urban river stretches, as far as possible via decentralised wastewater management.
• All non-potable use like flushing, fire protection, vehicle washing should mandatorily shift to treated wastewater.

3) Supply-side measure: Using technology to use stored water in dams

• Within supply-side options, the NWP points to trillions of litres stored in big dams, that are still not reaching farmers.
• NWP recommends how the irrigated areas could be considerably expanded at very low cost by using pressurised closed conveyance pipelines, in addition to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)  systems and pressurised micro-irrigation.

4) Supply of water through “nature-based solutions”

• The NWP places major importance on the supply of water via “nature-based solutions” like the rejuvenation of catchment areas, to be incentivised through compensation for ecosystem services.
• Specially curated “blue-green infrastructure” like rain gardens and bio-swales, restored rivers with wet meadows, wetlands constructed for bio-remediation, urban parks, permeable pavements, green roofs etc are suggested for urban areas.

5) Sustainable and equitable management of groundwater

• Information on  aquifer boundaries , water storage capacities and flows provided in a user-friendly manner to stakeholders, assigned as custodians of their aquifers, would allow them to create protocols for effective management of groundwater.

6) Rights of Rivers

• The NWP accords river protection and revitalisation prior and primary importance.
• Steps to restore river flows include: Re-vegetation of catchments, regulation of groundwater extraction, river-bed pumping and mining of sand and boulders.
• The NWP outlines a process to draft a  Rights of Rivers Act,  including their right to flow, to meander and to meet the sea.

7) Emphasis on water quality

• The new NWP considers water quality as the most serious un-addressed issue in India today.
• It proposes that every water ministry, at the Centre and states,  include a water quality department.
• The policy advocates adoption of state-of-the-art, low-cost, low-energy, eco-sensitive  technologies for sewage treatment.
• Widespread use of  reverse osmosis has led to huge water wastage  and adverse impact on water quality.
• The policy wants  RO units to be discouraged  if the total dissolved solids count in water is less than 500mg/L.
• It suggests a  task force on emerging water contaminants  to better understand and tackle the threats they are likely to pose.

8) Reforming governance of water

• The policy makes radical proposals for improving the governance of water, which suffers from three kinds of issues: That between irrigation and drinking water, surface and groundwater, as also water and wastewater.
• Government departments, working in silos, have generally dealt with just one side of these binaries.
• Dealing with drinking water and irrigation in silos has meant that aquifers providing assured sources of drinking water dry up because the same aquifers are used for irrigation, which consumes much more water.
• And when  water and wastewater are separated in planning,  the result is a fall in water quality.

9) Creation of National Water Commission

• The NWP also suggests the creation of a unified multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder National Water Commission (NWC), which would become an exemplar for states to follow.
• Governments should build enduring  partnerships with primary stakeholders of water , who must become an integral part of the NWC and its counterparts in the states.

How Gujarat transformed from Water-deficit state to surplus state?

• The Gujarat government created the state-level Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG) to aid in the supply of services and solutions for the deployment of map-based GeoSpatial Information Systems.
• Micro-level check dams.
• Macro-level projects particularly in the Saurashtra, Kutch, and North Gujarat areas.
• Gujarat launched the Kutch branch canal from the Narmada Main canal, which helps provide water to the most distant parts.
• Sujalam Sufalam Yojana: to irrigate the areas of North Gujarat.
• The SAUNI Yojana (Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation Yojana), which means literally “reincarnation of the Narmada River in the region,” was thus introduced.
• Administrative and Governance reforms.

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Excellent essay indeed!

Great explanation.

worth a praise! well done :)

Wish you could mention the references for all the statistics and facts.

Please add features to include this article in PDF.

Where are effects🙄

Haven’t you seen the impacts heading in this article?

Great explanation and essay. This is exactly what I have been searching for.

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• IAS Preparation
• UPSC Preparation Strategy
• Inter State Water Disputes In India

What are Inter-State Water Disputes?

Interstate water disputes arise when there is a dispute between two or more states on the use, distribution and control of rivers flowing in two or more states. When the concerned states cannot resolve disputes through negotiations then the Central Government constitutes a water dispute tribunal for resolving the water dispute. 

To resolve such disputes and provide for the adjudication of disputes related to water of the inter-state river and river valleys, the Inter-State River Water Disputes (ISRWD) Act, 1956 was passed in the parliament. 

These water disputes constitute an important part of the UPSC Mains GS Paper II and III of the IAS Exam . These disputes are one of the most contentious issues in Indian federalism today.

Inter-state Water Disputes in India [UPSC Notes]:- Download PDF Here

What is Water Dispute Resolution?

All the major river basins and some among the medium river basins are of inter-state nature. As the development of projects by one state on an inter-state river may affect the interests of other basin states, inter-state differences arise with regard to the use, distribution and control of waters of inter-state river basins.

Agreements on inter-State rivers

The first step to resolving inter-state water disputes in mutual discussions and negotiations. The states or parties involved can mutually negotiate on the terms and conditions and form an agreement. 

In case, these negotiations do not work out, the next initiative is taken by the government, under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956. Then comes the Inter-state Water Disputes Tribunals in India into force. The active tribunals in the country include:

Check out the related links given below with crisp answers to the frequently asked questions about water disputes within Indian states:

Constitutional Provisions for Inter-state Water Disputes

Article 246 of the Constitution deals with the subject matter of laws to be made by the Parliament and by the Legislatures of the States. 

Discussed below are the laws and the provisions under the Indian Constitution for inter-state water disputes:

• Issues related to water supplies, irrigation and canals, drainage and embankments, water storage and water power are mentioned under Entry 17 of State List  
• The regulation and development of inter-State rivers and river valleys for the interest of the public falls under Entry 56 of the Union List . This provision empowers the Union government 
• Article 262 (1) – “Parliament may, by law, provide for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint with respect to the use, distribution or control of the waters of, or in, any inter-State river or river valley.”
• Article 262 (2) – “Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, Parliament may, by law, provide that neither the Supreme Court nor any other court shall exercise jurisdiction in respect of any such dispute or complaint as is referred to in clause (1).”

What is the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956?

The Interstate River Water Disputes Act, 1956 was enacted under Article 262 of the Constitution of India. to resolve the water disputes that would arise in the use, control and distribution of an interstate river or river valley.

Over the years many amendments have been made in this Act to further simplify and ease out the agreements and settlements between the related states. 

Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2019  

The latest amendment to this Act was introduced in Lok Sabha on July 25, 2019. It will further streamline the adjudication of inter-State river water disputes . The Bill seeks to amend the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 with a view to streamline the adjudication of inter-state river water disputes and make the present institutional architecture robust.

Other Related Links:

The main motive behind having constitutional remedies for resolving water disputes is to avoid any kind of inter-state contention and disagreements. 

With the latest amendments, the adjudication of water disputes can be speeded up. The idea of constituting a single tribunal with different benches along with fixation of strict timelines for adjudication will result in expeditious resolution of disputes relating to inter-state rivers. 

The Centre’s proposal to set up an agency alongside the tribunal, that will collect and process data on river waters can be the right step in this direction.

All these measures will streamline the process of resolving such inter-state water disputes in the country. 

Aspirants are also advised to review the UPSC CSE Syllabus before they start off with their preparation for the IAS Exam. 

For any further information, latest exam updates, study material and preparation tips visit BYJU’S. 

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Five International Movies to Stream Now

This month’s picks include a Mexican family drama, a Palestinian coming-of-age tale, a high-school movie from Ukraine and more.

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By Devika Girish

Stream it on Netflix.

There is a beautifully elastic quality to Rodrigo García’s “Familia,” which follows the myriad members of a Mexican family across a day spent together at their house in the countryside. The story is nothing new. The patriarch, Leo (Daniel Giménez Cacho), wants to sell the estate and retire from the job he has held for most of his life. The proposition unleashes currents of raw emotion at the dinner table, as his children (three daughters and one son) and grandchildren, not to mention their various partners and spouses, reckon with their family home and with each other.

Leo’s children embody familiar types: the successful, uptight doctor; the lost, black sheep writer whose marriage is falling apart; the lesbian wild child who loves to provoke. There are jokes and jabs, screaming matches and quiet tears. But everything moves so fluidly in the film — the camera weaves in and around characters like a dancer, and the actors turn in wonderfully unvarnished performances — that not for a second does it feel trite. The unpredictable shifts from rancor to resentment to tenderness feel natural, and in lieu of any pat resolutions, “Familia” leaves us with the bittersweet fact that love and loss go hand in hand.

‘Laapataa Ladies’

In Kiran Rao’s charming small-town comedy, a man disembarks a train with someone else’s bride by accident, prompting great chaos. The premise of “Laapataa Ladies” may sound ridiculous on paper, but each detail, as it unfolds, is entirely plausible and reveals a lot about the violence — and absurdity — of patriarchal customs in rural India. As it happens, Deepak (Sparsh Srivastav) and Phool (Nitanshi Goel) are married on a day considered auspicious for weddings, so when they board the train, there are three other newlywed couples in their coach. Plus, all three brides are wearing identical red wedding veils that completely cover their faces, per tradition.

So when Deepak drowsily grabs one of the women’s hands to leave in the middle of the night, it’s not until much later that he realizes that Phool is still asleep on the train, and he has brought home a stranger, Pushpa Rani (Pratibha Ranta). Then an elaborate game begins: Deepak enlists the local (and corrupt) police to find Phool and send back Pushpa Rani; his wife, having landed up in some other town, tries to find her way back to a man and a marital home she knows nothing about; and Pushpa Rani sets in motion a curious plot of her own, whose contours slowly emerge over the course of the movie. In the guise of a funny, suspenseful and crowd-pleasing caper, Rao delivers a scathing critique of misogynistic traditions.

Stream it on Film Movement Plus ; rent it on Amazon .

Timely and incredibly gutting, “Alam,” set in a Palestinian village under Israeli occupation, offers a beautifully etched portrait of what it’s like to grow up amid the debris of your ancestor’s dreams. In large part, Firas Khoury’s film plays out like any other high school drama. Tamer (Mahmood Bakri) and his gang of friends go around smoking joints, flirting with girls and trying to skip class. But their disaffection is not just born of your typical adolescent angst. Israeli flags fly over their school buildings, soldiers and settlers menacingly patrol their village, portraits of displaced and martyred family members cover walls and their textbooks offer versions of their lived history they know to be untrue.

The hopelessness and frustration roiling around them comes to a head as May 14, the anniversary of the Nakba, draws closer, and the boys hatch a plan to hoist the Palestinian flag over their school. It’s an act of teenage mischief but also one of resistance, and it becomes, for Tamer, a stark confrontation with the reality of his bereaved community; and for Khoury, an opportunity to explore the life-or-death stakes often underlying the everyday experiences of Palestinians.

‘Stop-Zemlia’

Stream it on Ovid.

Following a group of high-schoolers on the cusp of graduation in Ukraine, “Stop-Zemlia” is one those rare films that understands its teenage characters, neither infantilizing nor sensationalizing their lives and concerns. The film revolves around the quiet and thoughtful Masha (Maria Fedorchenko) and her two best friends, Senia (Arsenii Markov) and Yana (Yana Isaienko), as they go to class, attend parties and have sleepovers. There is no real conflict in the film per se: There are small skirmishes among classmates, discreet crushes and plenty of confused sexual exploration, but it’s all portrayed with an empathetic gentleness — emphasized by the film’s bright, pastel colors — that makes the darker undertones of depression feel more realistic.

Though the film was completed before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is impossible not to watch it through the lens of recent events. Scenes showing the kids participating in military training feel foreboding, but the more quotidian parts of the film — including the staged interviews that the director Kateryna Gornostai weaves throughout the film, in which the characters talk about love and loneliness — hit even harder, given how drastically the lives of Ukrainian youngsters have since changed.

‘Self-Portrait’

Stream it on Mubi.

The title of the Canadian filmmaker Joële Walinga’s essay documentary is cheekily deceptive. Self-portraits, or selfies, the defining media fixture of our time, evoke intimacy, candor and performance. But this movie is about a different, though equally pervasive, contemporary media phenomenon: surveillance, which evokes estrangement, anonymity and a lack of agency.

Walinga’s mesmerizing film, comprising scenes from closed-circuit television footage from around the world, is poised somewhere between these two poles. There isn’t much to say about “Self-Portrait” in the way of description. Each shot is static and frames a space or landscape, be it the mountains, the ocean, a field, the inside of a church, a cage at a zoo; the lo-fi quality flattens each scene into a kind of pixelated beauty, where waves or snowflakes or even animal limbs become jagged flashes of black and white. The images are strange and distant, the figures within them barely discernible; yet as we watch them one after the other, their fixed frames and mechanical gaze generate an odd feeling of subjectivity, as if we’re privy to a collective self-portrait of the human condition. The camera stays put, but the wind, water, shadows and people move, gesturing at something eternal.

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