Towards Water Wisdom: Limits, Justice, Harmony (Electronic book text)

There is a widespread view that a water crisis is looming. This book stresses the need for an urgent and radical transformation of our thinking on water management. The first section evaluates the water scene in India, redefining the projected crisis as one of mismanagement more than scarcity. It calls for a shift from supply-side engineering to restraining the increase in demand, for conservation and more equitable management. The second and third sections deal with water-related conflict, including detailed discussions of the Indus Treaty, Baglihar, the Cauvery disputes and rehabilitation problems in the Narmada Valley. Conflicting rights are juxtaposed: the fundamental right to water, contractual rights of corporates, economic use rights of irrigators and industries, the advocacy of property rights by the World Bank and neoliberal economists. The analysis points to the emergence of water markets. The fourth section examines the inadequacies of water laws and policies and the changes that are necessary. The fifth section presents national water concerns in other South Asian countries.At the international/global level, it deconstructs several notions and prescriptions currently in vogue, and takes note of significant new thinking. Finally, the author widens the perspective beyond water to the total system of which it is a part, and draws attention to a dynamic world scenario that makes a change in our thinking imperative.