When I go through the water ...
Published by Subrata Singh, General Manager (Programs) at Foundation for Ecological Security
When I go through the water governance in different states, I feel there is no consistency in approach. While there are no laws in India on Quantity and Quality of water, we have Participatory Irrigation Management which largely provisions for the command area farmers, riparian doctrine seems to be a dominant principle.
We see the doctrine of prior appropriation being used for allocation of water for large cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, etc - the doctrine is
historically based on a “first in time, first in right” philosophy whereby supply
is theoretically subject to a priority order
In case of industrial water allocations or for drinking water it seems to be the non-priority permit doctrine which operates on the allocation of entitlements granted at the discretion of the Government. The resource itself is nationalized by vesting the control of it in State Government water authorities.
The use of Ground Water is chaotic with no control or principles of management.