RETHINKING THE MOSAIC RETHINKINGRETHINKING THETHE MOSAICMOSAIC Investigations into Local Water Management Themes from Collaborative Research n Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur n Institute for Social and Environmental Transition, Boulder n Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai n Nepal Water Conservation Foundation, Kathmandu n Vikram Sarabhai Centre for Development Interaction, Ahmedabad Edited by Marcus Moench, Elisabeth Caspari and Ajaya Dixit Contributing Authors Paul Appasamy, Sashikant Chopde, Ajaya Dixit, Dipak Gyawali, S. Janakarajan, M. Dinesh Kumar, R. M. Mathur, Marcus Moench, Anjal Prakash, M. S. Rathore, Velayutham Saravanan and Srinivas Mudrakartha RETHINKING THE MOSAIC Investigations into Local Water Management Themes from Collaborative Research n Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur n Institute for Social and Environmental Transition, Boulder n Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai n Nepal Water Conservation Foundation, Kathmandu n Vikram Sarabhai Centre for Development Interaction, Ahmedabad Edited by Marcus Moench, Elisabeth Caspari and Ajaya Dixit 1999 1 © Copyright, 1999 Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET) Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) Nepal Water Conservation Foundation (NWCF) Vikram Sarabhai Centre for Development Interaction (VIKSAT) No part of this publication may be reproduced nor copied in any form without written permission. Supported by International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Ottawa, Canada and The Ford Foundation, New Delhi, India First Edition: 1000 December, 1999. Price Nepal and India Rs 1000 Foreign US$ 30 Other SAARC countries US$ 25. (Postage charges additional) Published by: Nepal Water Conservation Foundation, Kathmandu, and the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A. DESIGN AND TYPESETTING GraphicFORMAT, PO Box 38, Naxal, Nepal. PRINTED AT Jagadamba Press PO Box 42, Patan Dhoka, Nepal. 2 Acknowledgments The research programme was undertaken through grants from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and The Ford Foundation, New Delhi. Their support and patience is gratefully acknowledged. The Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security provided much needed support. Special mention is also essential for the careful and detailed work on document layout and map design done by Anil Raj Shrestha and Sunil Shrestha of GraphicFORMAT. Ajaya Dixit supervised production of this publication. Opinions expressed in the papers are those of the authors, not the editors or the organizations supporting the research. Kanchan Dixit also provided much needed support. Thanks are also due to everyone who has contributed views and insights at different stages of the research programme. Photographs were contributed by Marcus Moench, Ajaya Dixit, Dipak Gyawali, Salil Subedi, S. Janakarajan and VIKSAT. 3 About the Study This is the report of the first phase of the collaborative program on Local Supply and Conservation Responses to Water Scarcity supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and The Ford Foundation. The study investigated water management issues of four river basins: the Palar, the Sabarmati, and the Shekhawati in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Rajasthan respectively as well as the Tinau in Nepal that joins the West Rapti in Uttar Pradesh. Water management challenges in the Noyyal and the Bhavani basins of Tamil Nadu were also investigated. In the first three basins, water scarcity is an increasingly grim reality. The organizations and their principal investigators have extensive experience in analysing water management issues in scarcity situations. The fourth river basin was selected to capture the physical diversity of a Himalayan river and to analyse the water management concerns in an area of Nepal and India that is ostensibly rich in water resources but is beginning to confront a situation of stress. Though collaborative, the study implementation did not provide scope for the kind of process envisaged in the design. As such, methodological differences are evident. While studies in India followed the social science research model, the study on the Tinau used an ethno-ecological approach. The collaborative exercise, however, did include series of meetings and sharing of research tools as well as ideas. Three major events were the April 1998 Writing Workshop in Kathmandu, the January 1999 Chennai Meeting and the May 1999 Ahmedabad Workshop where the findings of the study were reviewed, analysed and critiqued. There were regular interactions via email as well as joint field visits. The participating institutions, their principal investigators and supporting staffs were: Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur. M. S. Rathore and R. M. Mathur Institute for Social and Environmental Transition, Boulder. Marcus Moench and Elisabeth Caspari Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai. S. Janakarajan, Paul Appasamy, Velayutham Saravanan, supported by S. Jothi and K. Sivasubramaniyan Nepal Water Conservation Foundation, Kathmandu. Dipak Gyawali, Ajaya Dixit, supported by Sudhindra Sharma and Ngamindra Dahal Vikram Sarabhai Centre for Development Interaction, Ahmedabad. M. Dinesh Kumar, Shashikant Chopde, Srinivas Mudrakartha and Anjal Prakash LOCATION OF RIVER BASINS N ª NEPAL SHEKHAWATI TINAU SABARMATI INDIA BAY OF BENGAL ARABIAN SEA PALAR, BHAVANI AND NOYYAL Contents Preface ix CHAPTER 1 Addressing Constraints in Complex Systems 1 Meeting the Water Management Needs of South Asia in the 21st Century Marcus Moench CHAPTER 2 Fractured Institutions and Physical Interdependence 57 Challenges to Local Water Management in the Tinau River Basin, Nepal Dipak Gyawali and Ajaya Dixit CHAPTER 3 Conflicts over the Invisible Resource in Tamil Nadu 123 Is there a way out? S. Janakarajan CHAPTER 4 Historical Perspectives on Conflicts over Domestic and Industrial Supply in the Bhavani and Noyyal Basins, Tamil Nadu 161 Velayutham Saravanan and Paul Appasamy CHAPTER 5 Addressing Water Scarcity 191 Local Strategies for Water Supply and Conservation Management in the Sabarmati Basin, Gujarat M. Dinesh Kumar, Shashikant Chopde, Srinivas Mudrakartha and Anjal Prakash CHAPTER 6 Dug Well Recharging in Saurashtra, Gujarat 247 A Local Response to Water Scarcity M. Dinesh Kumar, Shashikant Chopde and Anjal Prakash CHAPTER 7 Local Strategies for Water Management and Conservation 261 A Study of Shekhawati Basin, Rajasthan M. S. Rathore and R. M. Mathur CHAPTER 8 Ways Forward 301 PREFACE PREFACE From the Ganga in the north to the Cauvery in the south, rivers of South Asia have carried the political, economic and social history of the region with them. As they flow from the highland ranges of the Himalaya, Western Ghats or the Aravallis towards the Bay of Bengal or Arabian Sea, these rivers have become intertwined with the hopes and aspirations of the people who live in their basins. Today, water systems in the region are under stress. Growing demands from agriculture, industry and urban growth stretch available supplies while pollution undermines the quality of the resource base. Addressing these problems will require a level of understanding and management far beyond that needed during the entire previous history of water In many cases, development. Building the institutions and scientific understanding essential to enable local management management represents one of the most important challenges facing the region. In seems to be many ways, this challenge is one of understanding social change and its dynamics. Approaches to it stem from concepts – either implicit or explicit – regarding the role approached as a of different groups within society and of the state and also why individuals and small-scale version groups behave the way they do. These underlying concepts, and the differing sets of of larger levels of assumptions social actors make based upon them, are rarely explicit in debates over organization. water management. The set of papers in this volume represent an initial effort to clarify key elements in debates over the role of decentralized, “local” institutions and the participatory processes necessary to initiate effective water management. “Local,” “participatory” approaches to water management are often proposed as alternatives to large scale centralized initiatives managed by the State. While centralized State initiatives draw on a long history of water resources development, relatively few data exist on the nature and limitations of more localized approaches. In addition, the terms “local” and “participatory” are vague. What “local” and “participatory” mean is unclear both in terms of physical scale and the social processes involved. In many cases, local management seems to be approached as simply a small-scale version of larger levels of organization. Local management organizations are expected to take on a similar array of functions (though scaled down and requiring less technical expertise) as their larger State cousins and are even characterized as operating through a similar analytical decision-making process. Where scale is concerned, they are intended to take responsibility for a hydrologic unit or water delivery system (aquifer, river basin, irrigation system or municipal supply facility). This “local” hydrologic unit or system is seen as a single element among an array of other similar local elements that are governed at some ultimate level by the State. More often than not, the existence