A decentralised approach to water disputes

The chief minister of Karnataka has requested the Prime Minister to call a meeting of the party States to sort out this year’s Cauvery water-sharing problem. It would be instructive for the parties concerned to look into the policy literature on water disputes in their quest for a way forward.

I was asked in 1995 to arbitrate in a water-sharing dispute in a river basin, following the apex court’s directive. I had, apart from the flows to be shared that year, also suggested that a three-layer system, implemented in the Mekong Basin among nations, be implemented.

This dispute-resolution system — political at the highest level , coordinative at the second level and a delivery apparatus at the third level — has worked reasonably well. It is now institutionally incorporated in the Draft National Water Framework Bill 2016, which the ministry of water resources has placed in the public domain and circulated for comments by the States. This, in turn, is based on the report of the committee for drafting of the national water framework law, chaired by me which submitted its report in May 2013.

Surprisingly, there has been little discussion on the water framework Bill, considering that water is a critical issue in India’s federal politics. The French scholar Phillipe Cullet had made an earlier critique of the drafting committee report. More recently, Nilanjan Ghosh of Observer Research Foundation commented on the issue ( BusinessLine , July 30). However, it needs to be appreciated that the report makes a case for decentralisation of powers.

To Cullet the Bill is premised on strengthening the role and powers of the Centre at the expense of the States and by extension districts, blocks, municipalities, panchayats, ward sabhas and gram sabhas. Ghosh, recognising that multiple stakeholders must be involved in a participative way, is in favour of empowered water agency systems.

The Draft Bill uses the expression “appropriate government”. The framework document was, however, meant to provide the larger structure for support mechanisms to States and communities. Local government, CBOs (community based organisations), the management of ponds, water bodies, watersheds, aquifers, and river basins were to be empowered.

Cullet and now Ghosh want local bodies to be more sharply defined in their functioning in a constitutional system which permits diversity. This aspect is dealt with in some detail in the preparatory committees but there is a problem with the observations. Details of this kind cannot be a part of the legislation. They would come in the ‘Rules’ and background explanations.

The approach of giving primacy to local governments is, in fact, mentioned in the Draft Framework Law a number of times. It observes: “Appropriate Government means in relation to interstate rivers and river valleys, the Central Government and in relation to rivers confined to the territory of a State, the State Government; and as defined in the concerned legislation devolving powers to local bodies. Further Local Authorities and the appropriate Government shall take all measures to plan and manage water resources equitably, sustainably, and in a socially just manner.” It also says, “The planning, management and regulation of water resources shall be carried out by the appropriate local authorities and the appropriate Government in a manner that is transparent, accountable and participatory.”

It was provided that such users and community-based institutions will be empowered to take decisions based on aquifer information and extraction data shared with them. Local governing bodies such as panchayats, municipalities, corporations, and water users’ associations, wherever applicable, were to be empowered and involved in the planning and management of projects.

It would be for the first time that such explicit functions will be legally legislated for the appropriate government at the local level in India. The new laws and the attendant literature also include the role of the Centre in dispute resolution.

The only aspect in which the draft framework is prescriptive at the national level, is its requirement that a minimum amount of life giving water must be the right of every Indian. The draft framework designs a structure to empower the State governments, local governments and institutions of the water sector.

The writer is Chancellor, Central University of Gujarat, and a former Union minister

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