Water perspectives highlight need for alternatives
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A recent book launch at the capital, New Delhi, brought to light the many perspectives on water – from the conventional to alternatives, to ways of dealing with water scarcity and the subject of water management.
Ramaswamy R Iyer’s Towards Water Wisdom: Limits, Justice, Harmony was released by Professor M G K Menon, Advisor to Indian Space Research Organization and President, India International Centre; and published by Sage Publications. The release was followed by a panel discussion by experts including K C Sivaramakrishnan, Chairman, Centre for Policy Research, Dr Ajit Mozoomdar, Centre for Policy Research, Professor Mahesh Rangarajan from University of Delhi and author Ramaswamy R Iyer. ‘The mightiest of rivers need to flow’ Panelist K C Sivaramakrishnan spoke on the conventional perspective of water that stressed on damming of rivers for irrigation purposes, referring to the caste hierarchy among engineers that placed public health engineering at the bottom. “But the mightiest of rivers need to flow, else they are no better than a ditch,” said Sivaramakrishnan categorically. Touching upon the critical issue of water scarcity, he rebuked the people of Delhi for having refused to recognize the alarming consequences of water mismanagement and assuming its “national right to quench its thirst first.” While speaking on the importance of local initiatives in water management, Sivaramakrishnan made a vital reference to the Chennai incident where farmers have been driven to selling water instead of using it for their own requirements – an unfortunate case of diminishing control of the community over its natural resources. Author Ramaswamy R Iyer too touched upon the subject of water scarcity, stating that the crisis of water shortage is in reality an outcome of ‘gross mismanagement of water resources’ - something that needs to be fixed for making scarcity ‘manageable’. More local initiatives, underwater drilling, defining water rights are other ways to deal with the issue. The rights to water and its laws were discussed by panelist Ajit Mozoomdar, who recapped the book’s argument for a national water law. Mozoomdar talked about riparian rights, whereby people living in riparian lands (land through which water flows) are assumed to have a greater right to water than others. For water that does not flow; that is for water found in tanks, lakes, etc., he said, there were separate laws, and most often it is the state that holds the rights. Local authorities and communities, he stressed, have no legal rights over water. Thus there is a need to consider alternatives. This point was also taken up by Sivaramakrishnan, who noted the “limitations to finding legal solutions on water.” Mozoomdar also spoke about the ‘social cost benefits’ that may be differential benefits – for instance, costs accrued by tribals will differ from that by contractors. Also the flow of cost-benefit over time is critical to knowing the true benefits rising from investments in policy programs. Professor Mahesh Rangarajan said it is critical to look at the political ideologies of the twentieth century to understand how water – and its storage, transport and use – became central to its politics; how large engineering projects became critical to political moves. The book, he said, is a “call for sanity”; “a nuanced view of issues that are at times reduced to black and white.” At the same time, he stressed the need to move beyond the concepts of black and white, big versus small, and the state versus community. “Both the policies of water and its issues flow from a common source,” said Rangarajan. The question now is – how to come to a common future and how to decipher its shared past. He concluded by referring to the end of the book that speaks of ‘glimmers of hope’ of emerging water movements. But what needs to be seen is how far they have been successful in changing the mindsets of people in power. Author Ramaswamy R. Iyer too reiterated this point by commenting “a change in attitude toward water” is critical to any solution. Water wisdom is indeed part of a larger wisdom… for nations, communities and individuals, and this can be the beginning of a future of clarity. |
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