Revamping Water Governance in India: The Pathway to a New National Water Policy

Introduction Water governance faces a multifaceted challenge due to the elusive nature of water, which transcends boundaries. Though the traditional definition of “transboundary waters” entails waters crossing international political borders, state-of-the-art definitions broaden the scope of the notion to include waters crossing any form of boundary, ranging from the international level to the smallest societal units and sectoral divisions. [1] This expanded perspective includes interstate waters within a country. Notably, the latest manifestation of transboundary water conflicts arises between the economic and ecosystem sectors over water allocation. [2] Human interventions, driven by the pursuit of short-term economic gains, often disrupt flow regimes, resulting in significant downstream ecosystem losses. Despite recognising river basins as optimal natural units for planning and managing surface water resources, [3] there is a pervasive historical tendency to fragment basins into separate units for governing the river systems. This fragmentation has two origins: first, it makes managing the resources easier, and second is the respect for political or geographical jurisdictions. [4] This is a reductionist approach of treating water as a mere stock of resources within a region to be used for human convenience as per the need. [5] The frequent disputes over water resources between Indian states, as well as between the central and state governments, can be attributed to this reductionist approach and the decentralised governance structure inherent in the federal nature of the Indian democracy. [6]