Deptt. of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Govt. of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India
The pressure on water resources is growing day by day. Populations are increasing. Lifestyle changes have led to the per capita demand for water rising. As societies move from the earlier agrarian to the now more complex, multi-sector, societies and as technologies open up new possibilities of economic activity - the requirements of water grow. Many of the water sources - surface or ground water - which were comparatively easier to tap, have already been developed and are being exploited, and the development of new water sources now proves more costly and may involve complex technical and environmental problems which need to be sorted out before the sources can be tapped. Gradually agitations and local competition, and even conflicts, over issues of water sharing have started emerging in our country.
Whether it is storage and distribution of water through canals, or pumping of ground water, or rainwater harvesting and watershed development, all have their differing challenges to be overcome.
Thus, the mix of water management and water development strategies and practices that are being adopted have assumed great contemporary importance. In fact the entire issue of governance in the water sector particularly at district, project and local levels needs to be looked into so as to have systems which work so as to resolve the emerging issues.
This paper takes a look at water management and governance related issues in rural India at the district or local/regional levels.
