[Urbanstudy] The Tonk incident and river water conflicts

[Chitra and Vishwanath]

There are many facets to the Tonk incident and the incidents of competition between agricultural consumers of water and other consumers.
In perspective the difficulty is in managing water both as a social good and with its right to life apsect and its economic good character when it is used for purposes other than essential.
The South African policy for example suggests that 6000 litres of water per family per month is an entitlement and should be available to all free. After this baseline/lifeline consumption, water can be priced recognising its economic character ( In a famous quote- God gave the water, it should be free. But God forgot the canals, the pipes so therefor a cost). Key points would be ' Water for all' and 'lifeline water for free'.This is but the first step in recognising the social good role of water at the household level whether urban or rural - the false dichotomy being subsumed here.
Then comes the prioritization of a limited reosurce .One possibility is to state that water for domestic consumption is first priority and the second is 'water for food'- i.e. the food lifeline quotient of water. This would mean that Jaipur and villages would have equal priority on lifeline water but then the second allocation would be water for foodgrain cultivation. The third priority would have to be ecological flows i.e. to keep the river/lake/tank alive as an ecosystem. The fourth priority could be water for commercial crops and the fifth water for industries/commercial use. This by no means captures all the allocation for water nor does it adequately prioritise all requirements. The National Water Policy of India 2002 does have a priority list. The problem currently is that water is a state subject and is not planned at a river basin level.
The scale of the management would have to be the biggest basin. India has 19 major river basins and a host of medium and minor river basins. Planning and management is unforunately not done at this level. This is an imperative which will eliminate sub-optimisation (water harvesting upstream may mean no water downstream- an issue which can be addressed only at the scale of a river basin).
The nature of the river basin management will obviously have to be participatory and community driven. As to how communities upstream will appreciate the need for water to flow into the sea and dialogue with fishermen who would require the alluvial flows into the river would be a huge challenge. 
The key in my opinion, remains
The recognition of water as a fundamental right to life and the definition of lifeline water
The prioritisation and allocation of its use, especially during scarcity years
The scale of the planning and management
The nature of the engagement of the management of the basin i.e. the participatory, community oriented management.

It is only in  a policy vacum that conflicts arise between communities and we have a major vacum as regards drainage basin management
 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Aditi thorat 
  To: anant m 
  Cc: urbanstudygroup sarai ; bhuvana ; Vinay Baindur 
  Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2005 10:21 AM
  Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] dipu's email


  One of things I find ironic is that the Tonk incident has occured in the state where Rajendra Singh, who won the Magsasay Award has done some outstanding work in participatory water management. What have been the factors that have impeded scale up?   Moving on from Switzerland, sre there any examples that people on this list are aware of, of macro solutions to issues such as water, in other developing countries?   Aditi

    On 10/28/05, anant m <anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk> wrote: 
    I think Dipu meant to send the following email to the whole group but forgot to click the reply- all button. 
    anant
    sharan at sarai.net wrote: 
      Anant's little bit is actually fairly substantial, with several points of
      engagement. I am in agreement with the basic thrust of the argument - of 
      the absolutely critical need to remain focused on issues of power and
      justice in discussions of policy/devolution/etc. However, let me come to
      the theme from a slightly different angle, elements of which are contained 
      in Anant's observation regarding toxins and flouride contaminated water. 
      The question that I wish to pose is: how are knowledges about toxins and
      pollutants being produced? Through which institutions? How democratic is 
      this knowledge? What is our imagination of 'publics' in geneerating the
      sciences of pollution? Or at a bit more abstract level - how does one bring
      in discussions of 'environmental planning' and 'spatial planning' into one 
      frameowrk. What would be the (hopefully productive) tensions of looking at
      critiques of regulatory science together with the critiques of planning/
      policy? How do the courts pose the issue?

      To me these are still open issues. In my own work I have tried to think 
      through some of these questions while considering the responses to
      industrial pollution (reliant on the idea of zoning and marked by political
      conflict)and the CNG case (characterised by scientific disputes and
      controversies)in Delhi and would appreciate if others on the list have
      views about the theme.

      Dipu




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