Marking a watershed

Water is a tasteless, shapeless, colourless odourless liquid that exists on earth and gives us life. This is what we know of water. What we don’t know about water is how to manage it. All we are able to do is capture it in various “vessels” ranging from a glass or a cup to rivers, tanks, lakes, reservoirs etc. This book is a bold and comprehensive attempt to capture all that we know about how to manage and regulate the various “vessels” that hold water for different uses. These management practices are formalised through legislation or tradition at different levels of governance and by different social actors. These are captured by the various contributors succinctly. Unlike a typical law book that would either argue from a normative understanding of a basic principal, eg the human rights approach towards legislation, or generalise from case laws towards legal framework, this book combines both the approaches through contributed articles.

It is a tricky topic to deal with and hence there was a gap. This book focuses on the law that pervades in all the 20 different aspects on water, cutting across disciplines and end usages, as listed by the editor for which he deserves special appreciation.

The book was three years in the making. The proposal, initiated in 2005, started with a framework for a cluster of themes and questions and was circulated to potential contributors. Almost all agreed to contribute and the number of aspects to be covered increased from an initial 12 to 20. There was a workshop in 2007 to ensure coordination and coherence in the papers, while retaining the individual disciplinary perspectives. Writing the manuscripts took up the period upto December 2008. The editor contributed the introduction and wrap-up chapter that facilitate understanding and context.

Given the complexity of water resources, arising from the diversity of sources and history, such a long gestation was inevitable. Historically, the English law evolved through precedence, based on specific cases that led to judgments applicable to local disputes related to water allocation for land. The colonial law related to irrigation water disputes in India at the national level and, finally, the river water disputes that cut across different states evolved on international laws like the American one.

When end use of water gets linked up with agricultural land or industrial usage or commerce or domestic use by urban settlements, the basic question is who owns, possesses and consumes water? The question becomes especially relevant when it gives rise to the associated alienation from water and its rights, to people and communities that do not own land or fall in the above categories in towns and cities. Hence water ownership is not easy to define. It changes with the context, so the answer to the question varies as the context shifts. It also shifts with the sources it comes from. While the well water is owned by the owner of the well, the tank is a communal property for farming owned by the village, and the river water is owned by the state it flows from. Rivers, like sea and air, are nobody’s property, while in the context of ground water, the law that applies to ownership of the land applies to the water below it. For access and approach to the water flowing near land, like a river or lakes, access is determined by the land ownership patterns. River water, though not owned by anybody in principle, is claimed by states, and held as public trust. In principle an equal division of available water is agreed upon for river water disputes. However, it is very difficult to implement this equity, especially in the case of severe shortages. Kaveri and Krishna river disputes are examples. While the state’s sovereign rights over bound water and not flowing water are recognised, they are limited by consideration of social welfare: the greatest good for greatest number of people.

The book has 20 contributions by 19 contributors. No author hesitates to take a stand, strongly believes in what the future course of action should be and suggests it boldly. The book covers three theses: ecology and forest sustainability; equity and social justice; and harmony between man and man, and man and nature. The amplification of these themes and what governs these aspects get covered in the book. The editor makes a strong case for a national act, to be included in the Directive Principles as a duty to be specified to the citizens.

This is the most comprehensive book so far in providing broad brush strokes to fill the canvas on water legislation. The book marks a “watershed” in water legislation documentation.

WATER AND THE LAWS IN INDIA

Ed Ramaswamy R Iyer
Sage Law, Sage Publications India, Delhi
670pp; Rs 995