Think demand, not supply

The introductory chapter of Managing Water Resources: Policies, Institutions and Technologies opens with references to water wars and water conflicts, but the theorising that follows is based on mainstream economic theory rooted in the general equilibrium model. The premise: a shift from a supply-driven to a demand-driven approach and the policy regime and institutional changes that will be needed to support it.

With international experience as a pointer to the future, this book is divided into three parts""dedicated to irrigation, drinking water supply and sanitation in rural and urban areas, and gender and governance issues in the sector. State-specific case studies and comparative experiences across states tend to dominate the book.

To return to the book's premise, the history of the supply-driven approach, with its policy-supported subsidy regime that dominates the sector, has been such that the pricing mechanism""particularly in the irrigation sector""was never able to recover the cost of water. If a demand-driven approach is to be promoted with full cost recovery as the objective, then appropriate policies and support institutions will have to replace those in existence.

Widening the set of options available could prove beneficial. If the price is too high for all consumers to pay, then appropriate technologies could be promoted to reduce consumption of water. Also, subsidies could be targeted at groups of people who cannot afford the new prices. Thus appropriate policies that cover issues of equity, equality and participation with appropriate supporting institutions could be formulated to solve problems that may emerge under a demand-driven water supply regime. The key policy issue is management of ground water, water rights and local Panchayati Raj Institutions, with privatisation of water being the bottom line.

This book contains 11 case studies divided into irrigation and drinking water sectors, apart from issues of governance and gender, including one case on the future possibilities of the sector based on the Dutch experience.

This book discusses the cost-recovery pricing models for irrigation that have already been tried in India across different states, whether it is through efficient management of staff, as in Karnataka (KV Raju and H K Amar Nath), deployment of mechanisms to reduce water demand, such as effective power tariffs and volumetric water allocation, as in Gujarat (M Dinesh Kumar), or the widespread adoption of drip irrigation technology, as in Maharashtra (A Narayanmurthy).

The success of participatory irrigation management through the formation of user groups, however, is mixed""with outcomes rooted in the historical political context of specific states, in this case Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh (R Parthasarathy and Jharna Pathak).

In the case of urban drinking water supply, access to drinking water shows such disparities in availability as to self-suggest the promotion of public-private partnerships that insist on the inclusion of the poor, according to Amitabh Kundu and Sandeep Thakur.

The issue of drinking water quality is discussed in detail by K Pushpagandha, who uses a methodology of analysis that reveals how state-specific cultural practices of using drinking water make a difference to quality""as indicated in a comparative study of Punjab, Orissa and Kerala.

While cost recovery should be the guiding principle for future drinking water supply, increases in cost have to be accompanied by technical improvement in water delivery, as in Karnataka (R Maria Saleth and G S Shastry). In Delhi's case, where the ground water is provided by alternative formal and informal institutions, appropriate institutional arrangements that include public, private and civil society partnerships ought to make these sustainable and pro-poor in the long run (Purnima Dasgupta).

Women tend to be neglected in the process of production and management of water resources. According to Sara Ahmed, technological and institutional measures are pre-conditions for gender-just water resource development. Favouring democratically elected local institutions, as the Madhya Pradesh case study indicates, could prove successful, but also requires more funds, argues Yogesh Kumar.

Then there's the Dutch experience. Financial markets, loans and pollution taxes have proved to be an efficient way to finance private water supply companies in the Netherlands (Mein Pieter Van Dijk).

All the articles are fairly linear and simple in their narrative style. The book is a good read, based on mainstream economic theorising. However, it ignores the complexities of India's water sector, such as conflicts across multiple stakeholders, or cross-cutting issues between, say, poverty and irrigation, or inter-sector conflict over water between, say, irrigation, drinking and industrial use.

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MANAGING WATER RESOURCES

Edited by Vratna Reddy and S Mahendra Dev
Oxford University Press
Price: Rs 595; Pages: 331