 "Illustration by Binay Sinha")
The recent Supreme Court judgment on the Cauvery waters dispute has provoked this reflection on water governance.
Freshwater is becoming an increasingly scarce resource in India. At Independence, our per capita annual water availability was over 5,000 cubic metres (cu m). This has now fallen to around 1,500 cu m, a level that is below the global norm defining water-stress. This is a national average and many parts are below the 1,000 cu m global norm for water scarcity.
Water is also a threatened resource. First is the threat from ecologically unsustainable over-exploitation — groundwater in 20 per
Freshwater is becoming an increasingly scarce resource in India. At Independence, our per capita annual water availability was over 5,000 cubic metres (cu m). This has now fallen to around 1,500 cu m, a level that is below the global norm defining water-stress. This is a national average and many parts are below the 1,000 cu m global norm for water scarcity.
Water is also a threatened resource. First is the threat from ecologically unsustainable over-exploitation — groundwater in 20 per
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