Approaches to Ground Water Management-To Control or Enable

Appropriate roles for the slate and local organisations in natural resource Management have been the source of debate both in India and internationally. Often, states attempt to address emerging natural resource problems via centralised control mechanisms. This approach is frequently ineffective and negates the interest local populations have in developing solutions to problems that effect them before all others. A basic philosophical premise underlying this paper is that local initiative represents a wellspring capable of generating innovative and implementable management solutions to many emerging problems. While local efforts are unlikely to generate solutions to all