Groundwater

Much has been said and written about sharing of river waters between Punjab and Haryana from time to time since the reorganisation of the state of Punjab in 1966. Various agreements, accords, tribunals, commissions and water sharing formulas have been worked out time to time, but the problem still remains unsolved. Haryana is stressing for the completion of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link to carry its share of surplus Ravi-Beas water (3.5 million acre-feet) awarded to it in 1976, while Punjab argues that it has no surplus water to share with Haryana, and is adopting various measures to check this outflow of water. Such awards and agreements are generally politically-induced, and therefore, remain unimplemented. This study highlights the ground realities related to irrigation to evaluate the claims and counterclaims of both the states.

Efforts to save Nagpur's decaying water bodies, restore other surface reservoirs and recharge groundwater levels form one of the key initiatives proposed in a draft report for the region as part of the National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan commissioned by the ministry of environment and forests.

The emergence of water markets has been a consequence of the popular use of groundwater and now increasingly surface water resources for irrigation. But as this paper explains, while this may have helped raise agricultural output, it has also seen a widening of rural inequalities and has had an adverse impact on the interests of small and marginal farmers and other weaker sections of society.

While instances of resource over-appropriation are in evidence in different settings globally, the error of a narrow tragedy of the commons analysis is to assume an original natural state of open access to resources. In all social forms, humans have created institutions to restrict individual access to resources so that they may be preserved for collective benefit. Tragedies of the commons occur when such collective institutions are undermined and individuals lose the sense that their long-term interests in resource preservation are being assured. The case of Gujarat's fishery presents one such instance where development overlooked local institutions that may have been able to restrict resource over-exploitation by fishers.