Water and Public Policy in India

Politics, Rights, and Governance

Deepti Acharya

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000442557
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Public Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book explores the conceptual and theoretical frameworks of Right to Water and analyzes its values in the context of water policy frameworks of the union governments in India. It uses a qualitative approach and combines critical hermeneutics with critical content analysis to introduce a new water policy framework. The volume maps the complex argumentative narrations which have emerged and evolved in the idea of Right to Water and traces the various contours and the nature of water policy texts in independent India. The book argues that the idea of Right to Water has emerged, evolved and is being argued through theoretical arguments and is shaped with the help of institutional arrangements developed at the international, regional, and national levels. Finally, the book underlines that India's national water policies drafted respectively in 1987, 2002 and 2012, are ideal but are not embracing the values and elements of Right to Water.

The volume will be of critical importance to scholars and researchers of public policy, environment, especially water policy, law, and South Asian studies.

1 Introduction

DOI: 10.4324/9781003211730-1

Arguing water as a right with reference to Right to Water, and examining the same in the context of India’s national water policies, is an explicit objective of this book. The book, for this purpose presents normative and empirical discussions on a fact that water is a right and argues to realise the significance of water policies in the context of Right to Water.

The core focus of this book is relevant, as the issue of right to water is complex and increasingly dynamic. Globally, it has imposed new challenges to water freedoms and water equalities. In the tradition of policy research, the issue and content of right to water is often studied in the background of international declarations. This has often missed or ignored necessary normative descriptions, and therefore studies have failed to address the problem of right to water as the “central question” of water justice. This book, while arguing for water justice as the central question of water governance, insists that the entitlement of individuals over water resources will be possible only if a nation will understand the concept of Right to Water and will inculcate its values in its water policies. The book, in this stance, explains that the notion of Right to Water is an empirical question which needs to be described and understood against a theoretical background. It conceptualises the idea of Right to Water with the reference of normative arguments, empirical agreements and arrangements evolved at the regional and national levels. Importantly, in the book, the idea of Right to Water has been discussed as a policy concern, and hence it has not presented a descriptive analysis on the problem of water scarcity or abundance. Instead of doing so, the book has endorsed that water, in all situations, should be preserved as a right, and its preservation should be ensured through a policy. To preserve individuals’ right over water resources, policies are considered as significant because as the choices of the government, they are meant to address uncertainties; and since availability of water on earth and in India is most uncertain, a discussion on the idea of Right to Water in the line of policy discourses in essential. The book, while drawing the idea of Right to Water, argues that the actual right to water is an issue of concern to water justice, and hence the concept of Right to Water can have many meanings and interpretations.¹

The discussions presented in this book are drawn upon the facts and arguments of previous studies which have commonly concluded that globally, ensuring right to water to all is becoming increasing difficult (Gleick, 1993; Iyer, 2007; Shiva, 2002; Salman and McInerney-Lankford, 2006; Brooks, 2007, 2010; Bakker, 2010; Cullet, 2010, 2013; D’Souza, 2008; Thielbörger, 2014; Singh, 2016). The book, in the context of identified difficulties, takes a major shift from discussing the water problem in the reference of water pollution (Larry, Deborah, and Knox, 1990; Sen, 2017); water wastage, health and sanitation (Mckeown and Bugyi, 2015); water stress/scarcity and quality of water resources and their relation with water conflicts and water disputes (Anderson, 1983; Gleick, 1993; Rogers, Llamas, and Cortina, 2006; Gupta, 2008; Shiva, 1989; Colopy, 2012; Chellaney, 2014; Kallen, 2015; Steenhuis and Warhaft, 2016), floods, drought, food, irrigation, pollution and management (Rao, 1991; Maloney and Raju, 1994; Vaidyanathan, 1999; Vaidyanathan & Oudshoom, 2004; Iyer, 2007, Shiva, 2002; Sridhar, Thangaradjou, Senthil, and Kannan, 2006; Kumar and Furlong, 2012; Chellaney, 2019); water management and water laws (Cullet, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013); and rights of lower and upper riparian states (Shiva, 2002; Iyer, 2007, 2009; Chellaney, 2014). Instead, it focuses on the idea of Right to Water and investigates contents of the national water policies of the union government in India in the same context.

While taking such a shift, the book argues that in the water discourses, the meaning(s) and elements of Right to Water are not explicit. They are implicit and are needed to be derived from various sources, evolved at international, regional and national levels. In respect to this stance, this book elaborates and discusses upon the process of the conceptualisation of the idea of Right to Water. The book, for this purpose, focuses upon the global and Indian perspective of the concept of Right to Water. While so doing, the book reads and interprets the international, regional and national documents, the verdicts of the Indian judiciary and deeds of Indian civil societies, not as a guarantor of right to water, but in realising their importance as a definer of Right to Water. Since the second major objective of this volume is to examine India’s national water policies, the book contextualises the same, critically, with respect to the water policies drafted by the union government of India respectively in 1987, 2002 and 2012.²

1.1 Key focuses and framework for the discussion

This book, while explaining the idea of Right to Water in the context of the water policies of the union government in India, embraces two major areas of political studies, i.e. political philosophy and public policy analysis. Chapter 2 of the book explores the meaning of Right to Water as a part of political philosophy and describes India’s national water policies as part of public policy analysis in Chapter 4. Chapter 3 focuses specifically on India’s understanding on the idea of Right to Water.

To attain the desired comprehensive understanding on the idea of Right to Water, the book focuses on the Right Based Approach throughout. Maintaining focus on the Right Based Approach has multiple advantages as it offers directive principles and values of obligation, accountability, respect and transparency to state policies that helps to standardise the value of Right to Water. At the same time, the approach helps in policy making and policy analysis and also in setting priorities for water policy to ensure that no person is deprived of sufficient water supply.

The discussions and arguments of this book are developed on the basis of a framework, which presents the core areas and flows of the discussions. The key topics of discussion of this book can be understood from Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1 draws the key focuses of the book. It presents that in this book:

• Water is at the centre and is considered as a basic biological need for life.
• Water as a right is argued in the context of Right to Water and meanings of it are drawn from theoretical and institutional understandings, evolved at the global level and in India.
• India’s national water policies are analysed on the basis of the understandings drawn from the theoretical and institutional interpretations.

Figure 1.1 Conceptual approach.

The three key focuses of the book, i.e. water, the idea of Right to Water and India’s national water polices, are interlinked.

1.2 Flow of the discussion

To present the discussion and to maintain the connection between the key focuses, this book has maintained a flow. The discussion, in this regard has three steps and each step represents to one aim, as Figure 1.2 shows.

Figure 1.2 shows that in this book, the emergence and evolution of the concept of Right to Water is discussed as the first step. The second step of the discussion has identified the core principles of Right to Water as the ideal benchmarks and has used them as a tool to analyse India’s national water policies, respectively drafted in 1989, 2002 and 2012. To make the analysis precisely in favour of the idea of Right to Water, and to explore if India’s national water policies are inclined towards Right to Water, the book has investigated the distributive and management strategies, proposed by the three national water policies, as the third step.

Figure 1.2 The flow of the discussion.

Figures 1.1 and 1.2 together draw the conceptual and theoretical frameworks of Right to Water that this book explores, and they analyse its values in the context of water policy frameworks of the union governments in India. The book, for this purpose, uses a qualitative approach and combines critical hermeneutics with critical content analysis. Noticeably, critical hermeneutics is used to understand the complex argumentative narrations which have emerged and evolved in the idea of Right to Water, and critical content analysis is used to identify and explore if the three national water policies are embracing the idea of Right to Water.

1.3 Water as a right in water discourses

In academia, multiple dimensions of water and issues concerning it are allied with technical aspects. However, traditional understandings shifted mainly after the Durbin Conference,³ as they follow classical liberal trends in water governance. A paradigm shift has divided water literature into two different approaches. The first approach is market-based that moves towards privatisation, the trends of which are noticed in World Bank group⁴ activities. The second approach is right-based, which emphasises water equality. (Bakker, 2010: Privatizing Water: Governance Failure and the World’s Urban Water Crisis). A market-based approach in water governance is observed as an obvious part of neoliberal culture. However, this obviousness is profoundly challenged by the water warriors (name given by the water activist to themselves) as “liberal environmentalism” (Bernstein, 2001), “green neoliberalism” (Goldman, 2005), or market environmentalism (Bakker, 2004), and as “neoliberalization of nature” (McAfee, 2003; Bridge, 2002; Mansfield, 2004; McCarthy, 2004; McCarthy and Prudham, 2004; Perreault, 2006). The scholars, while arguing against neoliberalism, have humanised the water-related issues and have highlighted human sufferings, extensively. The works done by Salman and McInerney-Lankford (2006), Riedel (2006), Baviskar (1995), Shah (2009), Asthana (2009), Bandyopadhyay (2009), Iyer (2009), Cullet and Koonan (2011), Rayner (2010), Shiva (2002), Amanda and Ripley (2011) and Winkler (2014) are the few examples of the same.

Both the discourses, that are opposite in arguments, are keen to solve the problems related to water use and management in favour of/for life, development and environment. However, the consensus on the idea that water is a right has not evolved with the same grounding and objectives. As such, the arguments and studies that focus on the economic aspects of water are efficiency oriented. The studies made in this regard argue to ensure water efficiency in all situations. According to such studies, efficiency is a tool to ensure justice, and so the focus of water management should be on efficiency (World Bank, 1993). In deep contrast to this, philosophical arguments that are concerned with ensuring water as a right are purely justice oriented. For such studies, equality is justice (Baxi, 2012). The arguments evolved in this respect emphasise water equality over water efficiency. Evidently, between the two, contradictions are extreme and arguments overlap each other. In water studies, such contradictions are classified and studied as neoliberalism (Cleaver and Elson, 1995; Spiertz and Wiber, 1996; Lipschutz and Crawford, 1998; Barlow and Clarke 2002; McAfee, 1999; Bond, 2000) vs. Post-neoliberalism (Bakker, 2010). In water policy studies, this is further framed and analysed as Washington Consensus and Post Washington Consensus (SandBrook, 2005).

Due to the influence of Washington Consensus and Post Washington Consensus, the consent on the idea that water is a right is attempted to be achieved through the institutionalisation of the idea, and the initiatives are made in this regard at various levels. However, in comparison to initiatives made by regional and national institutions, undertakings made by the international organisations like United Nations (hereafter UN) are found to be more influential due to their approach and reach. The principles offered by the UN through resolutions and declarations insist upon recognising water as a human right. These ideas are theorised (not in the traditional senses) in the human rights tradition and are recognised as the third generation of Human Rights (Salman and McInerney-Lankford (2006)).⁵ The principles offered by the UN Declarations have added humanitarian values in the water management processes. However, the idea has not remained unchallenged for long. The principles and undertaking of the UN that has stimulated the concept of Human Right to Water have been challenged by academia. The ideas are fundamentally criticised by...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The concept of Right to Water: Emergence and evolution
• 3 Indian understanding on Right to Water
• 4 Right to Water in India’s national water policies
• 5 Conclusion: Towards Right to Water in India
• Bibilography
• Appendix A General Comment 15
• Appendix B India’s National Water Policy – 1987
• Appendix C India’s National Water Policy – 2002
• Appendix D India’s National Water Policy – 2012
• Index