Your search found 9 records
1 International Water Management Institute, IWMI-TATA Water Policy Program. 2002. Innovations in groundwater recharge. Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat, India: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 6p. (IWMI Water Policy Briefing 001) [doi: https://doi.org/10.3910/2009.318]
Groundwater management ; Recharge ; Seepage ; Aquifers ; Water policy ; Water storage ; Canals ; Drainage ; Pumping ; Costs ; Rain / India / Uttar Pradesh
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: IWMI 631.7.6.3 G635 INT Record No: H031840)
(1048 KB)
Based on research presented in the technical paper “Artificial recharging of groundwater: An experiment in the Madhya Ganga Canal Project, India, by R. Sakthivadivel and A. S. Chawala
2 International Water Management Institute, IWMI-TATA Water Policy Program. 2002. Bringing pumps to people: giving the poor better access to groundwater irrigation: sustainable approaches and options for eastern India. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 6p. (IWMI Water Policy Briefing 002) [doi: https://doi.org/10.3910/2009.319]
Groundwater irrigation ; Pumps ; Tube wells ; Energy ; Electricity supplies ; Poverty / India / Bengal / Uttar Pradesh
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: IWMI 631.7.6.3 G635 INT Record No: H031841)
(272 KB)
The State government has a vital role to play in developing groundwater resources to help improve the lot of the poorest people in eastern India's rural communities. Many States have tried to achieve this over the past 50 years through centrally planned public tube-well programs. Recently published research says that most of these efforts have failed to bring irrigation or improved livelihoods to the poor. This research shows how policy makers can have a significant positive impact on poverty reduction by removing pump subsidies and opening pump markets to international competition. Subsidies and import restrictions have kept pump prices in India artificially inflated, by more than 35-45%, over those of neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh. If a 'shock therapy' approach of removing restrictions is too drastic or politically difficult, the next best option is to use market mechanisms to manage pump subsidy and loan programs for the poor. A good example of this approach is the jointly managed subsidy programs that have helped usher in eastern India's belated Green Revolution. Here local pump dealers are active participants in the management of pump subsidy programs, alongside government and nationalized banks. The examples of eastern Uttar Pradesh and north Bihar provide working models of such approaches.
3 International Water Management Institute, IWMI-TATA Water Policy Program. 2002. The challenges of integrated river basin management in India: issues in transferring successful river basin management models to the developing world. Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat, India: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 6p. (IWMI Water Policy Briefing 003) [doi: https://doi.org/10.3910/2009.320]
River basins ; Hydrology ; Water management ; Water harvesting ; Groundwater management ; Drip irrigation ; Institutional development / India / China / Sri Lanka / Australia
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: IWMI 333.91 G635 INT Record No: H031842)
(223 KB)
The problems that river basin institutions in the developed world successfully address—such as pollution, sediment buildup in rivers and the degradation of wetlands—are not the top priorities for Indian policy makers and people. The items that do top Indian agendas—providing access to water for drinking and growing food, eradicating poverty, and stopping groundwater overexploitation—are either unresolved in the developed world or have become irrelevant due to economic development. This does not mean that India and other developing countries cannot learn valuable lessons from models for Integrated River Basin Management. Loosely structured River Basin Organizations, such as Southeast Asia’s Mekong Commission, can contribute to basin welfare by serving as a coordinating mechanism. They can facilitate dialogue and negotiation on resource allocation among organized stakeholders and representative bodies (such as national or state governments sharing a river basin). But River Basin Organizations by themselves cannot be expected to address the more fundamental issues that water sectors in India must contend with.
4 International Water Management Institute, IWMI-TATA Water Policy Program. 2002. The socio-ecology of groundwater in India. Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat, India: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 6p. (IWMI Water Policy Briefing 004) [doi: https://doi.org/10.3910/2009.321]
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: IWMI 631.7.6.3 G635 INT Record No: H031843)
(1094 KB)
Many people still believe that India’s irrigation water mainly comes from canal irrigation systems. While this may have been true in the past, recent research shows that groundwater irrigation has overtaken surface-water irrigation as the main supplier of water for India’s crops. Groundwater now sustains almost 60% of the country’s irrigated area. Even more importantly, groundwater now contributes more to agricultural wealth creation than any other irrigation source (see Fig. 1). groundwater use has increased largely because it is a democratic resource,’ available to any farmer who has access to a pump. Accessibility has led to widespread exploitation of the resource, by farmers grateful for a reliable irrigation-water source. In turn, this has led to high levels of groundwater use being associated with high population density. But it is a myth that groundwater use is high only where supplies are high. Such findings are worrying, because the consequences of overexploitation of this precious and productive resource can be catastrophic. The research highlighted in this briefing identifies four stages of groundwater development. To avert potential disaster and maximize benefits of groundwater as a force for poverty reduction, new policies are needed at each of these four stages. It is crucial that policymakers intervene at these critical stages to manage both the supply and demand aspects of groundwater use. Urgent priorities are areas with low supplies of renewable groundwater but alarmingly high groundwater use, such as Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andra Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab and Haryana.
5 International Water Management Institute, IWMI-TATA Water Policy Program. 2003. Building high-performance knowledge institutions for water management. Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat, India: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 6p. (IWMI Water Policy Briefing 005) [doi: https://doi.org/10.3910/2009.322]
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: IWMI 631.7.3 G635 INT Record No: H031844)
(305 KB)
Societies need forward-thinking knowledge institutions in the water sector to help them deal with the opportunities and crises that will arise in the future. India has some leading, high-performance knowledge institutions. But it also has many more that no longer deliver high-value thinking, insights or perspectives. Can these under-achieving institutions be transformed? How can the government, NGOs and international organizations design, build and maintain successful, highpotential institutions? Practical answers have been found in a recent review of 30 diverse Indian institutions. The review—part of an effort to improve institution-building in the water sector—found many traits that set the “winning” institutions apart from the poor performers. First, it is the quality of an institution’s design and launch that determines its ability to lead and to be recognized as a leader in the future. Second, good operative practices—with regard to human resources, fund-raising policy, management style and core products and services—ensure an environment where innovative thinkers can excel. The research argues that a) both these aspects are vital if an institute with high potential is to flourish and b) capital investment is necessary—but not sufficient—to achieve success. Finally, the study recommends a complete relaunch of under-achieving institutions, with new NGO staff and a fresh mandate.
6 International Water Management Institute, IWMI-TATA Water Policy Program. 2003. Pro-poor irrigation management transfer? Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat, India: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 6p. (IWMI Water Policy Briefing 006) [doi: https://doi.org/10.3910/2009.323]
Irrigation management ; Privatization ; Poverty ; Farmers associations ; Water user associations / India
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: IWMI 631.7.3 G635 INT Record No: H031845)
(192 KB)
Driven largely by financial pressures, many governments are transferring full or partial management responsibility for irrigation systems from government agencies to farmers organized into Water User Associations (WUAs). In most cases, improving the situation of poor farmers has been a secondary aim of this reform. But there is increasing evidence that Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT) can actually negatively impact the situation of poor farmers—and, in extreme cases, can even cause the collapse of irrigation schemes. New research assessed two different IMT programs: The Gujarat Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) program, one of the first IMT programs in India, and the Andhra Pradesh Farmers’ Management of Irrigation Systems (APFMIS) program, which with its sweeping reforms has served as an example worldwide. This research suggests that even if the IMT process contains all the right ingredients on paper—such as strong voting rights for farmers, irrespective of farm size—poor farmers are less informed on the whole about their rights and so tend to lose out on many of the potential benefits of IMT. The study showed that in both Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh poor farmers tended to participate more in the repair and rehabilitation work, while the larger farmers were more involved in the decision-making process—dominating the meetings and committees (see fig.1). To make IMT more pro-poor, and to ensure the viability of WUAs, which depend heavily on the labor contribution of small farmers, policy makers should take steps to ensure that poor farmers participate equally in decision-making processes. These steps include raising awareness and access to information, and making the election of WUA committees (which favor the village elite) more competitive and transparent. Monitoring participation in WUA activities and decision making against a reliable, and easily available indicator of poverty—farm size—is a key in evaluating equity trends over time.
7 International Water Management Institute, IWMI-TATA Water Policy Program. 2003. Rethinking tank rehabilitation: issues in restoring old tanks to their original state in irrigation structure. Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat, India: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 6p. (IWMI Water Policy Briefing 007) [doi: https://doi.org/10.3910/2009.324]
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: IWMI 631.7.7 G635 INT Record No: H034110)
(175 KB)
Approaching the rehabilitation of the 50-100 year-old irrigation tanks—spread across Rajasthan, South Bihar, Madya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and other South Asian locations such as Sri Lanka—solely from an irrigation perspective, runs the risk of depriving communities of valuable socio-ecological services and functions that these structures provide today. These tanks may have become ‘inefficient’ in their original function of providing flow irrigation, but as they have degraded over time, they have evolved into valuable systems that support people’s livelihoods in a number of ways. In addition to storing water for crop irrigation, tanks provide services such as recharge of groundwater used by adjacent communities, fertile silted soil that allows cultivation of additional crops, fishing and aquaculture, water for raising livestock, and sand and soil used by small industries.
8 International Water Management Institute, IWMI-TATA Water Policy Program. 2003. The energy-irrigation nexus. Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat, India: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 6p. (IWMI Water Policy Briefing 010) [doi: https://doi.org/10.3910/2009.327]
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: IWMI 631.7.2 G000 INT Record No: H034112)
(875 KB)
Electricity subsidies for farmers are an expensive legacy of past development policies. The result is overuse of both energy and water in groundwater-irrigated agriculture—threatening the financial viability of the power sector and the future of the groundwater resource itself, along with the livelihoods of the millions who depend on it. The most popular solution is the metered tariff, promoted by international donors and many of India’s state governments. But metering is the ideal solution only if the cost of metering and billing 14 million scattered, small users in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is ignored. Easier, more feasible and more beneficial in the short run in many parts of South Asia would be the use of a rational flat tariff, which avoids the transaction costs and strong farmer opposition associated with metering. The flat-tariff option has been ignored because, in its current incarnation, it has proved a complete failure. However, combined with intelligent power supply rationing, it is a logical, viable alternative which could cut wasteful groundwater use by 12-18 km3 per year in Western and Peninsular India alone. The approach would involve (1) gradually raising tariffs to cut power utility losses; (2) supplying farms with fewer hours of power per year, but ensuring a quality power supply during periods of moisture stress; and (3) metering at the feeder level to measure and monitor farm power use, to allow good management.
9 International Water Management Institute, IWMI-TATA Water Policy Program. 2004. Water and welfare: critical Issues in India’s water future. IWMI-TATA Annual Partners’ Meet, 3rd. Report on Workshop Discussions, 17-19 February 2004. 22p.
Groundwater management ; Water pollution ; Fluorides ; Risks ; Health hazards ; Irrigation systems ; Canals ; Watershed management / India
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: IWMI 631.7.5 G635 IWM Record No: H039846)
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