Overview

Water: The Looming Crisis in India analyzes the key issues in developing national freshwater policies for the mainland countries of the South Asian sub-continent. Ray suggests that freshwater policy must cover all aspects of physical environment and human life, by noting that food and drought management are parts of freshwater policy and acknowledging that water is a scarce natural resource and has economic value. He calls for the development of basin-wide policies to minimize conflicts within riparian countries, as well as a freshwater policy baseline to minimize internal conflicts on water sharing arrangements. By pointing out the need for full participation of all stakeholders in developing a baseline policy including people displaced by the construction of large dams, Ray suggests a new system in which riparian countries are guaranteed that no water-related project proceeds without a transparently developed environmental impact assessment and evaluation of alternative options.

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This is a very valuable contribution on water policy in India and is of relevance to many other countries around the world. The sustainability of water resources is a critical issue for all of us as we prepare for the widespread and yet to be identified national and local impacts of population growth and climate change. This book leads the way with a forward looking and planning approach in assessing the need for wise water use and conservation in India. However, the lessons and recommendations are of wide relevance and usefulness and this book signals the importance of effective water policy and planning. Water sustainability is critical to our future well-being and this book is a timely reminder that we ignore national water management at our peril by pointing to a better way. I sincerely congratulate Mr Ray for an outstanding contribution on this subject.--Bill Robertson

This is an outstanding piece of scholarship by Binayak Ray in exploring one of the most important issues facing civilized society everywhere. Providing secure supplies of potable water is now of central concern to all societies and made the more so aswe face climate change and try to determine what our adaptive response should be. The lessons Ray has drawn from experience in developing freshwater policy in India may be applied in almost all countries. The problems of cross-boundary aspects of regionalwater demands, the political complexity of reaching accommodation with competing jurisdictions, the stresses created when supplies cannot keep up with demand due to population increase and increasing per capita consumption, the importance of environmental considerations and the constraints on financial resources are all issues faced in varying degree by nations large and small. The path dependencies created by the political boundaries and institutional arrangements as well as the prevailin

This book is an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the looming freshwater crisis in the Indian sub-continent, one of the driest sub-continents with the largest poverty-stricken population on earth. The non-availability of freshwater will have disastrous socio-economic and political consequences, as well as create unprecedented environmental catastrophes. Further, the rise of China, which controls about 90 percent of Asia's freshwater supply and is a water-scarce country herself, will demand more water from two of the Himalayan rivers that flow through the sub-continent. As no two Asian superpowers have ever existed side by side, the rise of India as an economic superpower will complicate the situation further. Within this context, the book deals with a range of issues which India and other sub-continental countries must bring into their policy considerations to ensure sustainable socio-economic development and political stability in a rapidly changing global environment

Author Information

Binayak Ray is a visiting fellow in the department of political and social change at Australian National University.

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