The lecture drew attention to the water policy and governance challenges in the backdrop of the unfinished effort to draft a new National Water Policy and India’s aspirational Vision 2047 for Viksit Bharat, a developed India. This Vision is not possible without a water-secure India. Redrafting India’s National Water Policy is imperative to pursue these aspirational goals of water secure India, including the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the emerging risks of water quality, dam safety and those associated with climate change.
This lecture offered insights on how India can resolve its long-term water security problems with existing knowledge and technology, provided major policy changes are formulated and water institutions are restructured both at the central and state levels. It argued that the new paradigm of water management must be India-centric. It engaged critically with the following policy-relevant aspects of India’s Water Management Practices:
- Are popular water management paradigms like integrated water resources management (IWRM) and integrated river basin management (IRBM) working in the Indian context, or is it time to jettison such practices?
- The urgency to relook at the role of the storage structure (large, medium, and small dams, including groundwater storages), to sustain India’s economic growth and buffer the severe impact of climate change.
- India’s hydro-climatic contexts are markedly different from the European/North American conditions. India requires to design its water management practice that responds to its own climatic reality.
- Demand Management to reduce water use per unit of GDP without sacrificing growth and how China and Singapore’s growth trajectory offers valuable lessons.
- India must build a credible and robust database. It is imperative that India moves towards data-driven policies including deployment of sensors, robotics, and artificial intelligence for improving India’s water management practices.