There are no quick fixes for the complex water-related challenges facing Andhra Pradesh. What is clear is that policies, institutional procedures and other aspects of water governance are needed that are firmly rooted in the principles of ‘adaptive management’. Adaptive management is based on the recognition that in a complex and rapidly changing situation there can never be sufficient information to reach a settled optimum decision. Hence, the emphasis has to be on flexible planning backed by strong monitoring and information management systems that allow constant adaptation and the upgrading of policies, legislation, plans and activities.
This is the conclusion of a one-year project that investigated practical means of improving water governance in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, undertaken by IIT (Delhi) and IRC working in partnership with the AP Department of Rural Development, supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The team focused on five components that led to a range of outputs for the AP Water Governance Framework & Tools Project:

• Legislation that has the potential to support improved water governance;
• An overall framework for improving water governance;
• A water governance toolkit;
• Basin-scale modelling as integral part of improved water governance;
• A water resource assessment in eight sample villages in Nizambad District.

From managing water supply to managing water demand

Water is becoming an increasingly contested resource in semi-arid areas of India. During the last 25 years, a dramatic increase in groundwater use by the agricultural sector has led to declining groundwater levels with the result that, in many areas, water service delivery is constrained by lack of absolute resources rather than solely by lack of well-maintained water-supply infrastructure. The challenge of ensuring that water is where we need it, when we need it and of an acceptable quality has never been greater. Meeting this challenge requires inter-sectoral planning procedures and regulatory measures that ensure needs are met on an equitable and sustainable basis.
Andhra Pradesh has been at the forefront of innovative approaches to watershed development in India. However, the effect of agricultural intensification and increased water use is that water resources are fully allocated in all AP river basins in all but the highest rainfall years. It has become increasingly difficult to find engineering solutions to bridge the gap between water supply and demand. There is a compelling need to shift the emphasis of water policy from managing water supply to managing water demand. The core challenge is one of water governance.

Toolkit for improving water governance

How is such a change to come about? Those who are working to this end need support and a number of tools for structuring stakeholder dialogue, managing information and assessing the status of water resources, water supply infrastructure and often competing demands for water were adapted during this project. They include:

1. Resources, Infrastructure, Demand/Access (RIDA) framework: The RIDA framework is a way of categorising the various aspects of a water system. It is used to structure information, analysis and discussion related to the planning and management of water delivery systems.
2. Quality assurance and control: Quality information is a crucial element of successful water governance.
3. Qualitative information system (QIS): A form of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) in which local people assess of water services and related problems to improve services and develop better systems of governance.
4. Information management systems: To optimise access by all stakeholders and ensure that decision making is legitimate, transparent, effective and efficient.
5. Multiple use services (MUS) assessment: identifies complex ways in which water supply directly affects peoples abilities to pursue a sustainable livelihood and/or to better cope with livelihood shocks and stresses. There is increasing recognition of the importance of small scale income generating activities and productive activities to the livelihoods of the poor and, particularly, to the livelihoods of poor women and children.
6. Participatory fluoride assessment: The scale of fluoride problems in India is increasing, in part, because groundwater contamination is linked to groundwater overdraft. Participatory fluoride assessment maps and monitors fluoride problems and ensures that appropriate action is taken.

Tools for decision making

Tools for analysing information and producing evidence for effective decision making include:

• Time series analysis: Some factors that influence future water supply and demand are more predictable (e.g. population increase) than others (e.g. climate change).
• Water balance estimation: Determines the extent to which the water entering and leaving an area is in balance.
• Modeling: A mathematical representation of a dynamic system or process which may be biophysical, societal or some combination of the two.

Tools for improving water governance

Three other tools when used together can provide an innovative approach to improving water governance.

• Visioning: Used to develop a precise and shared description of how an individual or a group of stakeholders would like the water resources and water services to be at some future time.
• Scenario building: A consistent description of a possible future situation, a story about the way the world might turn out tomorrow. Developing scenarios helps to identify possible pathways (strategies) towards a shared vision of the future.
• Strategy development: Visioning and scenario building are integrals parts of strategy development.

Download the executive summary of the AP Water Governance Framework & Tools Project.
Rene van Lieshout

Tags: governance, policies & legislation, south asia, water resources management