Trends in Water Sector Policy and Legal Framework in the Indo-Gangetic Basin

1. The Water Sector Policy and Legal Framework in the Indo-Gangetic BasinA cross-country analysis of trends New Delhi, November 2009 Sanjiv de Silva, Aditi Mukherji and Bharat Sharma

2. Questions we asked (1) • How has the legal regulatory framework in IGB changed over time? What are the emerging areas of emphasis? • Overall policy/legislative activity • Changes in sectoral emphasis • Movement from resource development to management and governance • Similarities and differences at cross country, and sub-national (India & Pakistan) levels • Drivers of change

3. Questions we asked (2) • Qualitative analysis focused on selected topics to contrast with quantitative results: • Groundwater (GW) • Floods and droughts • Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) • Decentralization and participation • Focus on India in this presentation (but not the case in the planned publication)

4. Methodology (1) • Located 101 instruments mainly through the internet • FAOLEX, website of the Commonwealth Legal Information Institute, the India Water Portal, and national websites (official and others). • Developed a framework for analysis and comparison of instruments • Identification of: • Key sectoral focus & other sectoral content & priorities for water allocation • Classification – resource development/management/governance orientation (SUBJECTIVE BIAS) • Content covering resource development/management/governance • Distributed each instrument’s content across the framework • First level analysis of trends (quantitative) - by combining the framework with the grouping of instruments by decade and comparing across countries • Second level trends analysis (qualitative) - by assessing their content and comparing across countries • Amalgamation of the two analyses

5. Methodology (2): Earliest LI in the sample: Canal & Drainage Act, 1873, India. Includes State and Provincial instruments in India and Pakistan respectively. Total LI: 98

6. Methodology (3): Key components of the framework

7. Methodology (4): Definitions Subject to interpretation & overlap

8. Findings Temporal Trends

9. An exponential increase in overall activity… A sudden spurt in number of water related instruments after 1980.

10. driven by a shift towards management/ governance

11. …and towards decentralization Coincides with the emergence of State and Provincial instruments in India and Pakistan respectively.

12. In India: a similar pattern emerges even beyond the water sector

13. Nevertheless, irrigation & drainage dominates in absolute numbers

14. GW India Irrigation & Drainage Pakistan IWRM India Water Quality India … but the focus has widened since the 1980s More color = more diversity

15. I&D dominant in BD over last 50 years & in PK in 1990s GW a key priority for India in 1990s IWRM emerging in 2000s across IGB Expansion from I&D to IWRM in BD in last 20 yrs … including GW & IWRM (and its components)

16. Findings Groundwater

17. Emergence in the 1990s

18. Why a plethora of GW laws in 1990s and 2000s… • Entirely private investments • Some speculative hypothesis • In response to public hue and cry over GW? • Almost no state intervention and the state is trying to get a handle to control? • States need to be seen to do something?

19. …especially in India? • Featured in 20 of the 25 instruments assessed for the 1990-2009 period • 15 classified as having either a primary or substantial focus • Close similarity in content (and language) between the three Model Groundwater Bills at Union level (spanning a period of 13 years). • The three significant additions to the 2005 version are: • A focus on securing groundwater for drinking • Emphasis on GW recharge • Requirement for the Central GW Authority to maintain a GW database • The similarities (with the 2005 Bill) continue down to four State-level instruments in terms of content and language (almost identical in the Bihar Act). • In fact donor-driven rather than responding to local specifics.

20. Findings IWRM

21. Appears to have taken off in the 1990s

22. …after the Dublin Principles of 1992 • 17 of the 19 instruments occur in or after 1992.

23. …but the relationship seems more complex • Majority of instruments (10 of the 19) occur after a time lag of 10 years for the Dublin Principles to influence national instruments • The texts of the various instruments indicate references to the need for integrated approaches to water management prior to 1992. • E.g. India’s National Water Policy of 1987 • Suggests that IWRM principles may reflect pre-existing knowledge at country level, and are in fact a codification of this. • But did formal recognition at international level give IWRM an added legitimacy post 1992? • Suggests a two-way cyclical national-international-national interaction given the post-1992 emphasis on IWRM.

24. Findings Decentralization & Participation

25. Decentralization: similar timing to IWRM

26. Institutional orientation remains at national scale. …but Bangladesh appears to lag behind In terms of geographical/administrative scale covered by institutions:

27. In terms of orientation/functions of institutions:

28. Participation • The quantitative analysis suggests a relatively late emergence • But a more detailed assessment indicates that decentralization and participation predates its visibility as a principle in policy and legal texts. • Today these are well established principles, but display different timelines and maturity. E.g. Bangladesh: despite recognition by policy instruments, little evidence to indicate translation into practice. India: over half (13/24) the organizations either established or referred to in the 2000s operate at levels no higher than the district and sub-basin. • Attention to providing access to marginalized social groups across IGB, but weak in Bangladesh. • Recognition (especially in Nepal) of the need for empowerment and capacity building of local institutions to bridge gap between enactments and practice. • Overall: significant attention to establishing water sector organisations and promoting equitable participation & access, but effectiveness?

29. Findings Flood and Drought Management

30. Relatively low prominence except in India • Emergence of flood and drought management instruments during the 1990-2009 • India displays the most consistent focus on both flood & drought management. 13 of the 19 instruments are at the State level. • Despite Bangladesh’s high exposure to flooding, only three instruments appear to have any focus on flood management.

31. …but do numbers always tell the whole story? • Bangladesh has the only instrument with flood management as its core focus (Bangladesh Water and Flood Management Strategy, 1995).

32. Conclusions

33. Conclusions • Significant increase in water sector policy and legislative activity in the past 20 years throughout the IGB • Shift towards viewing the resource through a ‘governance lens’, and this has brought a diverse set of issues to the table • A similar effect from emergence of broad multi-sector and multi-disciplinary concepts such as IWRM, and the interaction with international norms • The GW sector in India suggests that significant legislative activity may not always be meaningful at ground level. Will depend on what motives underlie legislation. • To follow-up: explore what drives policy and legislative responses using the identified shifts in focus.

34. Searchable Database on Water Sector Instruments in the IGB

35. Searchable Database • Framework containing the content of the 101 instruments is being converted to a database. • Searches possible: • by country/State/Province instruments content • by topic country/State/Province content.

36. Instruments that cover (Select one): Water resources development Water resources management Water resources governance Water-related Instruments by Content Back to main menu

37. Water Resources Management: Groundwater management Flood management Drought management Pollution control Watershed management Maintaining environmental integrity Fisheries and aquaculture Water use efficiency Integrated water resource management (IWRM) Water-related Instruments by Content Back to instruments by content menu Back to main menu

38. Select one: All countries India Bangladesh Nepal Pakistan Water-related Instruments by Content Back to water resource management page Back to instruments by content menu Back to main menu

39. Instruments by Contents Results display page Back to previous page Back to water resource management page Back to instruments by content menu Back to main menu

40. Select one: View the provisions that relate to the topic View the entire instrument Instruments by Content Back to previous page Back to water resource management page Back to instruments by content menu Back to main menu

41. Water-related Instruments by Content Results display page Back to previous page Back to water resource management page Back to instruments by content menu Back to main menu

42. Thank you.