Conflict Documentation

Documenting various types of conflicts has been the core work of the Forum since its inception. Following documentations were done in the past two phases of the Forum’s work and these are represented in the descending order. 
 

The Odisha State Resource Centre has brought out a compendium on different conflicts in the Odisha State, titled ‘Water Conflicts in Odisha: A Compendium of Case Studies’. The compendium contains 19 case studies, written by 21 authors. The selection of the case studies was done through regional workshops and references provided by experts. To read the full compendium, click here. 

 

All the earlier case studies documented by the Forum have been put on a GIS map based on Google maps and links and brief annotations are available on clicking. Click here  to see the Google Map. 

 

Like in the current phase, Forum has organized training programmes in the past phase too. The main objective of organising these training programmes was to introduce the participants with basic concepts, debates, theoretical and analytical approaches and emerging issues related to water conflicts and their resolution in India. As part of the methodology used in these workshops, the participants were requested to prepare a short case study on any water conflicts they know. These case studies were used for group work and/or for individual presentations during the training programmes. These case studies are available on the website in the resources section, under the Miscellaneous category . 
 

The booklet titled, ‘Kaarpuzhayil Karappuzha Padhati Theerkumbol’ (‘When Karappuzha Project is constructed across Kaarpuzha river’) in Malayalam was released officially on 15 January 2010 in Kerala. The programme was inaugurated by Shri. K. L. Paulose, President Wayanad District Panchayath. Eminent media personality, Shri.O. K. Johny, released the first copy of the publication by handing it over to Shri. Roy Jacob, a well known farmer of the area.

 

At the invitation of Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Executive Director of PILDAT, Islamabad (Pakistan) to contribute a paper on inter-state water conflicts in India, as part of their initiative on Inter-provincial Water Disputes and their possible resolution in Pakistan, Prof. Janakarajan and K. J. Joy wrote a paper titled, “Inter State Water Dispute among the Riparian States: The Case of Cauvery River from Peninsular India”. They have published this paper in English and Urdu and Sindhi versions are also available.

 

Forum coordinated a chapter on conflicts related to drinking/domestic water in the country for the Citizens Report on Domestic Water and Sanitation planned by WaterAid India.  As part of this effort few conflict case studies related to drinking water issues under different settings like urban, rural, urban-peri-urban and so on were compiled. These case studies are part of the overall chapter on water conflicts. The case studies were contributed by Prof. S. Janakarajan, Dr. Anjal Prakash, Dr. Amita Bhide, M. S.Vani and R. K. Srinivasan. 

 

This conflict is between Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh over sharing the water from the Babhli barrage. It puts the spotlight on underlying issues like the lack of an efficient mediating mechanism for conflict resolution both within government and the civil society at all levels. Biksham Gujja, K. J. Joy and Suhas Paranjape wrote an article on this issue highlighting the problem of evolving shared modalities of dealing with and sharing water surpluses and shortfalls. This is an aspect that the water disputes tribunals provide no guidelines on because they see water only in terms of legal property to be apportioned. There is also no mechanism to ensure equitable water allocation within a state. In fact, areas within Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are caught in bitter conflicts, much sharper and much larger in scope than Babhli. This article was published in Economic and Political Weekly (July 31, 2010 vol xlv no 31). The Marathi version of this article was also published in Loksatta, a regional Marathi daily on 29 August 2010. Biksham Gujja also wrote an article in Deccan Chronicle. 

 

Economic and Political Weekly brought out a special issue on water conflicts based on the Compendium featuring 17 of the case studies included and an overarching article. The issue was published on Feb 18th 2006. These articles are available on this website under the Resources section in the Miscellaneous category. 

 

With the participation of nearly 100 authors, the Forum documented 63 cases of water conflicts in India, concentrating on Peninsular India. These cases have been published as a book, Water Conflicts in India: A Million Revolts in the Making by Routledge. The book was released at a function held at India International Center in Delhi on 13th December 2006. Prof. Saif-ud-Din-Soz, then Minister of Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India, released the book. The publication was followed by a panel discussion having senior scholar Dr. Kirit Parikh as the chairperson and some eminent experts in the water research arena like Professor Y. K. Alagh, Mr. Suresh Prabhu, and Dr. Mahesh Rangarajan as panelists.