Climate-Resilient Water Governance: From India to Global South

Syllabus: GS2/Governance; GS3/Environment

Context

• Recently, New Delhi hosted the 9th India International Water Week (IIWW) around climate-resilient water management, highlighting India’s transition from expanding access to ensuring sustainable, efficient and resilient water systems.

About Water Governance

• Water governance refers to the political, institutional, administrative and participatory arrangements through which water resources and water services are planned, allocated, regulated and managed.
• It goes beyond building dams, canals and pipelines. Effective governance integrates water availability, quality, demand management, groundwater, sanitation, wastewater reuse, climate risks and community participation.
• For India, it is particularly important because water is a State subject, while several dimensions i.e. rivers, groundwater, agriculture, urbanisation and climate change cut across administrative boundaries.

Need for Water Governance in the Present Scenario

• India faces a complex water-security challenge:
  • Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of floods, droughts, heatwaves and erratic rainfall.
  • Rapid urbanisation and industrialisation are increasing demand for water.
  • Groundwater depletion threatens agricultural and drinking-water security in several regions.
  • Water pollution and inadequate wastewater treatment reduce the usable water stock.
  • Agriculture remains the largest consumer of freshwater, making water-use efficiency critical.
• Globally, the world is off track on SDG 6 i.e. safe drinking water and sanitation for all by 2030 and an estimated additional $500 billion annually is required to bridge the investment gap.
• Thus, water security is increasingly a governance and institutional challenge, not merely an engineering challenge.

India’s Journey of Water Governance

• India’s recent water governance journey has combined political prioritisation, public finance, institutional reform and community participation.
• The experience of Gujarat during 2001–2014 provided an important policy laboratory, with emphasis on water infrastructure, decentralised planning and stakeholder engagement. 
• Several approaches subsequently informed national initiatives.

Major National Interventions

• Swachh Bharat Mission: It linked sanitation with public health and water quality.
• Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM): It seeks functional tap-water connections and sustainable rural drinking-water services.
• Namami Gange: It adopts a river-basin-oriented approach combining pollution abatement, ecological restoration and institutional coordination.
• Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABY): It promotes community-led groundwater management in water-stressed areas.
• Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain: It promotes rainwater harvesting and water conservation.
• Per Drop More Crop (PDMC): It encourages micro-irrigation and greater agricultural water-use efficiency.
• The broader governance framework can be understood through the ‘4 Ps’ ie Political leadership → Public financing → Partnerships → People’s participation.
  • It seeks to connect Union, State and local governments with communities, civil society, knowledge institutions and development partners.

Lessons for Climate-Resilient Water Management

• Lead With Governance: Pipelines and treatment plants cannot ensure water security unless institutions can operate and maintain them.
  • Long-term political commitment, predictable financing, data systems and institutional capacity are therefore essential.
• Managing Resource & Service Together: A tap is useful only when water is available, safe and reliably supplied. Future planning needs to integrate source sustainability with service delivery.
  • It is especially important for rapidly urbanising regions of the Global South. Planning water resources and infrastructure together can reduce the cost of future retrofitting.
• Treating Wastewater as a Resource: India needs to move from a ‘use-and-dispose’ model towards a circular water economy.
  • Treated wastewater can serve non-potable requirements such as industry, landscaping and certain municipal uses.
  • The case study estimates that the annual market revenue from treated used water in India could reach around ₹73,000 crore by 2047, at current prices.
• Root Water Action in Communities: Institutions such as Pani Samitis, village water-security planning and participatory groundwater management demonstrate that local ownership can improve sustainability.
  • The Gujarat experience of Chintan Shivirs illustrates how structured stakeholder consultations can translate political priorities into implementable policies.
• Think Big & Build For Scale: India’s experience with JJM demonstrates the possibility of implementing large-scale public programmes through political leadership, financing, institutional mechanisms and decentralised implementation.
  • For the Global South, the lesson is not to replicate Indian schemes mechanically, but to adapt the governance principles to local ecological, institutional and socio-economic conditions.

Way Forward: India’s Next Phase of Water Policy

• India’s next water-policy phase should focus on:
  • From access to assured service delivery — quality, quantity, regularity and affordability.
  • Water budgeting and demand management, especially in agriculture.
  • Groundwater governance based on aquifer-level data and community participation.
  • Climate-resilient urban water systems, including rainwater harvesting, flood management and wastewater reuse.
  • Integrated river-basin management rather than fragmented administrative planning.
  • Greater use of remote sensing, real-time monitoring, AI and hydro-meteorological data for forecasting and allocation.
  • Stronger water-quality monitoring and enforcement of pollution norms.
  • Innovative financing involving public expenditure, private investment and multilateral development institutions.

Conclusion

• India’s water journey demonstrates that water security requires the convergence of infrastructure, institutions, finance, technology and community ownership.
• As climate change intensifies water-related risks, the next generation of reforms must move from merely providing water to ensuring resilient, efficient, equitable and circular water systems.
• India can thereby offer the Global South a governance framework that is adaptable rather than prescriptive.

Source: IE