Times of change? : insights into the Government of India's water policy and management response to climate change

• Main Author: England, Matthew
• Published: University of East Anglia 2012
• Subjects: 338.91
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.601026

This thesis examines how climate change is being integrated within India's national and state government water policy and management practices. Climate change poses significant challenges to the management of non-stationary hydro-meteorological conditions, whilst meeting rising water demand. The nature and orientation of the Indian government's water institutional approach compounds this challenge, due to the1r focus on large-scale infrastructure-based supply-side water management. This research takes an interdisciplinary political ecology approach to examine the Indian hydrocracy's response, namely, the Ministry of Water Resources' (MWR) policy response to climate change, and the state level response by the Andhra Pradesh (AP) Irrigation Department. The analysis is based on policy documents and other government reports, interviews with policy makers and water managers, and non-government water experts 1n India, conducted between 2008 and 2011. The research draws on theoretical groundings of the linear and interactive models to understand public policy processes, water management paradigms including the hydraulic mission, river basin trajectory and institutional reform theory to understand the process and pace of government change. The Indian water policy experience will generate insights into the use of water policy to respond to climate change. The results indicate that climate change is being integrated within policy and water management practices as a continuation of infrastructure-based supply approaches to water management. This approach is facilitated by the uncertainty of climate change projections and impacts, which provide plasticity for it to be used to strengthen a sanctioned 'water for food' government discourse and hence continue India's hydraulic mission. The MWR and AP Irrigation Department appear resistant to change their strategic approach to water management. However, certain reformist actors within the margins of government are endeavouring to operationalise demand management strategies and institutional reform measures, broadly representing a reflexive modernity stage of water management. Insights into the Indian water policy process highlight numerous challenges to implementation, consistent with an interactive theoretical model of public policy. Implementation challenges of paramount importance include the politically contested nature of water management which serves vested political and financial interests, and the inertia of government, characterised by centralised and hierarchical structures and procedures. The government appears to be operating within the limits of a linear theoretical model of public policy, recommending demand management and institutional reform 'statements of policy intent', but without offering a suitable institutional approach to address implementation challenges. The hydrocracy is largely permitted to continue its approach within the wider political context in India, with other actors implicitly supporting and benefiting from large-scale water infrastructure. In conclusion, this research finds that both continuity and change co-exist within government water management in India. Resistance to change endures, whilst at the same time, certain reformist actors are intent to navigate the complex and uncertain nature of institutional reform.