Charting a New Course

The debate in India on water resources is unfortunately characterized by extreme positions taken by the so-called ‘pro-environment’ groups and NGs on the one hand and the ‘pro-development’ engineers, contractors and government officials on the other. This pamphlet goes beyond these extreme positions and puts forward a strategy for integrated water resources management (IWRM) with suggestions for the key organizational and managerial changes required at the macro and micro levels in order to implement the IWRM approach. The pamphlet intends to generate debate and discussion among policy makers, engineers, administrators, NGO, and communities involved in the management of water resources, and ultimately to help us move towards consensus on this vital issue. It will also prove useful to the state governments and water resource managers to formulate operational Action Plans and sustainable systems of management of water resources in the 21st century.