Rethinking the Mosaic: Investigations into Local Water Management

This report is the product of the first phase of the collaborative program on Local Supply and Conservation Responses to Water Scarcity supported by IDRC and the Ford Foundation. It investigated water management issues of four River basins: the Palar, the Sabarmati, and the Shekhawati in Tamil Nadu, Gujrat and Rajasthan as well as Tinau in Nepal. The preliminary results presented in the paper offered two conclusions: Addressing water management needs in the Sabarmati River basin requires approaches that focus on demand side management. Demand side management approaches combined with conjunctive management of locally available and imported surface and groundwater supplies could be used as a basis for arriving at sustainable solutions. And the extensive and well-developed water markets could help address issues of access equity and efficiency in water use.

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