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Groundwater Management and the Human Right to Water in India: The Need for a Decentralised Approach

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The Human Right to Water

Abstract

This chapter explores the case of bottled water industry in India where over-exploitation of groundwater by industrial giants in the sector leaves the right-holders unprotected, thwarting their enjoyment of the right to water. Soft drink manufacturing companies and bottled water companies have been progressively establishing manufacturing units all over the country, exploiting, primarily, groundwater for their production needs. Water mining practised by these companies affects the communities dependent upon these resources, but the regulatory atmosphere of groundwater is weak and allows no voice to the dependents of a resource on water use. Decisions regarding groundwater management and exploitation are taken far away from these communities, and institutional structures have not created the spaces for the representation of their interests. In this context, the chapter explores the legal possibility for an alternate approach, namely, decentralised groundwater management, one that is based on the local self-government institutions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Under the Kerala Panchayath laws, an industrial unit required a licence from the gram panchayath in which it was located in, before it could function.

  2. 2.

    Schedule VII, List II, Entry 17 of the Constitution of India.

  3. 3.

    Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are states that have enacted groundwater laws .

  4. 4.

    Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have adopted bills but are yet to pass them. Andaman and Nicobar, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand have initiated the process for enacting laws.

  5. 5.

    Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Manipur, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura.

  6. 6.

    The Model Bill to Regulate and Control the Development and Management of Groundwater, available at <http://www.ielrc.org/content/e0506.pdf> last accessed on 10 July 2014.

  7. 7.

    It is interesting to note that as the Plachimada dispute was raging, the Kerala Groundwater Act was already in force; however, no notifications under the Act were issued – rendering the Act to be not of any help.

  8. 8.

    Section 2 (d) of the Act defines basic water ‘as the basic safe water requirements of each human being for drinking, cooking, bathing, sanitation, personal hygiene and related personal or domestic uses, with an additional requirement for women for their special needs; and includes water required for domestic livestock’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, India

    Mahesh Menon (Assistant Professor of Law)

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  1. Mahesh Menon
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Correspondence to Mahesh Menon .

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  1. Department of Sustainable Development Environmental Science and Engineering (SEED), Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden

    Nandita Singh

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Menon, M. (2016). Groundwater Management and the Human Right to Water in India: The Need for a Decentralised Approach. In: Singh, N. (eds) The Human Right to Water. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40286-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40286-4_8

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