Breaking the Gridlock in Water Reforms through Water Markets: Experience and Issues for India
- Resumen
- In India, informal water markets have existed for decades in states such as Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Though these markets have generally been localised and confined to trades between irrigators, they have led to efficiency gains and have also helped resource poor farmers to access irrigation. The gains, however, have been limited since inter-sectoral transfers have not taken place. The current challenge in India, therefore, is to establish formal water markets that can expand the scope of trading and make inter-sectoral transfer of water possible. Further, since formal water markets have a legal basis, regulations can be designed to address concerns of ecological sustainability. Markets in water are very important for the urban sector, which faces acute shortages but has not been able to access informal water markets. Formal water markets can augment urban supply at low cost and relatively quickly. The National Commission on Water Resources estimated that a reallocation of mere 5 percent of irrigation water annually to the urban sector could meet the latter's requirements over the next fifty years. It is, however, important to note that water markets can only supplement and not substitute tariff rationalisation and other reforms at the distribution end in urban areas.
- Autor
- Mohanty, Nirmal; Gupta, Shreekant
- Palabras Clave
- Planificación hidrológica, India, Comercio y consumo
- Idioma
- Inglés
- Documentos
- Ponencia ( 16 pag, 229 Kb )
- Presentación
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