Ots 24 > Jbf-oac > Exesumma

Executive summary for OAC

i) ii) iii) iv) v)

Project Title: Organization: Reporting Officer: Faculty Guide: Students’ Name:

“Evolution of water rights in Rajasthan.” Jal Bhagirathi Foundation Shri Prithviraj Singh Professor Vishwa Ballabh Amrita Hazra, Neha Agarwal, Nikhil Rathi

Objectives: The objectives of the project are as follows: 1. To study the nature and types of rights and responsibilities over water and how they evolved, over a period of time, in Rajasthan. 2. To study the interactions between customary and legal rights over water and how they affect the management of water resources. 3. To study the relevance of water policies in addressing the needs related to water. 4. To prepare a document encompassing the above mentioned issues that can be used by the organisation for further discussions at various levels. Scope: The geographical scope of the study is the state of Rajasthan. The study primarily addresses some of the social and legal aspects related to water, although wherever relevant in these contexts, the technical and engineering aspects have also been adequately addressed. Methodology: The methodology followed was a mix of techniques. The study is mainly based on secondary sources of data. But wherever necessary, primary data is also collected. Sources of Data: The primary sources of data include semi structured interviews with the field staffs and the community organizers, detailed discussions with the resource managers and visiting the project areas to have a first hand knowledge of the situation. Secondary sources comprise discussions with subject experts, books and other documents, internet, data from government departments, published reports of the organization, etc. Findings: The issue of water management is vast and has numerous aspects and complexities. “Water rights” is one of the most important aspects of this issue but still it is relatively neglected. The rights over water are mainly of two types: “Customary and legal”. Customary rights are evolutionary by nature and do not appear or disappear suddenly whereas the legal rights are more sudden in their appearance and disappearance. These legal rights impact the preexisting customary rights to a large extent and it is the interaction between these two types of rights that forms the basis of ownership, control and management of water resources. Further we find that, until issues like who owns water and who is going to manage it are resolved, the subsequent issues like how to manage it, cannot be addressed properly. Recommendations: The issue of rights and control over water is a complicated one and needs extensive study and discussions at various levels. The organization should raise it at various levels like state, national and international conferences on water so that this relatively neglected issue gets its due importance. The organisation should be very cautious before making any recommendations or suggesting solutions to the existing problems considering the complex nature and high stakes related to this issue of water rights and ownerships. Various pros and cons must be taken into account since the issue concerns every single human being and the damages may be huge even because of one wrong action. Conclusion: The project was an enriching experience that allowed us to know different aspects related to water management. The approach of the organisation in these regards is quite objective and it seems to be neither averse nor obsessed by any approach, viz, traditional or modern. This allowed us to look at the problem from different angles. And finally we feel that in the present times, no single agency or approach seems to be capable enough to solve the problem of water management on its own and it can be achieved only through their working in tandem with each other.