Managing Water for Sustainable Development: An Economist's Perspective

Water is essential not only for the survival of all living beings but also for socio-economic development of households, communities and nations all over the world. It contributes to achieve the goal of sustainable development through ensuring the survival of all living beings, food security, ecological security and health and hygiene of people. Its judicious management is a prerequisite for sustainable development. At present, it is not managed at all; in fact, it is grossly mismanaged. It is estimated that India's total utilizable water resources would barely match the water requirement in the year 2050, and that the gap between the water requirement and availability will widen over time. The most serious challenge of the twenty-first century for India will be how to meet the deficit or demand-supply gap, especially the regional and seasonal deficits, and to mitigate the problems of increasing overexploitation and pollution of both surface and groundwater and recurrent droughts and floods. To meet these challenges, it is necessary that India's water resources are managed judiciously. For this, we need cost-effective and practicable interventions in both the water supply and demand management. The main instruments of water management include: (a) rationalizing of water prices; (b) drought and flood proofing; (c) use of water saving micro irrigation technologies; (d) internalizing of externalities in the use of water; and (e) enactment of ideal water laws by all state governments.