Paper Details

The availability of water is a basic element to human life, economy and political strength of any country andthus sustainable water management is vital for national development. Administering water and achieving IntegratedWater Resources Management (IWRM) for sustainable use and economic development is both a technological and agovernance test. The competence to make these changes, therefore, depends on transformation in water governance. Thisstudy seeks to analyze the existing mechanism of Water administration at center and state level, the constitutional statusof water, draft National Water Framework Bill – 2016 and National Water Policy – 2012, and the judgments of Highcourts and Supreme Court of India to draw meaningful inferences. Results reveal that the country has a goodadministrative set-up to deal with the water resources sector but owing to present day needs the constitutional status ofwater must change. The legal status of Right to Water can have an immense impact on the way this precious resource isbeing governed. It is, therefore, necessary that the central government by means of Constitutional amendment explicitlyincorporates Right to Water as Fundamental Right of every citizen and also includes the water in either the Union List(List-I) or the Concurrent List (List-III). The Laws framed by the center ought to be mandatory for states and notrecommendatory. The policies of the state shall not only focus on regulations, licences, restrictions, and penalties butalso on knowledge dissemination to help, guide, influence and coordinate the public water use. Public and stakeholders’participation at all levels ought to be made integral to all water administration.

Neelkanth J. Bhatt, Kapil J. Bhatt, “An Analysis of Water Governance in India: Problems and Remedies”, International Journal of Advance Engineering and Research Development (IJAERD), Vol. 4, Issue 9, pp. 279-284, September 2017.