Non-Market Interventions in Water-Sharing

Case Studies from West Bengal, India

Bibliographic Data

ID2257288
AuthorsVikas Rawal (Jawaharlal Nehru University, corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume2
Issue4
Pages545-569
Publication date2002-10-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Agrarian Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1471-0358 • E-ISSN: 1471-0366
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1471-0366.00045
OpenAlexW2148169075
LanguageEN
Citations received2

This paper deals with two issues that are important areas of concern in the recent literature on water management in less-developed countries: forms of ownership of groundwater resources and alternatives to anarchy in the exploitation and use of groundwater. The emergence of a market for irrigation water has been argued to have the potential to provide irrigation water to large numbers of small cultivators in developing countries. The development of free markets for water, however, has also been shown to be associated with the emergence of 'water-lords' and with contracts for the purchase and sale of water that are biased against the poor. By contrast, this paper presents two examples of viable non-market interventions in water-sharing - regulation of water markets by village councils and cooperative tubewell groups - from villages in West Bengal, India. These interventions both improved the efficiency of water-use and represented relatively equitable arrangements for water-sharing

Business · Developing country · Economic growth · Economics · Groundwater · Irrigation · Natural resource economics · Psychological intervention · Socioeconomics · Water conservation · Water resource management · Water resources · Water supply · Water trading · West bengal · Engineering · Environmental Science · Social and Economic Development in India · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Water resources management and optimization · Environmental Engineering

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