Shilp Verma

India's Water Future 2050 Potential Deviations from ‘Business-as-Usual’

The debate on Indias ambitious river-linking project is highly polarized. While the proponents insist that scores of highly qualified engineer-years have been invested in studying the feasibility of the links, the analysis is not available in the public domain. On the other hand, the opponents argue that the project is a conspiracy to hide the past inefficiencies of the irrigation bureaucracy; and yet, the alternatives proposed by them for Indias impending water challenge also seem far from concrete. This article critically examines the National Commission Integrated Water Resource Development (NCIWRD) report, which has repeatedly been cited as the basis for planning and justifying the project, and outlines a framework for research which will help in raising the level of this important national debate by helping to develop a refined, textured and nuanced understanding of ‘Indias water future 2050’.

Identifying the barriers and pathways forward for expanding the use of groundwater for irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) must significantly increase the area under irrigation for a host of pressing reasons that include addressing rural poverty, improving food security and countering droughts and famines. What remains less well known is the role that groundwater will play within the portfolio of potential irrigation strategies. Surface-water systems requiring large-scale public investments, which have captured most of the attention to date, do not always perform adequately, and are ill suited to targeting widely dispersed smallholder farming communities. Groundwater reserves are thought to be vast and broadly accessible, but estimates of their potential are still uncertain and the best development strategies are not always clear. Major challenges emerge on a number of fronts, notably inadequate knowledge of aquifer systems, the costs of drilling wells and operating pumps, and the level of technical and institutional capacity and overall governance in place to support sustainable management. This special issue of Water International (along with a supplementary section in a subsequent issue this year) brings together the key findings of two major research efforts supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) with the support of numerous participating partners, many of whom are featured herein. The individual papers cover a number of topics, including:

Beyond Digging and Filling Holes: Maximizing the Net Positive Impact of MGNREGA

When it was launched in 2005, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was expected to materially alter the working of rural labour markets and create durable assets, both public and private. In 2009–10, and then again in 2010–11, IWMI surveyed the post-MGNREGA rural labour markets and undertook case studies of more than 140 best-performing MGNREGA-constructed water infrastructure (assets). This chapter reviews and synthesizes the evidence from these field studies. The surveys indicate that where implemented well, MGNREGA has significant and positive income effect and improves the bargaining power of labour. Women find MGNREGA particularly attractive and though not eradicated completely, the gap between male and female wages seems to have reduced. However, MGNREGA’s impact on migration is less clear and we found conflicting evidence. Besides being the world’s largest employment programme, MGNREGA is also among the world’s largest water security programmes, investing over US

Going against the flow: A critical analysis of inter-state virtual water trade in the context of India's National River Linking Program

3 billion annually in constructing, repairing, and renovating rural water assets. One concern regarding MGNREGA has been that even when the programme enhances incomes and livelihoods of the poor, the structures it creates or improves may not be productive and durable. The chapter also reviews case studies of best-performing MGNREGA water assets. We find that, on average, the best-performing assets are able to generate gross returns equal to their investment in a little over a year. The chapter teases out eight lessons, which, if incorporated in programme design and administration, can enhance its ‘strike rate’ in delivering productive and durable rural water infrastructure.