Data-driven Approach to Water Management

The story of water has been like the story of Blind Men and the Elephant written by John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887). We do not have a comprehensive view of water nor a central authority looking at water governance as a whole. We treat drinking water, surface water, ground water separately, perhaps to manage it scientifically as well as efficiently. Is it time for us to question this approach? Is it necessary for us to understand the policy and governance blindspots and reimagine the way water should be governed?

While we begin to answer the above, we need to examine at what level should water governance institutions be most appropriate? We have been discussing hydrological boundaries such as river basins, macro watersheds, micro watersheds and aquifers or administrative boundaries such as village or panchayat or at higher levels or through user groups such as water-user associations, ground water associations and paani samitis. We have been experimenting with various institutional forms at various levels, but we are still searching for effective governance structures to manage the water resources. This is further complicated because the decisions on water are further dictated by land use decisions, agriculture, horticulture, industrial uses as well as urban demands.

While we understand polycentric governance through multiple nodes of decision making may make sense, it is really difficult to understand who is evolving the collage - seeing them together to build a coherent narrative. The macro institutions at river basin level are definitely the bodies that need to see it together and develop policies and governance framework for water use. While these institutions have been long conceptualised and put in place, they failed to make a significant impact in water governance.

Strong mental models have influenced agriculture to bring us to a state where we are today - ‘wrong crops in wrong areas’; market mechanisms have influenced research and extension institutions to promote the same; research and development to cater to such crops, etc. As a result, we lost crops that suited local conditions, that were resilient to such climatic conditions and suited local tastes. We have gone too far and too deep in re-architecting the landscapes - perhaps at a point of no return!

Today we would perhaps need to rethink the model of water governance and water led production systems. We need to wrest the responsibility of water governance to more long standing institutions at village and panchayat levels. It is at this level, that water is seen more holistically and it is the level where better consciousness can lead to better governance. It is the level where the conjunctive nature of water is better realised and understood. It is the level where work on the demand side of water is more palpable as work on demand side management requires development of norms and byelaws; trust and understanding among each other; strong conflict resolution mechanisms, etc.

In order to facilitate the above, it requires timely and periodic collection of data and evolving data architecture and data analytics capability to assist communities in decision making. While the need is so evident, one can only wonder why we haven’t been able to establish the system across the country. While there is a lot of research and anecdotal success stories from across the country, it is important to design a digital data architecture to assist various stakeholders to manage their water resources better. Core to the data-driven approach to water management would need run-time data collection, at saturation to make larger meaning to the data and for stakeholders to understand, co-create solutions and support the management of water at different scales.

Spatial data on water harvesting structures, wells and borewells at saturation for a block or district could change the way we understand the status and the way water resources are governed. The water levels in the wells and borewells along with information on crops and irrigation could help understand the use of water. While some of the information is collected, most of the data is not available in the public and in a common platform making it difficult for decision makers and stakeholders to engage with the issue. While there may be a fear in implementing such an initiative, as the emergence of such data may throw up several questions related to accountability and compliance to the current laws, it would definitely go a long way in evolving better water governance.

To enable this, a primary requirement would be to have a grid of dedicated cadres at panchayat level for information collection at real time. It would also require building capacities of village institutions and the panchayats (local governments) to understand the situation related to water and its usage as well as take steps to manage their resources better. The institutions at the village and Panchayat are better placed to evolve norms and rules for better water management, land-use decisions, equitable access and use of water, crop choices, cropping decisions based on water availability, as well as influence behaviour among the constituent members. Availability of the data would help various stakeholders in co-creating analytical insights and solutions to water management with reduced risk of over exploitation of the water resources. 

Subrata Singh