The Lok Sabha passed the long-awaited amendment to the Interstate River Water Disputes Act 1956 in July. The Bill, yet to be discussed in the Rajya Sabha, proposes a permanent tribunal and several other measures to improve the settlement of interstate river water disputes. It has elements that convey the government’s seriousness to look for out of the box solutions. Even then, the proposed piece of legislation makes one wonder if it has enough to fix the longstanding problem.
Policymaking is an incremental process. That is particularly so in case of a matter as complex as interstate river water disputes — as enigmatic as the rivers themselves. The American poet Henry Longfellow’s tribute to the River Charles captures this, “Half in rest, and a half in strife”.
Written by Srinivas Chokkakula & Ashwin Pandya
Srinivas Chokkakula is the MoJS (Ministry of Jal Shakti) Research Chair – Water Conflicts and Governance at CPR, where he leads the Transboundary Rivers, Ecologies, and Development studies (TREADs) programme. His research and policy interests lie primarily in the water sector, focusing on transboundary water conflict/cooperation and governance.