Do States conflict compete, contest or cooperate? Celebrating States’ efforts in interstate river water cooperation:
It is often believed that States tend to conflict over interstate river waters. This belief relies on the poor track record of interstate river water disputes – their emergence, recurrence and intractable nature. The episodes of escalation of these disputes often challenge the federal structure and lead to constitutional crisis. This spectacle of conflicts captures our imagination; as a result, we miss the glass is half-full - that the States conflict only when their efforts to cooperate fail!
It may sound rhetorical, but Indian States boast a remarkable track record of cooperation. As opposed to 9 interstate river water disputes, there are more than 160 interstate river water agreements, as compiled by the Central Water Commission in 2015. This is often cited as India’s track record, though not an entirely accurate attribution. A large proportion of these agreements is a result of States pursuing their common interests bilaterally. This calls for reconsidering our narrative, and recognizing that the fulcrum of engagement lies elsewhere.
The national policymaking has fallen into this trap of focusing disproportionately on the glass half-empty – on disputes resolution. If we consider the India’s track record engaging with interstate river water governance, the policymaking efforts have focused primarily on addressing the challenge of disputes resolution; too, as a response to exigencies and contingencies. The Interstate River Water Disputes Act 1956 has so far been amended more than half a dozen times. In contract, the River Boards Act 1956 – meant to enable States cooperate and collaborate over interstate river water disputes – has not been even amended even once, in spite of several commissions calling it a ‘dead letter.’ Furthermore, not even one of the river boards was created under the provisions of the River Boards Act 1956.
Research and scholarly efforts are no exception to this fallibility either. While the disputes resolution has attracted several publications, not a single paper exists on the outstanding track record of interstate river water cooperation. Though there are rare publications looking into specific cases of cooperation. But the track record of cooperation has not been subjected to scrutiny to distil lessons for enabling cooperation: what kind of ecosystem of policies, laws, institutions, politics and practices will create conducive conditions for interstate river water cooperation?
The MoJS Research Chair at CPR is mandated to address this gap. Specifically, update and explore the track record of interstate river water cooperation for a comprehensive cataloguing and analysis of interstate cooperation in India. The objective is to encourage and promote research and debate around this crucial element of transboundary river water governance. Our interests also extend to gather insights to inform policy thinking towards an enabling ecosystem for interstate cooperation.
We believe that the first step in this endeavor is to put together and analyze how States succeeded and failed in their efforts to cooperate and work with their neighboring States in pursuing their common interests. As part of this research effort, we are reaching out to State governments appealing them to celebrate their own spirit of cooperation.
Thus, the new narrative about the record of cooperation allows us to say this. That the States do make considerable efforts to cooperate before they pursue the path of conflict. This line of thinking helps us to formulate the following two guiding research questions:
These are critical questions for India to pursue its ambitious water resources development goals such as river rejuvenation, inland navigation and even the inter-basin transfers – which increasingly take us into the realm of interstate river water governance.
We propose that the State governments take lead in producing a publication of their efforts to cooperate with their respective neighbouring States historically. This will showcase not only their spirit of cooperation, but also will help us understand the gaps in addressing their failures.
The publication can be an entirely the State government’s output or a collaborative one with the MoJS Research Chair at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. In either case, the CPR team will be happy to assist the State governments in producing the publication. A tentative outline for the publication is provided below to give an idea of what it may look like. We welcome suggestion to improve it.
We have so far been able to persuade the following States to put together such compilations: Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana. These publications are in the works now. If this is of interest, please write to the MoJS Research Chair, Dr Srinivas Chokkakuka at srinivas@cprindia.org