Water Management and Public Participation

Alka Upadhyay

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is an approach that promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximize economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. Without public interest and participation, successful implementation of IWRM plans for river basin cannot be possible. Further to this, management at the watershed level to assure water supplies to support livelihood (i.e. domestic water, irrigation, industries, etc.) and sustainable groundwater development requires water augmentation through water conservation structures, and pollution control will also play a vital role. In India, because of limited period of rainfall during Monsoon (i.e. three to four months), water conservation and rainwater harvesting have been practiced since ancient days in...