Articles by K J Joy

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Large infrastructure projects threatening ecosystems and livelihoods by diverting water and depriving rural populations of access to water are being promoted in the name of drinking water provisioning. Implementation and monitoring efforts have barely made any progress on Sustainable Development Goals that involve recognising trade-offs and synergies.

Ramaswamy R Iyer was a civil servant but he was constantly posing questions to accepted wisdom on issues relating to water. His body of work and frequent interventions on matters of public policy relating to water came to represent an alternative view that lays stress on efficient use, respect for the environment and finding solutions to water conflicts. Officialdom had no use for him but his imprint on how to think about water will be permanent.

Although Integrated Water Resources Management, as a concept, has gained currency in the global discourse on water, it does not seem to have made much headway in the Indian context. The paper examines the case of Tungabhadra sub-basin in south India and finds that it has made little progress in practical terms with regard to intra- and inter-sectoral allocation of water. The concept of iwrm in Tungabhadra is relatively new and water management has been performed mainly at the state level. As a result, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have their own set of different water governance regimes - water policies, laws and legislations, institutions and practices - with relatively little interaction between them.

K R Datye, a civil engineer by profession, worked for more than half a century on ideas for the water, energy and infrastructure sectors, ideas that were based on a vision for India of a sustainable, equitable and a democratic agro-industrial society. A critical appraisal of KRD's work on his first death anniversary.