I was lucky enough to sit down over lunch with renowned environmental scientist, professor and political commentator, Asit Biswas. We discussed the state of water management in India, his home country. India is facing a huge water and sanitation shortfall, which will become more severe in the near future as pressures from population growth and climate change surmount. The federal system is beset by inter-state conflicts over trans-boundary river waters. Farmers engage in unsustainable mining of groundwater even as aquifers in the western part of the country begin to dry up. In areas that do experience heavy rainfall, floods cause widespread destruction. Biswas said that India’s democracy, which he argued is the developing world’s most robust despite its tumultuous character, makes managing water nearly impossible. He proposed a plan to overcome this obstacle. The current state of Indian politics is lamentable, says Biswas, because increasingly fragile multiparty coalitions govern not just the central government, but also many of the states. Water management entails the coordination of multiple stakeholders. This is difficult in the Indian political system, which has often been characterized as decidedly adversarial. Under these conditions, it is nearly impossible to address water quality and coverage. Multiparty coalitions are often an assemblage of a diverse set of stakeholder groups; they are often barely large enough to maintain parliamentary power. When issues arise that require the delineation of winners and losers, any coalition group that would lose out on the deal will play spoiler and threaten to bring down government unless the terms are changed. Thus, water issues, which often require some stakeholders to sacrifice, are rarely resolved. There are some highlights of strong governance within India, however.
