Water: Conflicts and Alternative Concepts in India

The crisis in the water sector is having an increasingly negative impact on the access to water for agricultural, industrial, and drinking purposes, especially in rural areas. Worst hit are poor and marginalised groups such as women, who are in charge of providing drinking water to families, Adivasi and Dalits who have weak water rights, and small-scale farmers. There is an urgend need for just, democratic and equitable forms of water governance. In all parts of India, groups and communities are claiming the right to water and developing models of people's control over and community use of water resources - for energy and agriculture, for consumption, for cattle, for washing and bathing.

Water to the People. Drinking Water and Water for Livelihoods. April 2008, ed. by EED (Germany) and Centre for World Solidarity (India): Download (pdf-file 1,24 MB)

Privatising the water sector

Development aid for transnational water corporations as a solution to the global water crisis? Summary of the WEED Working Paper: Privatising the Water Sector (November 2001): Download (pdf-file 70 kb)

Agriculture: Water for food

While in the 1990s the World Bank's privatisation policy aimed primarily at the urban water sector, now she promotes investments in all water sectors, especially irrigation. A large part of this goes into physical infractructure, into multipurpose dams and large irrigation systems. Parallel to this the Bank supports reforms like the formation of water user organisations, the introduction of higher prices for water and the reorganisation of water rights. Intention is to commercialise and modernise irrigation agriculture, which would leave out most of small-scale farmers and speed up the concentration process towards export oriented agroindustry.

Water for Food - Water for Profit. The World Bank's policy in the agricultural water sector. Background Paper (Brot für die Welt) Dezember 2005:

Download (pdf-file 1,18 MB); Summary (pdf-file 51 kb)

Human Development Report 2006

Focusing on the „global water crisis“, the Human Development Report 2006 takes up a subject, which has been widely and hotly debated already for several years. Against this background, it is difficult, to really say something new – but with its focus on equity issues and the situation of the poor, it is a marked difference from others like the World Bank.

The review of the report: "Efficiency and Equity" as download (70kb)

Ethiopia - Water for Development

The World Bank policy in Ethiopia promotes the diversion of water to private enterprise and profits: Download (pdf-Datei 110 kb)

Water Sector Privatisation - ten myths

"Public utilities are inefficient, corrupt and cannot be reformed" has been one of the myths to justify privatisation in the water sector. For the other nine see: Download (pdf-file 120 KB)

Water: Panacea PPP

Public Private Partnership in German Development Cooperation. Summary of a WEED Working Paper (November 2003): Download (pdf-file 74 kb)

Privatisation in Irrigation Agriculture

In most countries, construction, water provision and maintenance of irrigation schemes ware publicly managed or administered. In view of empty treasuries, management problems and stagnating productivity of many irrigation schemes there have been reform attempts for years, frequently advanced by international finance organisations like the World Bank. Catch words of new concepts like Participatory Irrigation Management are water user associations, managment transfer and cost recovery.

Privatisation in irrigation agriculture. Briefing Paper (Brot für die Welt): Download (pdf-Datei 36 kb)

Redefining Water Rights

Water rights are acknowledged authorisations to use a water source like a river or a lake. Allocation of water rights is the more important the scarcer water is. Their design has considerable effect on deciding who benefits most from the use of water, thus reflecting social power structures as well as economic and development priorities. Hence large estates often also acquire the control of water resources, whereas many small farmers have no secured users' rights.

Redefining Water Rights. Briefing Paper (Brot für die Welt): Download (pdf-file 40 kb)

Water for the Cities

In some regions, such as Manila, water is getting scarce, leading to conflicts between urban and rural areas, between energy, irrigation and drinking water. Basically, this is an economic and structural problem: The demand of MegaCities like Manila is increasing rapidly, while demand management and the provision of raw water lag behind. The answer is to build new dams and to divert water from agriculture to the cities by increasing the price of water.

Water for the MegaCities: the Case of Manila. Briefing Paper (Brot für die Welt): Download (pdf-file 37 kb)

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