Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India

Moving from Understanding Conflicts to

Resolving Conflicts

Progress Report for Year Three

April 2010 to March 2011

Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India

Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management

(SOPPECOM)

16, Kale Park, Someshwarwadi Road,

Pashan, Pune 411 008

Maharashtra, INDIA

Tel: +91-20-2588 0786/ 2588 6542

Fax: +91-020-2588 6542

Email: waterconflictforum@gmail.com

URL: http://conflicts.indiawaterportal.org

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Table of Contents

Section 1: Activities of the central secretariat ............................................................................ 4 Thematic subgroups.................................................................................................................. 4

Thematic subgroup on water entitlements and allocations for livelihoods and ecosystem needs.4 Thematic subgroup on Legal-institutional framework for conflict resolution .................................5

1) Finalization of the literature reviews .........................................................................................................5 Mapping and documentation of water conflicts ....................................................................... 5 2) Documentation of flood related conflicts ................................................................................................5 3) Documentation of water conflicts in the North East India ..................................................................5 4) Association with Mr. Sachin D. Shah, University of Texas, USA ........................................................5 5) Mapping of water conflicts on the Google map......................................................................................6 6) Articles on Babhli water conflict................................................................................................................6 7) Documentation of the conflict in Mahuva, Gujarat, ToR with Arati Shah-Yukich ..........................6 8) Paper on Cauvery water conflict ................................................................................................................7 Concerted efforts at policy dialogue.......................................................................................... 7 9) Right to water campaign and collaboration with WaterAid...................................................................7 10) Engaging with National Water Policy Review and involvement in working groups set up by the

Planning Commission..................................................................................................................................7 Contributions to methodologies and experience in conflict resolution.................................... 7 11) Training programme on understanding and resolving water conflicts ................................................7 Organisational issues................................................................................................................. 8 12) Project review meeting with Amrtha and Rahul from Arghyam ..........................................................8 13) Interns with the Forum ...............................................................................................................................8 14) Ph. D. Associate from Germany................................................................................................................8 15) Collaborative training programme with Dhan.........................................................................................8 16) Combined meeting with Arghyam and WaterAid...................................................................................8 17) National Steering Committee meeting......................................................................................................9 18) External audit of the Project ......................................................................................................................9 Other related programmes and activities .................................................................................. 9 19) Public lecture cum panel discussion ..........................................................................................................9 20) Guwahati Workshop, 10-11 December 2010 ........................................................................................10 Efforts for resource mobilisation ..............................................................................................10 Section 2: Activities of Kerala Resource Centre .......................................................................10 21) Book discussion on water and the laws in India on 5 April 2010.......................................................10 22) Framework of action research..................................................................................................................10 23) Meeting on reservoir operation model....................................................................................................11 24) Stakeholder analysis report .......................................................................................................................11 25) CRDS - GP level meetings, follow up ....................................................................................................11 26) Farmer research ..........................................................................................................................................11 27) Kabani study ...............................................................................................................................................11 28) Mullaperiyar field visit ...............................................................................................................................11 29) Nitta Gelatin issue......................................................................................................................................12 30) Review meeting of the Kerala State Resource Centre ..........................................................................12 31) On-field coordination between different stakeholders for improved irrigation system efficiency12 32) Unplanned achievements ..........................................................................................................................13 33) Karappuzha Irrigation Project – Critical review....................................................................................14 Section 3: Activities of Orissa State Resource Centre ..............................................................14 34) Engaging with conflict documentation...................................................................................................14 35) Review of the Project.................................................................................................................................15

Review meeting with Joy and Suhas......................................................................................................15 Financial review with Joy and Pratima..................................................................................................15

36) Entering into the MoU with the partner CSO.......................................................................................15 37) Engagement with Hirakud water conflict...............................................................................................15

Participatory design of an action research for conflict analysis and resolution..............................15 Sub-Committee meetings ........................................................................................................................15

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Visits to Hirakud by Steering Committee members of the Forum ..................................................15 Participation in Save Hirakud Reservoir campaign.............................................................................16 Stakeholder analysis around Sasan Canal..............................................................................................16

38) Water publications from the Centre........................................................................................................17 39) Internship placement /Academic partnerships .....................................................................................17

Intern from NCAS, Pune........................................................................................................................17 Doctoral student from Department of Geography, at Munster University in Germany..............17

40) Policy advocacy: Leading civil society response to IWRM roadmap of Odisha ..............................17 Meeting to discuss on draft IWRM roadmap of Odisha....................................................................17 Consultative meeting on IWRM roadmap ...........................................................................................17 Multi-stakeholder consultation on “IWRM Road Map of Odisha” 2011 .......................................18

41) Participation in workshops, networking, dissemination and advocacy..............................................19 Dissemination of information in Odisha Environment Congress 2010..........................................19 Participation in WORLD WATER DAY celebration on 22

March 2011.......................................19

Organization of workshop on “Water Conflicts in Odisha: Issues and Way Forward”...............20 42) Concerted efforts at policy dialogue & analysis.....................................................................................20

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Moving from Understanding Conflicts to Resolving Conflicts

Progress Report: April 2010 to March 2011

This narrative report provides a brief description and update on the activities of the Forum in the third year of its work from April 2010 to March 2011. The main purpose of this report is to update the Advisory Committee and Steering Committee members about the work of the Forum and get suggestions from them.

Section 1: Activities of the central secretariat

Thematic subgroups

As decided in the National Workshop held on 30-31 March 2009, Forum set up two subgroups on

1. Water entitlements and allocations for livelihoods and ecosystem needs 2. Legal-institutional framework for conflict resolution

Thematic subgroup on water entitlements and allocations for livelihoods and ecosystem needs

The report by the subgroup on Water Entitlements and Allocation for Livelihoods and Ecosystem Needs, by K. J. Joy, Priya Sangameswaran, Shripad Dharmadhikary, A. Latha, Prof. M.K Prasad and K. P. Soma, was released on16 March 2011 at New Delhi. Forum organised a release function and panel discussion on the report which is titled ‘Life, Livelihoods, Ecosystems, Culture: Entitlements and Allocation of Water for Competing Uses’.

The report was released by Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India. In his inaugural speech Shri Jairam Ramesh said that the competing water uses, environment protection versus the legitimate needs of a growing population for power and the lack of proper rehabilitation of project affected persons are the main reasons for water related conflicts in the country presently. The minister endorsed most of the propositions put forward in the report to resolve the conflicts around competing water uses and the tradeoffs between environment and growth. The minister also cautioned the “environmentalists” against taking one-sided positions against hydro power projects as thermal and nuclear power projects, especially after the recent Japanese experience of earthquake and Tsunami, have serious constraints.

Delivering the keynote address at the function, Dr. Mihir Shah, Member, Planning Commission appreciated the efforts of the authors to bring in a nuanced understanding on many of the complex issues confronting the water sector and for bringing in fresh perspectives on many of them. He also stressed the need for bringing in participatory mechanisms for aquifer management and also for deciding on pricing. He mooted the idea of setting up a National Water Commission to oversee the compliance of the conditionalities that often accompany the sanctions given to various projects. Prof. Ramaswamy Iyer, Navroz Dubash, Vimal Bhai and Rohini Nilekani spoke at the panel discussion that followed the report release. Prof. Vaidyanathan in his concluding remarks argued for a better understanding of the sources of conflicts for any attempts at their resolution to succeed. According to him the ecosystem needs have been casuality so far and only by limiting water use in certain sectors can we provide water for environmental needs. A. Latha welcomed the guests and the audience and Suhas Paranjape gave the vote of thanks.

The report has been well received. A group from Delhi has already approached the Forum to explore the possibility of bringing out the report in Hindi. The Forum would also bring out a

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Policy Brief based on the report.

Thematic subgroup on Legal-institutional framework for conflict resolution

The second working group is finalizing the chapters and the report will be sent for copy editing over the next two-three months. It is planned that it would be brought in August 2011.

1) Finalization of the literature reviews

Two literature reviews, one on Right to Water for Livelihoods and the other on Right to Water for Basic Needs were carried out in the context of the position paper on Water Entitlements and Allocations for Livelihoods and Environment prepared by the Forum. They have been finalized for wider circulation. These literature reviews were prepared by Amita Kaushik. These literature reviews are uploaded on the Conflicts portal at http://www.conflicts.indiawaterportal.org/?q=node/119.

Mapping and documentation of water conflicts

2) Documentation of flood related conflicts

In the Steering Committee (SC) meeting held on 24 February 2010, Mr. Eklavya Prasad from Megh Pyne Abhiyan, Bihar and member of the Steering Committee of the Forum made a presentation on documenting flood related conflicts. After this there has been a follow up with him on the plan to document conflicts related to floods and move from the concept note to some of the nuts and bolts and prepare a detailed plan that would cover how the Forum is going to go about it including how to approach and select the case study writers, how many cases can Forum look at within its budget, within flood related conflicts what are the different types that the Forum would cover, and what are the timelines and milestones involved. The concept note has been finalized between the secretariat and Eklavya Prasad and a timeline has been also agreed upon. Under this 20 case studies would be documented.

3) Documentation of water conflicts in the North East India

The SC meeting held on 24 February 2010 had the agenda of documentation of water conflicts from the North East. After the meeting Dr. Chandan Mahanta and Dr. Partha J. Das have started work on this front to start the documentation of the case studies. They had a meeting on 19 June 2010 at IIT-Guwahati to discuss the possible action plan and the need and possibility of raising additional funds for the work so that more case studies can be accommodated and authors could be given higher honorarium. After this a list of possible case studies has been finalised.

Aaranyak, an NGO based at Guwahati will coordinate this documentation effort in the Northeast. The MoU to this effect has been signed between SOPPECOM and Aaranyak and first instalment of funds has been sent.

The Forum has always been keen on exploring the multidimensional water related issues in northeast India. It is fully aware of the eco-hydrological and geo-political importance as well as environmental and socio-cultural sensitivities of the region. It is in recognition of the need to understand the nature of water related conflicts of the NE region that the Forum has embarked on an initiative to document selected conflict areas in the water front. This is also an effort to bring this issue to the national “mainstream” as very often the issues of the north-east remains “their” issues and there is very little discussion and debate in the rest of India. About twenty major cases of conflicts of different types have been identified through a process of deliberations and discussions among members who are familiar with the region and its issues. The documentation will be in the form of case studies to be carried out and written by authors who are mostly located in the region. The case studies would go through rigorous peer review and editing. The draft case studies were discussed in Guwahati in December 2010.

4) Association with Mr. Sachin D. Shah, University of Texas, USA

Mr. Sachin Shah from University of Texas, USA showed interest in the work of the Forum. He

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has a Hydrogeology background and has spent nine years at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Atlanta, Georgia and Austin, Texas. He worked primarily on water resources issues including international transboundary water concerns, drought mitigation. Recently he has been working more on policy issues, especially those related to water conflicts, climate change and so on. We had a couple of rounds of discussions with him about the Forum’s work and the possible areas of collaboration. He is willing to work on the conflict database which is one of the proposed outputs of the Forum. Forum has planned to create a GIS based database for the cases which have already been documented by the Forum (and those that would be done in future). The aim of such an exercise is to develop an interactive resource base which can be used by scholars, researchers, etc and thus cases on water conflicts together on one platform which can be sorted on various parameters like area, conflicting parties, etc.

The concept and deliverables of the exercise have been discussed in details with him by K.J. Joy and Suhas Paranjape at the SOPPECOM office. A small note regarding the same has also been mailed to him. He also discussed this issue with the head of his department and they are very enthusiastic about this collaboration. He earlier planned to spend about a month with the Forum in the month of December 2010 to work on this. However his visit has to be postponed as he had some funding problems. A new slot has to be discussed and decided.

5) Mapping of water conflicts on the Google map

This activity involves developing a Google map highlighting the cases documented by the Forum location wise. The interactive map indicates the geographical location of each conflict, and also carries small amount of information about each case. This map is uploaded on the water conflicts portal. The map also carries a request for the readers to contribute cases which can also be located on the map with some preliminary checking. The map would be periodically updated as and when new case studies get done. The map is uploaded at http://www.conflicts.indiawaterportal.org/node/121

6) Articles on Babhli water conflict

Conflict over Babhli is a conflict between Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh over sharing the water from the Babhli barrage. It puts the spotlight on underlying issues like the lack of an efficient mediating mechanism for conflict resolution both within government and the civil society at all levels. Biksham Gujja, K. J. Joy and Suhas Paranjape wrote an article on this issue highlighting the problem of evolving shared modalities of dealing with and sharing water surpluses and shortfalls. This is an aspect that the water disputes tribunals provide no guidelines on because they see water only in terms of legal property to be apportioned. There is also no mechanism to ensure equitable water allocation within a state. In fact, areas within Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are caught in bitter conflicts, much sharper and much larger in scope than Babhli. This article was published in Economic and Political Weekly (July 31, 2010 vol xlv no 31). The Marathi version of this article was also published in Loksatta, a regional Marathi daily on 29 August 2010. Biksham Gujja also wrote an article in Deccan Chronicle. These articles have been appreciated by people and many of them have conveyed their positive remarks to SOPPECOM and the authors personally.

7) Documentation of the conflict in Mahuva, Gujarat, ToR with Arati Shah-Yukich

Dr. Arati Shah-Yukich, a US based scholar has written to the Forum about including a water conflict in Gujarat in the Google Map of water conflicts created by the Forum. It is a conflict taking place in Mahuva region in Gujarat (involving two large freshwater reservoirs recently created, and agriculture community taking Nirma Cement Company to Supreme Court.) This is an important conflict which is also mentioned in larger discussions in media. Forum has decided to document this conflict and Dr. Shah has agreed to write the case study. Forum is in a process of signing a MoU with her for this documentation.

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8) Paper on Cauvery water conflict

At the invitation of Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Executive Director of PILDAT, Islamabad (Pakistan) to contribute a paper on inter-state water conflicts in India, as part of their initiative on Inter-provincial Water Disputes and their possible resolution in Pakistan, Prof. Janakarajan and K. J. Joy wrote a paper titled, “Inter State Water Dispute among the Riparian States: The Case of Cauvery River from Peninsular India”. They have published this paper in English and Urdu and Sindhi versions are also available.

Concerted efforts at policy dialogue

9) Right to water campaign and collaboration with WaterAid

The Forum has been part of the initiative on the Right to Water. The other members of this initiative have appreciated the contribution of Forum especially in articulating the content of the right to water. A couple of discussions were held with WaterAid and they also would like the Forum to function as a knowledge partner to this campaign and they would also provide some financial support for this to the Forum. Accordingly the Forum has submitted a detailed proposal to WaterAid and response from them is awaited. From Forum, Joy participated as a resource person and took a session in the “Capacity Building on Advocacy Campaign Planning for WaterAid staff and partners” organised by WaterAid with help from NCAS Pune. Joy’s session was on the content of right to water and he drew mainly on the work done by the Forum so far, especially the report of the sub-group on equity and allocations for ecosystem and livelihood needs, especially the chapter on basic water.

10) Engaging with National Water Policy Review and involvement in working groups set up by the Planning Commission

The Forum sent a note on suggestions on the revision of the National Water Policy to the Minister, Water Resources and the Ministry officials and also to Dr. Mihir Shah of the Planning Commission. The honourable minister did respond to the letter saying that the suggestions would be taken into account while revising the NWP. Many of the Steering Committee members of the Forum – Joy, Suhas, Shripad, Chandan, Subodh, Philippe – have been included in some of the water related working groups – data and data management, minor irrigation and watershed development, urban water issues, framework law, water governance, etc., – set up by the Planning Commission for the 12th Five Year Plan. This is an opportunity that we could use to influence the policy processes.

Contributions to methodologies and experience in conflict resolution

11) Training programme on understanding and resolving water conflicts

The Training Programme on Understanding and Resolving Water Conflicts was held between 5- 9 April, 2010, in Kochi, Kerala

The objective of this workshop was to introduce participants to the basic concepts, debates, theoretical and analytical approaches and emerging issues related to water conflicts and their resolution in India. This stemmed from the recognition that there existed gaps in understanding and skills among several stakeholders, such as researchers, practitioners, policy makers, activists and media persons, with regard to analyzing water conflicts and moving towards their resolution in a scientific manner. It was also expected that the workshop would provide an opportunity for the Forum to get inputs from a large number of participants with varying backgrounds that would further strengthen the work of the Forum. Around 20 participants from academic and research institutions, government and non-governmental organizations and from different disciplines participated in the workshop.

Prof. Ramaswamy Iyer delivered the key note address for the Programme. Prof. S. Janakarajan from MIDS, Chennai; Philippe Cullet, IELRC ,New Delhi; Dr. A. Latha, CPSS, Thrissur; Prof. M. K. Prasad, KSSP and Information Kerala Mission, Thiruvanathapuram; Suhas Paranjape and

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K. J. Joy from SOPPECOM, Pune and Pranab Choudhury from Srishti, Bhubaneshwar were the resource persons for the training programme.

Organisational issues

12) Project review meeting with Amrtha and Rahul from Arghyam

A detailed project review meeting with Amrtha and Rahul from Arghyam was held at SOPPECOM office in Pune on 10-11 May 2010. The discussion was held on amendments in the MoU, review of the activities envisaged in the project proposal and completed activities. The project was also reviewed financially and possible revisions in the same were discussed. An extension of project period from May 2011 to 31st March 2012 was also discussed in this meeting. Now the original MoU signed in 2008 is amended and signed by both Arghyam and Forum.

13) Interns with the Forum

Ram Prasad Kafle, a first year student of MSc in International Development Studies (MID), (Specialization: Communication, Technology and Policy) from University of Wageningen showed interest in doing an internship with the Forum and wrote to Joy about the same. He did internship with the Forum from first week of August and was housed in SOPPECOM, he also travelled to Kerala for documentation of Nita Gelatin water conflict case study and related field work.

National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), Pune also approached the Forum for internship with the Forum for one of their students. This intern is working with the Orissa centre. Details of the work of the intern are given under item no. 39 in Section 3: Activities of Orissa State Resource Centre.

14) Ph. D. Associate from Germany

Michael Brinkschröder from the Department of Geography, University of Muenster, Germany, who wants to do his Ph. D. on water conflicts, contacted us seeking possible collaboration with the Forum for his Ph. D. work. Subsequently he came down to Pune and had extensive discussions. Tentatively it was decided that he could work on the Hirakud conflict as his work can also benefit Forum’s work on this case. He might also think of another case possibly from the North East. He would be spending substantial amount of time at Hirakud. He would also spend some time with SOPPECOM. His association with the Forum for his Ph. D. would be of mutual benefit. The details of his visit to Hirakud project area are given under item no. 39 in Section 3: Activities of Orissa State Resource Centre.

15) Collaborative training programme with Dhan

Joy and Prof. Janakarajan had discussions with Mr. Vazimalai and Gurunathan of Dhan Foundation to explore areas of collaboration. During the discussions it was felt that two things could be done: 1) organize a good training programme on conflicts around small water bodies, and 2) bring out a few of the successful cases of conflict resolution around tanks (handled by Dhan Foundation). Further communication with Dhan Foundation is going on.

16) Combined meeting with Arghyam and WaterAid

There was a combined meeting of the Forum, Arghyam and WaterAid in Arghyam office at Bangalore. This meeting was primarily organized to discuss the areas of collaboration as Forum had submitted a proposal to WaterAid to function as a knowledge partner to the Right to Water initiative of WaterAid. Joy presented the work that is being done under the Arghyam supported project and what is visualized to be taken up under the WaterAid proposal and detailed out the different components of the WaterAid proposal. One of the important issues raised during the discussions was about Forum’s role in the right to water movement and whether the Forum is going to narrow down its focus. It was explained that Forum’s role would be limited to articulating the content of right to water and also taking up capacity building and consensus

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building around these issues and would not be in the forefront of this movement as this has to be led by CSOs who are actually working on the ground. It also follows from the work of the Forum so far that if some of the conflicts have to be avoided then we need to clearly define the allocation norms within a right based discourse and it is very much related to the work of the sub-group on equity and allocations for livelihoods and ecosystem needs. The meeting provided an opportunity to understand each other’s viewpoints.

17) National Steering Committee meeting

The National Steering Committee (SC) meeting of the Forum was held on 9 December, 2010 at the Don Bosco Institute, Guwahati, Assam. It was organized back-to-back with the National Workshop “Water conflicts in the North East: Issues, cases and way forward” also held at Don Bosco Institute, Guwahati from 10 -11December, 2010 organized by the Forum and Aaranyak (Guwahati).

The meeting reviewed the work of the Central Secretariat and the two state centres. Progress on Forum’s North East initiative and the initiative of documenting the flood related conflicts was also discussed. An open discussion was held on what the Forum could and should do in reviewing the National Water Policy (NWP) of India. The meeting had discussion on right to water movement and Forum’s role. Apart from this a major discussion was held on Forum’s future: vision, programme, resources.

18) External audit of the Project

An external Audit was conducted by Arghyam for the period of May 2008 to November 2010 from 20 to 24 December 2010 with the following objectives:

Review of Arghyam grant management in terms of funds receipt and utilization in accordance with the books and records maintained, in compliance with the terms and conditions of the partnership agreement and within the scope of the documented financial manual for Arghyam Partners, review of accounting systems and internal control mechanisms and overall review of legal and statutory compliances.

During this audit documents such as project proposal, MoU and financial reports from SOPPECOM and State Centres were reviewed. The audit team reviewed the organization, its programmes and accounts system. On the last day of the audit the audit team discussed their observations, and suggested recommendations to SOPPECOM and the two state partner institutions.

The detailed report from the Auditors was sent to SOPPECOM with their recommendations for changes and modifications in the accounts system of SOPPECOM and the two state centres of the Forum on 6 January.

SOPPECOM and the two state centres i.e. Orissa and Kerala prepared their responses to the comments and suggestions provided by the auditors and sent it to Arghyam on 2 February. By and large, all the three organisations have taken the comments and suggestions very positively and have agreed to bring in the suggested changes. They also suggested that it would have been good if the auditors included the explanation of three organizations provided to the auditors during the discussions with them as an annexure to their report as this would have put some of the comments and observations in a proper perspective or in case they were satisfied with the explanations then they could have mentioned it in the report.

SOPPECOM as a nodal organization has agreed to have a closer monitoring on the financial systems of the two state centres in the future, following correct vouching and accounting system and sending the progress reports without undue delays in the future.

Other related programmes and activities

19) Public lecture cum panel discussion

A public lecture cum panel discussion was organised on 9 December 2010 at Guwahati as part of

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a public awareness programme on water issues in the North East. Prof. Dulal Chandra Goswami chaired the meeting. The public lecture was delivered by Prof. Ramaswamy Iyer on the theme, “Water Conflicts, Equity and Sustainability”. Prof. Janakarajan released the paper, “Damming the North East: Juggernaut of hydropower projects threatens social and environmental security of region”, written by Neeraj Vagholikar and Partha J. Das. Later there was a panel discussion on the theme, “Water resources of northeast India: science, management, people, conflict and politics”. Prof. Janakarajan, Shripad Dharmadhikary and K. J. Joy spoke at the panel.

20) Guwahati Workshop, 10-11 December 2010

The Forum in association with Aaranyak, Guwahati organised a two day national workshop on, “Water Conflicts in the North East: Issues, Cases and Way Forward”, on 10-11 December 2010 at Guwahati. Dr. A. C. Bhagabati, Honorary Coordinator and Head of Division of North Eastern Regional Centre of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and a well known academic, inaugurated the workshop. The workshop was attended by about 50 people including experts, practitioners, civil society researchers from the water sector and journalists including Prof. Ramaswamy Iyer, Prof. Dulal Chandra Goswami, Ravindranath and Dr. Nimmi Kurien. Presentations were also made by most of the case study writers who are involved in documenting various water related conflicts in the North-East as part of Forum and Aaranyak’s efforts to understand the different conflicts in the region. Most of the National SC members also participated in the workshop.

The North East has been witnessing different types of water related conflicts especially on issues like hydropower, water quality, bank erosion and floods. There have also been apprehensions about China’s reported intent to divert Brahmaputra waters adding a transboundary dimension to the conflicts. In the North-East, there is a sense of `isolation’ because the issues thrown up by these conflicts do not seem to enter into the `national’ water discourse partly reflecting and creating a perception of a lack of understanding of and sensitivity to these issues in the rest of India. It is in this context that the Forum has recently embarked on a new initiative to document selected water related conflicts in the North East. The workshop provided an opportunity to discuss the first drafts of these case studies. The workshop also helped in developing an understanding of the broader issues underpinning the water conflicts in the region.

Efforts for resource mobilisation

Arghyam has provided one-third of the required financial resources and Forum is supposed to raise the remaining two-third. We have made some attempts to raise the remaining part of the required resources. The Forum has approached WaterAid and their response is awaited. Also for specific activities the Forum is collaborating with other partner NGOs and organisations.

Section 2: Activities of Kerala Resource Centre

Chalakudy Puzha Samrakshana Samithi (CPSS) is the partner organisation of the Forum in Kerala and coordinator of the Kerala State Resource Centre (KSRC) of the Forum. The work of the Centre is focused on `Resolving Upstream Downstream Conflicts in Chalakudy River Basin, Kerala’.

21) Book discussion on water and the laws in India on 5 April 2010

The Forum and Chalakudy Puzha Samrakshana Samithi jointly organized a discussion on the book, ‘Water and the Laws in India’ on the afternoon of 5th April at Bharat Hotel Ernakulam and was honoured by the participation of none other than the Honorable Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer. Dr. D. Rajeev, Former Director, CUSAT legal studies, Adv. P B Sahasranaman, senior High Court lawyer and Scaria Meledom, Director, School of Media Studies from Bhavans Vidya Mandir reviewed the book. Prof M K Prasad chaired the programme.

22) Framework of action research

The team has prepared the framework for the action research around the upstream-downstream

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conflict in Chalakudy river. The framework has two main components: one is the reservoir operation model and the second is the study of the present water use pattern, cropping patterns in the Chalakudy River Diversion Scheme (CRDS).

23) Meeting on reservoir operation model

One of the important components of the Action Research Program is to develop a workable reservoir operations model for the Chalakudy River. This is proposed to be achieved by synchronizing the operations of the upstream Kerala Sholayar and Poringalkuthu Hydro Electric Projects in the Chalakudy River with the drinking and irrigation water needs of the downstream populations through the Thumburmoozhy Diversion Scheme called Chalakudy River Diversion Scheme (CRDS). With the support of secondary data on daily discharges from the Hydro Power Projects and CRDS, a draft reservoir operations model has been developed which was presented before selected experts and government department officials in a meeting organized on 6 July 2010.

Participants for the one day discussion workshop included, State Steering Committee members Dr. Indira Devi and Shri. K. Madhavan Namboothiri, resource persons like, Dr. Eldho , Faculty, IIT Mumbai; Suhas Paranjape and K. J. Joy from Forum’s Central Secretariat at SOPPECOM, Pune; faculty from the Kerala Agricultural University, engineers of the Water Resources Department, agricultural officers, representatives of Chalakudy River Protection Forum, Chalakudy Puzha Samrakshana Samithi and River Research Centre.

Now the ROM draft incorporating corrections based on the feedback is ready. The Irrigation Department had also sent a letter to the KSEB requesting for the pattern of water release into the river for 2011 summer and the details sent by the KSEB correspond to those utilised in the ROM developed by the State Centre.

24) Stakeholder analysis report

Based on the discussions which took place during the review meeting in July 2010, the draft report for the stakeholder mapping and analysis has been prepared and sent to the state steering committee for their comments.

25) CRDS - GP level meetings, follow up

As part of the Chalakudy River Diversion Scheme study, meeting was held at Mala Gram Panchayath. Monitoring report of the Mattathur GP meeting is finalized. Monitoring is going on in other grama panchayats.

26) Farmer research

As part of the research on farmers periodic visits to farmer data collection is in progress. The documentation of their daily farming operations is also going on. Similarly plots data collection and data entry is being carried out.

27) Kabani study

The Kabani catchment study is in progress and a draft of a booklet on Karapuzha irrigation project (in Malayalam) is prepared. The Centre is planning to hold a workshop to discuss this.

28) Mullaperiyar field visit

The Forum has been trying to understand and engage with interstate issue of the controversial Mullaperiyar dam. A meeting of Kerala and Tamil Nadu MPs was organized at New Delhi on 4 August 2010 that was attended by Kerala MPs. Tamil Nadu MPs kept away from the meeting though both sides were invited personally. The Kerala State Centre had further tried to open up dialogues with the activist groups in Kerala who are on indefinite Satyagraha at Chappath near the Periyar River since more than 1000 days. A field trip to Mullaperiyar was organized for participants as part of the training workshop that took place from 5th to 9th April 2010 at Kochi. The team visited the Satyagraha pandal, met Vandiperiyar grama panchayath members

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and visited the Tunnel intake point to Tamil Nadu.

Based on the detailed discussions held during this field trip and afterwards, it was decided that alternate methods can be tried out to reach out to the conflicting parties. Hence, it was decided to initiate a dialogue process involving both the parties. Fr. Robin Pendeneth from the Mullaperiyar Action Council took initiative. The first meeting was fixed at Cumbum on 16 July. Engineers, bureaucrats, activists and support NGOs were invited from both sides. The meeting could not take place since the Tamil Nadu delegation insisted on rescheduling of dates at the last minute. Nevertheless, the Forum and the State Centre members decided to carry out a field trip to make an on-field assessment. The team consisted of Dr. Janakarajan from MIDS, Chennai; K. J. Joy from SOPPECOM, Pune; Dr. A. Latha, S.P.Ravi, S. Unnikrishnan and Vancheeswaran from the State Centre, Chalakudy and Fr. Robin Pendenath from the Mullaperiyar Samrakshana Samithi. The team visited the Mullaperiyar dam and the proposed new dam site on the morning of the 16th accompanied by the CRPF and the Tehsildar of Idukki district. The Government of Kerala has proposed a new dam around 1200 ft below the existing old dam structure. The new dam involves additional submergence of forest within the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Media people also accompanied the official team apart from the Forest Department officials. We passed through the Periyar Tiger Reserve check post towards the road to Gavi that took deviation towards the Mullaperiyar dam through forest plantations of eucalyptus. After passing the new dam site, the team proceeded towards the old dam.

29) Nitta Gelatin issue

The Centre is documenting the conflict on pollution of the Chalakudy river downstream by the Nitta Gelating Company Limited (NGIL). The centre has completed the field survey and interaction with stakeholders with the assistance of the intern Ram Prasad Kafle. The CPSS staff also assisted him.

30) Review meeting of the Kerala State Resource Centre

A review meeting was organized on 7 July 2010 at Chalakudy to discuss the progress of the Kerala State Centre and the plan of its activities. K. J. Joy and Suhas Paranjape from SOPPECOM and A. Latha, S. P. Ravi, G. Krishnan from the Kerala centre participated in this review meeting.

31) On-field coordination between different stakeholders for improved irrigation system efficiency

During the irrigation season of 2010-11 the Centre thought that it was a time for monitoring committees to act at field level. The immediate irrigation requirements at different GPs were discussed with concerned agriculture officers and farmers. On the basis of this, the turn for release of water into different branch canals was discussed with irrigation officials. Special effort was taken to make water reach the tail end reaches of main canals. (The effort was mainly concentrated in the RB canals this time) The water release turn was fixed at the canal committee meeting on the basis of these discussions. Rajaneesh and Shaneeb from the Centre participated in the meeting.

Water was released for the initial stretch during the third week of December. But the main turn started on the 27th. As water started to flow, our field staff was continuously monitoring the situation. The monitoring committee members were actively involved at Mattathur Aloor and Mala. Even though the canal stretches were cleaned at most places prior to water release (under MGNREGS), some small stretches still had some overgrowth and waste. This had hampered water flow at some places. (Once, when the canal started overflowing due to some blocks downstream, people started shouting and accusing the irrigation officials. However, timely intervention by Rajaneesh saved the situation and that too at midnight!). Farmers and irrigation officials got motivated by Rajneesh to clear the obstacles as they were created. At Aloor, the students from Govt. VHSC Chalakudy, who were having NSS camp there, were involved in campaigning against waste disposal into canals. They also helped in physically cleaning up the canals. Water finally touched the last point at Mala on the first of January 2011 to the joy of all

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concerned since water seldom reached this point earlier. The whole effort was coordinated by Rajaneesh with Shaneeb also being in the field. The selfless involvement of irrigation officials and Executive Engineer needs to be mentioned. There was also monitoring of the water levels in the canals last year and this year. The farmers and irrigation officials claim that compared to last year, when the water level was 1 ft for just 12-16 hrs this year it stood at 0.8 ft - 1.5 ft for 3 days, thanks to the efforts of the panchayath level monitoring committee initiated by us!

Some system deficiencies have been noted during the process and effort shall be made to rectify the same for further improvement in irrigation efficiency. If the present level of involvement and coordination can be sustained through the season, then it will be the beginning of a new chapter in the history of CRDS.

32) Unplanned achievements

The objective of evolving consensus on the ROM amongst the downstream river basin communities is being slowly achieved through a unique social engineering process which was totally unplanned.

Panchayath level Resource Monitoring Committees were formed in many grama panchayaths in the ayacut of CRDS from 2010 January onwards. It started off as an experiment suggested by the farmers themselves in Aloor GP. Later on, the same experiments were tried out in many other grama panchayaths; Koratty, Kodakara, Mattathur, Mala, Mookkanur and Kadukutty. Monitoring committees are actively taking part in canal inspection, water releases, status assessment of canal etc.

Our objective is to bring the different primary stakeholders closer to their river, make them understand the inter connections between river flows and canal operations which can later pave the way for building consensus for the ROM model and later act as pressure group on the KSEB to change their existing reservoir operations.

Some of the positive consequences of this experiment are

• Panchayath level water resources monitoring committees for monitoring of the canals are very actively functioning in different grama panchayaths and taking a pro active role in monitoring the canal water releases. They are already working in full swing in Mala, Kadukutty, Mattathur, Aloor and Korraty GPs.

• Our field assistants have built a good rapport with the irrigation engineers, staff and the canal watchers. Irrigation engineers have started inviting our field assistants for different meetings to seek their advice and conversely, irrigation officials attend all the LSG level meetings organized by us.

• The agricultural officers in each grama panchayath are now taking more interest in the canal related matters which they previously never did. They have even started calling up Rajneesh from the Centre when problems crop with regard to canal releases.

• The LSG members are more alert to the canal water releases and even seek the advice of our field assistants when water released does not reach the different sections in time.

• The Annual Church festival at Koratty usually results in a lot of waste being dumped into the Kalloor -Vaakkummuri Branch canal of LBC. This year campaigns against dumping of waste was carried out with the help of Koratty and Kadukutty GPs, the respective monitoring committees, irrigation officials, Health dept:, Police, Media, Church officials, traders, etc. the result was highly encouraging with only very little waste being dumped in to the canals. Even that was promptly removed.

• Some of the grama panchayaths have come forward to send letters of resolution to the Irrigation department suggesting improvements in operation of CRDS.

• Agricultural officers in many ayacut panchayaths have come forward to help us in developing better water management plans along with farmers and irrigation officials. Already overloaded with their work burden, it is unusual for agricultural officers to come forward taking extra responsibility. The Centre proposes to organize a meeting in last week of April immediately after the elections.

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33) Karappuzha Irrigation Project – Critical review

The booklet titled, ‘Kaarpuzhayil Karappuzha Padhati Theerkumbol’ (‘When Karappuzha Project is constructed across Kaarpuzha river’) in Malayalam was released officially on 15 January, though the MLA could not participate due to illness. The program was attended by around 75 people. Shri. A. P. Hameed, Chairman, Kalpetta Municipality presided over the meeting. The programme was inaugurated by Shri. K. L. Paulose, President Wayanad District Panchayath. Eminent media personality Shri.O. K. Johny released the first copy of the publication by handing it over to Shri. Roy Jacob, a well known farmer of the area.

This was followed by a public discussion on the topic, ‘Water conservation and utilization in Wayanad against the backdrop of Kabani River Basin’. The discussion topic was introduced to the audience by Dr. S. Sankar, Scientist, Kerala Forest Research Institute. People representing different realms of the society, took active part in the discussion. The discussion was aimed as a first step in initiating a dialogue process regarding the water ulitisation and conservation in the River Basin. During the discussion both the Jilla panchayat president and Kalpetta Municipal president promised to take up all possible measures to conserve and protect the Kabani River during their tenure.

Section 3: Activities of Orissa State Resource Centre

On behalf of the Orissa Water Forum (a network of many civil society organizations), Shristi, NGO working in Baitarani river basin, is anchoring the work of the Forum in Orissa since January 2009.

34) Engaging with conflict documentation

Towards the first objective i.e. to document, map and disseminate information on water conflicts in the State of Odisha, based upon the feedbacks from four regional workshops and peer reference, twenty seven conflict case studies were identified along with local resource persons. Contracts with these resource persons were signed during this year.

To review the case studies submitted by the Resource persons a Peer Reviewer Panel (PRP) was constituted. The Panel includes Prof. R. M. Mallik as the Chairperson and Prof. Smita Mishra Panda and Mr. Tapan Padhi as members. Pranab from the Forum is the convener of the Panel. The First meeting of Panel was held on 8 May 2010 at Bhubaneswar. The members gave their valuable suggestions for the achievement of the first objective i.e. conflict documentation. Following receipt of the drafts of the case studies, which took considerable time and persuasion/follow up by the centre, they were submitted for preliminary review to the panel members. It was felt that the quality of the write ups requires substantial improvement.

Accordingly, a writeshop was organized by the Odisha State Centre on 26 July 2010 at Red Cross Bhawan, Bhubaneswar, to share these drafts and write-ups by the respective resource persons with the Peer-Review-Panel (PRP) and experts (Joy and Suhas) from SOPPECOM, Pune. The objective was to help the authors improve and consolidate the drafts, through critical comments and peer-feedback. Apart from the reviewers, this meeting was attended by 19 resource persons from different parts of Odisha and Amrtha from Arghyam.

Centre had to follow up with each author regularly and repeatedly to collect the revised draft with incorporated feedbacks from the writeshop. Twenty three revised drafts of case studies received by March, 2011, were again reviewed by the PRP members and each of them presented a summary of the 5-7 case studies with their critical remark in the workshop on “Water conflicts in Odisha: Issues and way forward” during 28th – 29th March, 2011 at Bhubaneswar. This workshop was attended by the resource persons, steering committee members of the Forum and members from Odisha Civil Society, media, water-bureaucracy etc. In this workshop it was decided to go for final round of language and other basic contents editing by the state centre, following which, a set of 2-3 case studies would be sent to some willing steering committee members of the Forum and the members of the Peer Review Panel for peer review. Moreover, as the technical sessions were planned, a summary chapter each on different typologies of

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conflict with macro and theoretical perspectives would also be attempted by these reviewers to provide an analytical and policy insight into these conflicts. Similarly an introductory chapter would also be planned to provide context and a broad overview. It was expected that the editing and reviewing process would be finalized by May-June and the edited volume would be ready in July for publication.

35) Review of the Project

Review meeting with Joy and Suhas

To discuss on different aspects of the project ‘Engaging with Water Conflicts in Odisha’ and the progress of the Odisha State Centre on this project, a review meeting was organized at the office of the Odisha state Centre on 25 July 2010. K J Joy, Suhas Paranjape from SOPPECOM and Amrtha from Arghyam Trust reviewed the progress. The Team members of the state centre assisted in presenting progress and providing required information.

Financial review with Joy and Pratima

As a follow up to audit by Arghyam at Pune, Joy and Pratima from SOPPECOM visited Odisha State Centre and carried out financial review during March 2011.

36) Entering into the MoU with the partner CSO

To work towards the conflict resolution in Hirakud, MASS was identified and approached to associate as the partner CSO and finally the State Centre and the MASS entered into MOU to work towards the second

objective in July 2011 (MASS over the last some months have withdrawn from Forum’s Hirakud initiative).

37) Engagement with Hirakud water conflict

Participatory design of an action research for conflict analysis and resolution

To work towards the conflict resolution in Hirakud, the centre prepared a framework and design for action research. In this design it clearly spelt out the objective, methodology, research questions, activities, identification of conflicts, data collection, conflict analysis, stakeholder analysis, stakeholder consultation etc. MASS as the partner CSO is also associated and a Sub-Committee with seven members (including farmer leaders, academician and members of civil society from Sambalpur area) has been formulated to steer us to work on this objective.

Sub-Committee meetings

It was decided by the Odisha State Centre to from a Sub-Committee consisting primarily of academics and civil society activist form the area to guide the initiative around Hirakud. To formally finalise constitution of the Sub-Committee and also to discuss on the processes and pathways to be followed for realization of project objectives, the first meeting of Sub Committee was organized by the Odisha State Centre along with MASS on 27 July 2010 at Hotel Upahar Palace Sambalpur. Joy and Suhas from SOPPECOM also attended the meeting. It was followed by a visit to Hirakud.

During his visit to Sambalpur from 10 -13 May 2010 the Research Associate met Mr. Ranjan Panda, Mr. Ashok Pradhan, Mr. Dillip Padhi, Prof. Arttabandhu Mishra and Prof. Durga Prasad Nayak and discussed about the project on water conflict. The meeting with Mr. Ranjan Panda was held at his Office at Sambalpur on 11 May 2010. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss about the plan to proceed towards the second

objective of the project i.e. conflict resolution process after Ranjan’s consent to associate with the project.

Visits to Hirakud by Steering Committee members of the Forum

In view of a clear understanding of these issues the members from the Forum (Joy and Suhas) and state Centre visited Hirakud dam and parts of Hirakud command on 28 July 2010.

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Participation in Save Hirakud Reservoir campaign

The Joint Action Committee, Jharsuguda organized a rally and public meeting at the Tehsil Office of Lakhanpur on 1

December 2010. This Committee is a non registered organization of Jharsuguda District working towards the protection of life and livelihood of the district masses. This campaign was participated by activists, fishermen, farmer, farmer leader and political party representatives. The participants put their concern and expressed their views related to Hirakud reservoir water crisis and deteriorating situation day by day. They allege that in the name of industrialization state government is just destroying the water, land and forest around and the reservoir. The pollution from these industries ultimately leads to climate change and irregular rainfall, resulting water scarcity. Cluster of industries at one place around reservoir is due to wrong industrial policies which should be prohibited immediately, as they said. The major concern from fishermen in this campaign was reduction in fishery production and fish variety from reservoir due to industrial pollution. The members from the State Centre had participated in a meeting to share some findings with the participants and also to learn about their perspective. The meeting was attended by more than 500 farmers and fishermen completely dependent upon Hirakud for their livelihood. In that meeting the Committee made some demands on behalf of the farmers and fishermen to present to the Chief Minister of Odisha through the Tehsildar of Lakhanpur Tehsil.

Stakeholder analysis around Sasan Canal

The Industry vs. Agriculture conflict at Hirakud Dam along with other conflicts in its catchment and command area are required to be investigated intensively before going for working towards its resolution as per the project mandate. To work towards the conflict resolution in Hirakud, based on the work so far done, a comprehensive framework and design for action research has been developed. Information collection (primary and secondary) and analysis are going on as per this framework. The work towards the stakeholder analysis has also been started by guiding and facilitating a student-intern from National Centre for Advocacy Studies, Pune. Based on the synopsis, activity chart and work plan, he has carried out stakeholder analysis in the command area of the Sason Canal. The objectives of the analysis are

• To identify and understand the stakeholders, their perspectives, positions, linkages, interests and power relations around water resources, contexts and conflict around Hirakud with focus on Sasan Command

• To identify and analyze specific issues and local factors having bearing on water conflicts and to

suggest possible policy interventions for conflict resolution.

A combination of methodologies was adopted including review of secondary data, primary surveys employing participant and direct observation and participatory approach. Stakeholder analysis has been carried out by using different tools, viz., Value tree, ‘sociogram’, Actor Linkage Matrix, power- interest mapping and stakeholder table analysis.

Stakeholders covered in this study include Industries/Corporate houses, Farmers – big, small, and marginal farmers, farmer leader and activist, academicians and environmentalists; youth and women; Government authorities/official (the ones who are in charge of allocating the water); institutions/NGO; fishermen and media. Apart from in depth interviews (IDI) with these stakeholders and Focus Group Discussions with some, critical time series data on different aspects of reservoir and copies of many important documents have been collected from government sources, which will be useful in analysis of the conflict.

The stakeholders’ value has been analyzed with the help of stakeholder analysis tree. The stakeholder analysis tree of every stakeholder will be drawn on the basis of their groups and their vested interests. At the end there will be formation of common value tree which will indicate overall picture of stakeholder interests, power, positions and possible alliances.

The findings of the stakeholder analysis were presented in the Water Conflict Workshop which

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drew appreciation from the leaders of farmers and fishermen, academicians and researchers, National Steering Committee members of the Forum and other stakeholders.

38) Water publications from the Centre

The State Centre has been publishing quarterly ‘River Basin Transact’, an attempt to put together River Basins’ news from Odisha mainly published in local dailies— five Odia and one English News Paper, along with other information and analysis related to Odisha’s Rivers to enhance basin literacy, to catalyze basin concerns and crystallize opinions towards Inclusive and Democratic River Basin Governance. This is a humble initiative towards spreading basin literacy and raising basin concerns. During this year, three issues of river basin transact have been prepared by the state centre. During this year, two issues of Monthly Water Feeder, three issues of drought updates and three issues of flood updates have also been published. Apart from being circulated through emails and e-groups, these are also uploaded on the Centre’s website and SCRIBD.

39) Internship placement /Academic partnerships

Intern from NCAS, Pune

Internship placement of Mr. Jinda Sandbhor for six months in state centre was scheduled after his seven day visit in August 2010. As a part of internship programme of National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS) Pune, the placement was for six months from 15th Sept 2010 to 15th March 2011. Further the period of placement was extended for 15 days due to official work. During this placement, Jinda carried out stakeholder analysis of Hirakud water conflict. He presented it in workshop on Water Conflicts in Odisha and Way forward. He also helped in daily work and participated in every activity of State Centre during his six months placement. He has later joined state centre as a research associate.

Doctoral student from Department of Geography, at Munster University in Germany

Michael Brinkschroder, a PhD student from Department of Geography, at Munster University in Germany, visited the centre during from 8 August 2010 to 15 August 2010. His visit was related to his research project on water conflicts in India. He met different academicians, state centre steering committee members and retired Government officers in Bhubaneshwar to understand water conflicts in Odisha. He also visited Sambalpur to get better understanding of issues related to Hirakud water conflict. In Sambalpur, he met farmer leaders, environmentalist, academicians, activists and retired government officials. At the end of his visit he went into Talab village which was affected due to lack of irrigation water during peak period of water conflict. After returning to Bhubaneswar he discussed with state centre about his future plan to come back for detail study on Hirakud water conflict and concluded the visit. Since then, he has been in touch with State Centre regarding the progress of his doctoral proposal.

40) Policy advocacy: Leading civil society response to IWRM roadmap of Odisha

Meeting to discuss on draft IWRM roadmap of Odisha

Dr. Bruce Hooper DHI’s Consultant and the main author of the report Draft IWRM Roadmap of Odisha along with Mr. Kenichi Yokoyama of Asian Development Bank and two officials from OWPO proposed to meet with some members of the Odisha Water Forum for consultation and discussion. For this purpose the Odisha Water Forum had organized a meeting on afternoon of 31 August 2010 at the office of Agragamee.

Consultative meeting on IWRM roadmap

A consultative meeting was organized by the Odisha Water Forum in collaboration with the Odisha State Centre at Bhubaneswar on 26 October to discuss the report. Department of Water Resource has developed the report through technical assistance from ADB under Orissa

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Integrated Irrigated Agriculture and Water Management Investment Programme (OIIAWMIP). The participants of the consultative meeting had shown their concern on the need of proper consultation process by the department and to give more time to respond to the report. In that context, state centre assisted OWF in responding to media enquiries, in submitting a note to the Water Resource Department and in bringing out a press release which was reported in the Hindu.

Multi-stakeholder consultation on “IWRM Road Map of Odisha” 2011

To have an inclusive dialogue and analytical discussion on this IWRM Road Map and to provide a detailed response, a multi-stakeholder consultation was organized by the OWF on 5 February 2011 at Red Cross Bhawan, Bhubaneswar.

In this workshop, there was a wide discussion on key aspects of the roadmap viz. water allocation, water pricing, Regulatory Authority, River Basin Organization, legal aspects etc. by experts. Different stakeholders like farmers, fishers, industry, citizen forum, save river campaigns, Govt etc. with participants from District Water Forums, NGOs, Industry, Govt, academia, farmer associations, citizen forums etc. have been attended this deliberation and gave their response on the report.

State Centre was a co-organizer of this workshop. It has contributed significantly in the form of knowledge support and generation and network building around this effort, which has been widely appreciated by different stakeholders including the Govt.

Priyabrata Satapathy, Research Associate of Odisha State Centre presented the IWRM Roadmap in brief for setting the context. He informed that the said Roadmap was prepared under the Orissa Integrated Irrigated Agriculture and Water Management Investment Programme (OIIAWMIP) with technical assistance from ADB. It had two phased action plans: firstly formulation of institutional framework and secondly facilitating the operation of IWRM in Baitarani River Basin. The report on the IWRM Roadmap also dwelt on the water challenges, capacity development, implementation tools like River Basin Organisation, Water Regulatory Authorities, water planning, water law reforms, he said, along with the resources and timeline stipulated for achieving the goal.

Pranab Ranjan Choudhary Project Coordinator from Baitarani Initiative presented an analysis of the structure of RBO as proposed by the WRD in the IWRM report. He told that in 2006, Baitarani Initiative had conducted an action research around Baitarani River basin. To meet the gap of unavailability of basin level information which was affecting appreciation of basin issues by basin-stakeholders, the study had collected different basin information, analyzed the data, and identified the issues. All these lead to a consultation process with the stakeholders, which was essential for formation of a River Basin Institution. Based on this experience, he suggested that the department should first identify the stakeholders and then decide on the structure of the RBO. The consultation only at district level is not proper and the structure of the RBO is not acceptable. It is not inclusive- out of 34 members 17 members are from the Government. This basin has a very complex characteristic and the report does not take this into account. This basin is inhabited by two Primitive Tribal groups named Bhuyans and Juangas. They are very vulnerable. The proposed RBO does not say anything about their participation. He pointed out many shortcomings in the IWRM report which needs proper attention:

• In river basin, fishery is one of the major livelihoods and the fishermen inclusion is not discussed in the report.

• The RBO looks top heavy with complete control of Government. • Farmers’ participation is not adequate as they will not be able to negotiate with a smaller

representation. • The process for public participation is not followed properly. • The layering structure is completely over looked

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• The framework does not address the ongoing and emerging conflicts around water. • Engineering paradigm is still continuing to control the water resources. • Water is not only a hydrological unit, it is also a social and cultural unit, but the socio cultural

aspect is completely ignored. • The functions of the RBO are confusing. • There is no priority set for water allocation • Methodology and accountability is also not clear • The proposed RBO is only a recommending authority with no decision making power. • Traditional institutions and knowledge should be taken into consideration • The dialogue process should be bottom-up

41) Participation in workshops, networking, dissemination and advocacy

Dissemination of information in Odisha Environment Congress 2010

The first Odisha Environment Congress 2010 was held on 22

to 24

December at Bhubaneswar.

The theme for this year was “Water resources of Odisha: Reflections for 21st

Century”. The Centre has contributed significantly to this Congress.

The 3-member team that conceptualized the theme and sub-themes, planned the technical programme of the congress and selected the authors along with two State Steering Committee Members (Prof. Smita M. Panda & Mr. Tapan Padhi) and the Project Coordinator

Project Coordinator was also one of the Editors of the ‘Proceedings of the Congress’ wherein

the invited papers have been published. He is also the member of the Organizing Committee

Project team presented two papers on invitation. 1. “From localized contestations to Terrains

of Resistance: Water Conflicts making Statements around Odisha’s Landscapes” - Pranab R Choudhury & Priyabrata Satapathy based on the water conflicts documented by the State Centre. 2. “Approaches Toward Inclusive and Futuristic River Basin Management” by Pranab R. Choudhury

The need of a River Basin Policy and the conflict resolution found prominent place in the Congress and media report. The main objective of the congress was to provide a forum for interaction among young and senior scientists as well as policy-decision makers in various fields for sharing of expertise and experience and to improve and enhance the networking between various groups like individuals, research institutions, and government and non-government organizations.

Participation in WORLD WATER DAY celebration on 22 March 2011

A meeting on “World Water Day” was organized by Odisha Water Forum at Bhubaneswar on 22 March 2011 for the celebration of World Water Day. The meeting was attended by members from Odisha Water Forum and the District Water Forum. Dr. Aurobindo Behera, the Principal Secretary of Department of Forest and Environment attended as Chief Guest and also presided over the meeting. Er. Sreedhar Behera former EIC Water Resource Department also attended the meeting. The theme of the world water day for this year was “Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge”, which aims to spotlight and encourage governments, organizations,

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communities, and individuals to actively engage in addressing the challenges of urban water management. The objective of World Water Day 2011 was to focus international attention on the impact of rapid urban population growth, industrialization and uncertainties caused by climate change, conflicts and natural disasters on urban water systems. Odisha State Centre actively participated in the meeting by providing valuable information regarding the water conflict around the river basins in Odisha.

Organization of workshop on “Water Conflicts in Odisha: Issues and Way Forward”

A two-day Workshop on “Water conflicts in Odisha: Issues and way forward” was organized during 28

– 29

March, 2011 at Bhubaneswar by Odisha State Centre. Environmental activists, thinkers, academicians, Government officials, farmer leaders and civil society organizations from different parts of the state participated in the workshop along with members of the National Steering Committee of Forum to discuss about the ongoing and emerging water conflicts in different geographies of the state. Over six technical sessions, participants deliberated upon mechanisms for better understanding, resolution and prevention of conflicts and brainstormed options to deal with imminent water crisis in the state.

The workshop had twin objectives; the first was sharing and discussion on 27 conflict case studies documented through local resource persons and the second was sharing and discussion around the action research work on engaging with Hirakud water conflict. The water conflict issue discussed in the workshop was highlighted widely in the media next day and was described as the major concern of the time.

42) Concerted efforts at policy dialogue & analysis

To work towards the policy advocacy a State Steering Committee with six members with required expertise has been constituted and the committee regularly met to discuss on the issue and to steer the project. A Sub Committee at Sambalpur is also constituted to help on the resolution process of Hirakud Conflict. The centre is regularly following up the activities those are taken by the Water Resource Department of Odisha and provide our views and inputs on different issues.

State Water Resources Department, particularly their senior officers including Secretary, Additional Secretary, EIC and Director, OWPO etc. have shown willingness to interact with the Centre more frequently.

Some visuals of the year’s happenings…

Release function and panel discussion on the report which is titled ‘Life, Livelihoods, Ecosystems, Culture: Entitlements and Allocation of Water for Competing Uses’

Inaugural address by Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India

Large gathering at the report release and the panel discussion

The panelists: Vimal Bhai; Rohini Nilekani; Chairperson Prof. Vaidyanathan; Prof. Ramaswamy Iyer and Dr. Navroz Dubash

Training Programme on Understanding and Resolving Water Conflicts was held between 5- 9 April, 2010, in Kochi, Kerala

Dr. A. C. Bhagabati inaugurating the Guwahati workshop, 10-11 December 2010

Guwahati Workshop, 10-11 December 2010 Prof. Iyer giving a key note address at the public lecture

cum panel discussion, 9 December 2010 , Guwahati

Writeshop at Odisha State Centre on 26th July 2010 Workshop on “Water conflicts in Odisha: Issues and

way forward”, 28 – 29

h March 2011, Bhubaneswar

Author Arun PA speaking on the book ‘Kaarpuzhayil Karappuzha Padhati Theerkumbol’ (‘When Karappuzha Project is constructed across Kaarpuzha river’), 15 January 2011, Wayanad, Kerala

Book release by writer O.K Johny, 15 January 2011, Wayanad, Kerala