India
Water Partnership (IWP).
The main objective of IWP is to promote equitable and sustainable water management by providing forums for stakeholders representing
competing interests to engage in dialogue
and agree to a process of conflict resolution. This first step in this process
has been achieved by organizing meetings of various stakeholders for preparing
two documents: India Water Vision: 2025 and a Framework For
Action on India Water Vision. These exercises were carried out as part of
the collaborative effort initiated by the Global Water Partnership (GWP)
on preparing a 2025 Vision for World Water.
The process of vision development consisted of the following steps: (i) holding consultation
meetings of various stakeholders, (ii) commissioning of background papers
and (iii) review of other related documents. A report on India Water Vision:
2025 presents various scenarios of demand and supply of water and implications of these scenarios for
water scarcity, food security, livelihood security, water quality and public
health and investment needs for meeting
water demands.
The process of vision development was Operationalize through
a series of zonal and national level consultations. Three national level meetings
were organized in New Delhi during March 9-10,1999; May 17-18, 1999 and June
24-25, 1999. In addition three zonal consultations were held at Aurangabad (for the Western Zone) on June
16, 1999, Chennai (for the Southern Zone) during
June 18-19,1999 and at Patna (for Eastern Zone) on June 21,1999. The important
objectives of these consultations were:
· To provide
discussion forums to various stakeholders in water management
· To present
to the participants an overview of the World Water Vision process and update
them on the progress achieved so far
·
To present the scenarios and their underlying drivers used in the Global
Water Vision process and elicit from the participants the set of drivers and
scenarios relevant for developing the India Water Vision 2025
·
To present to the participants the implications of the scenarios for
food , livelihood, health and ecological security
·
To consult various stakeholders on the basic features of the India Water
Vision 2025 that are to be presented at the South Asia Zonal and Global consultation
meetings.
All the vision consultation meetings were very well attended
by various stakeholder groups in water management. The representation at these
meetings included senior Government officials both from the Central Ministries
as also from the States, academics, water experts, donor agencies, international
organizations (UNICEF, World Bank etc.), NGOs and industry representatives.
Consultations on Framework
for Action on India Water Vision-2025
The main objective of Framework for Action (FFA) exercise
was to encourage and facilitate actions that would translate principles and
visions into reality. FFA therefore focused on priorities, policies, research,
technologies, institutions etc which were important for achieving the vision.
The FFA was developed through a stakeholder consultation process. Two national
consultations were organized in New Delhi while five zonal consultations were
organized in Lucknow, Guwahati, Patna, Mumbai and Chennai during November-December,
1999.
Consultations on Financing
of the Water Sector
The REG in collaboration with the South Asia Technical Advisory
Committee (SASTAC) of the Global Water Partnership organized in New Delhi on
January 28,2000 a one day consultation meeting on "Investment Needs and
Financing Issues in the Water Sector." The theme paper for the consultation meeting was prepared by REG.