| Water Law and Justice : Development, Conflicts and Governance

Water is an important natural resource supporting the life and livelihood of human beings, with a crucial role played in ecosystem services. Water is the source of life, but a lack of water is also a source of conflict, ranging from the local to the global level. The challenges in the water sector across different water uses are also complex. Millions of people across the world face issues in access to safe and clean water and proper sanitation, raising several challenges to the realisation of human rights. In the irrigation water sector, lack of water access has the potential to create conflicts among tail-end and head-end farming communities. Increasing the allocation of water for the industrial sector has also raised concerns about intersectoral water allocations.

In the light of climate change and increasing pressure on various resources due to expanding needs of a burgeoning population, it is important to address water management and governance with an aim to assure equity and inclusiveness, understand how to deal with water scarcity, factors influencing water scarcity, water governance and management, and water conflicts. This paper aims to be a foundational course on water governance, and it attempts to discuss water governance, where issues of equity, fairness, and justice are always an issue. It seeks to equip the students with a broader understanding of the law and policies in domestic and international law for accessing, allocating and managing water resources for various users in surface water resources and groundwater resources. It shall examine various doctrines and principles influencing water access, allocation, management and governance.

The course shall equip the students to understand and unpack everyday (in) justice in the water sector, ranging from the local tap points for drinking water access to the global issues, like transboundary water sharing. It analyses how the current regulatory aspect contributes to widening or mitigating water injustices among water users and water users.

The course will be taught in a mixture of Socratic and seminar-style discussions. Case studies through group work and presentations will be part of class dynamics. Students are expected to come to class having made the necessary readings and ready to contribute to the discussion or raise questions.

The course will have following themes

Theme 1- Rights, Justice and Governance: Law and Policy on Water

Theme 2- Politics and Power Determining Access and Allocations: Questions of Equity and Inclusiveness

Theme 3- Transboundary Water Management and Governance

Theme 4- Environment, Sustainability and Water Management