Abstract
The State of Kerala is blessed with abundant water resources. Sustainable and equitable water use in the State have traditionally been ensured through water conservation technologies, agricultural systems, and cropping patterns adapted to different areas and conservation-based lifestyles. Despite the apparent availability of freshwater resources in sufficient quantities, frequent incidents of severe drinking water scarcity are being reported. Judicious and planned development of groundwater and its scientific governance have become a dire necessity to ensure groundwater’s long-term sustainability. This contribution focuses on analyzing Kerala’s groundwater governance’s efficiency in the context of various Model Bills, the constitutional scheme of decentralization of water governance, the jurisprudence of water rights and legislative and other developments. It analyses the positives and negatives of the Kerala Ground Water (Control and Regulation) Act, 2002, which is based on the Model Groundwater Bill of 1970/2005, which has the command and control paradigm as its central feature. Administrative measures for regulating groundwater also form part of the focus. The Plachimada issue, which pitted the local population represented by their Panchayat against the multinational water giant, Coca-Cola, is also discussed.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
See Cullet [3].
- 3.
Gerlak et al. [4].
- 4.
Varma [5].
- 5.
Ground Water Department Government of Kerala and Central Ground Water Board Government Of India, Thiruvananthapuram, Dynamic Water Resources of Kerala (March 2013) 1 (2015).
- 6.
Water, ENVIS Centre [6].
- 7.
See Raphael [7].
- 8.
Varma, supra note 4, at 2.
- 9.
See id. at 1–2.
- 10.
See Groundwater Resources [8].
- 11.
See Raphael, supra note 7.
- 12.
See Joji [9].
- 13.
See Unnikrishnan Nair [10].
- 14.
See Joji, supra note 12.
- 15.
Maya [11].
- 16.
See Joji, supra note 12.
- 17.
India Const. eleventh Schedule, entry 11.
- 18.
Id. at twelfth Schedule, entry 5.
- 19.
The Kerala Groundwater (Control and Regulation) Act, 2002, § 3.
- 20.
Id. at § 21.
- 21.
Id. at § 23.
- 22.
See Raphael, supra note 7, at 48.
- 23.
See Water Resources Department [12].
- 24.
See Department of Environment Government of Kerala [13].
- 25.
See State Groundwater Authority [14].
- 26.
See Ministry of Water Resources, S.O. 6140(E) (Notified on December 12, 2018).
- 27.
Supra note 25.
- 28.
Bijoy [15].
- 29.
Perumatty Grama Panchayat v. State of Kerala, 2004 (1) KLT 731 (India).
- 30.
Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (P) Ltd. v. Perumatty Grama Panchayat, 2005 (2) KLT 554 (India).
- 31.
Perumatty Grama Panchayat v. State of Kerala, C.A. No. 4033 of 2009.
- 32.
See Centre for Economy Development and Law, Panel Discussion Reports: Road to Plachimada (2013).
- 33.
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Das, S.K. (2021). Kerala. In: Khan, S.A., Puthucherril, T.G., Paul, S.R. (eds) Groundwater Law and Management in India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2617-3_16
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