Abstract
Hyderabad is one of the fastest growing cities in India. To meet its rapidly expanding water needs, it constructed and began withdrawals from the Singur reservoir, located on a tributary of the Godavari River, in 1991. Administrative rules define allocation of water from the reservoir but prioritize Hyderabad urban needs over much longer established agricultural uses. Furthermore, the agricultural sector receives less water than even these rules allow, and urban withdrawals have changed the quantity and the timing of the water, which is available to agriculture. An increase in groundwater use by farmers may have been one response to these changes, with possible implications for surface and groundwater users further downstream. While proposals have been put forth to compensate the agricultural sector in general and the farmers directly affected by reallocation, for example by improving access to wastewater for irrigation downstream from Hyderabad or by conveying wastewater for irrigation purposes downstream Singur reservoir, compensation has not been implemented to date. The Hyderabad case study clearly highlights the advantages for devising and implementing arrangements to regulate the transfer of water from agriculture to cities, allowing a move from sectoral competition for water to efficient management of a scarce resource.
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Notes
Andhra Pradesh Housing, Municipal Administration and Development (A2) Department, Government Order Ms No. 190, dated April 12, 1989; and Andhra Pradesh Irrigation and CAD (Irrgn. V) Department, Government Order Ms No. 93, dated February 24, 1990.
These rules were stipulated in tight collaboration with the World Bank which provided the loan for the project.
Actually the GOs do not mention the allocation for Nizamsagar, but all the official documents released after 1990 that we consulted mention that Nizamsagar is entitled to 236.4 Mm3 per year.
For a detailed analysis on water rights in India the reader may refer to Singh (1992).
“‘Adjudication’ is a term that can include decision making by a judge in a court, by an administrative tribunal or quasi-judicial tribunal, a specially appointed commission, or by an arbitrator. An adjudicator determines the outcome of a dispute by making a decision for the parties that is final, binding and enforceable” (drawn from http://www.peacemakers.ca/publications/ADRdefinitions.html#adjudication).
The hydrologic year spans from June up to May of the following year.
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Celio, M., Giordano, M. Agriculture–urban water transfers: a case study of Hyderabad, South-India. Paddy Water Environ 5, 229–237 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-007-0086-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-007-0086-6