Focus - Water law reforms

Welcome to IELRC.ORG

The International Environmental Law Research Centre is an independent research organisation focusing on international and comparative environmental law issues, with a particular emphasis on India and East Africa.

The aim of the IELRC is to contribute to the establishment of legal and institutional frameworks which foster sustainable environmental management in developing countries in an equitable international context...    [ read more ]

Latest news on IELRC.ORG

Forthcoming book publication: P. Cullet, A. Gowlland-Gualtieri, R. Madhav & U. Ramanathan eds, Governance in Motion: Towards Socially and Environmentally Sustainable Water Laws (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2010). [read more]

Publication of: P. Cullet, A. Gowlland-Gualtieri, R. Madhav & U. Ramanathan eds, Water Law for the Twenty-first Century: National and International Aspects of Water Law Reforms in India (Abingdon: Routledge, 2009). [read more]

Publication of: P. Cullet, Water Law, Poverty and Development – Water Law Reforms in India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). [read more]

IELRC organised a panel on water law reforms at the Law and Social Sciences Research Network (LASSNET) Inaugural Conference, Jawahar Lal University, New Delhi, 8-11 January 2009.

IELRC and SOAS organised a conference on water law reforms in Geneva. [read more]

A word on eminent domain

Eminent domain is understood as the power that the state may exercise over all land within its territory. Eminent domain requires that the power may be invoked only for a public purpose, but what constitutes public purpose is wide open to interpretation and use. The development debate which has been stoked by the mass displacement that accompanies large projects has placed a severe strain on the acceptability of the power of eminent domain.

Evolution of Water Law and Policy in India

This chapter examines the evolution of water law and policy in India from pre-historic to present times, briefly outlining pre-colonial developments and focusing on colonial and postcolonial issues and the complexity of regulating water in India. The fragmentation of water law in the past has not yet been overcome. Water law remains patchy partly because it is a state subject while being also an issue of concern at the union level and partly because there are elements of water law in environment or health laws. Further, division of tasks between various social actors and levels is unclear. Water policy is being pushed in a number of different directions, reflecting the specificities of the Indian situation, such as its complex administrative structure, overlapping and sometimes contradictory rights frameworks, vastly different endowments in water resources in different regions, and difficulties in allocating water in the most socially and economically appropriate manner.

New Policy Framework for Rural Drinking Water Supply: Swajaldhara Guidelines

This article discusses the central government policy for drinking water supply in rural areas. It examines its evolution from the 1970s onwards and focuses, in particular, on the reforms of the past decade, looking more specifically at the Swajaldhara Guidelines. These reforms are of capital importance because they seek to completely change the rural drinking water supply policy framework.

Courts as Champions of Sustainable Development: Lessons from East Africa

Courts function as an arm of government that is critical in the separation of powers doctrine, and they play a crucial role in giving effect to legislative and executive intentions and pronouncements. Judicial power enables sovereign states to decide controversies between itself and its subjects and between the subjects inter se (between themselves)...