UKIERI: Climate change and groundwater management in India (2013–2015)

The partnership project Climate Change and Groundwater Management: An Indian Law and Society Comparative Study is a joint initiative of LEDC and the National Law University, Delhi. The project seeks to build a long-term partnership between the two participating institutions and to research and work together in the area of environmental law, particularly the impact of climate change on groundwater and analyse and suggest improvements in the legal and policy framework.

Its main objectives are to:

1. Analyse the extent to which existing groundwater law in India has contributed to addressing climate change and the extent to which more effective implementation could contribute further to the same;
2. Analyse water law instruments that effectively address climate change, especially through a comparative analysis of efforts in other parts of the world;
3. Examine the implications of climate change for the realisation of the right to water, with a particular focus on the Government of India’s strategic plan 2011–2022 for rural drinking water supply in a context where groundwater provides 80 percent of drinking water needs;
4. Provide the missing in-depth analysis of existing groundwater rules and groundwater institutions in their daily practice in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to provide a stronger basis for the adoption of the new groundwater model bill drafted by the Planning Commission by individual states in the future; and
5. Analyse the extent to which ongoing institutional reforms in the water sector can contribute to water law being better able to address climate change, examining in particular decentralised bodies of democratic governance (panchayats and municipalities) and state-level independent water regulatory authorities.