ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to describe the processes through which water use, access and management practices change in peri-urban settlements. It focuses on two villages, each in Gurgaon and Faridabad, two of the fastest growing districts in the north-western Indian state of Haryana, bordering Delhi. The chapter includes a qualitative research design, relying on an ethnographic approach: a mix of semi-structured interviews, meetings with key informants, direct observation and focus group discussions. Challenges to peri-urban governance arise because of the fragmented approach to urban and rural development. In the peri-urban context, sewage-irrigated agriculture enables farmers to overcome constraints to agriculture posed by poor-quality groundwater or absence of an irrigation canal, and thereby widen their cropping choices. In the absence of a property rights structure for water or institutions for integrated water resource management across urban and rural areas, conflicts over water will continue to intensify.
