ABSTRACT
The role of drafting and enforcing water legislation, regulatory frameworks and water rights is increasingly seen to be central in meeting the challenge of water mismanagement the world over. There are reports by the United Nations identifying both the need ‘to strengthen the enabling role of the government to enact and enforce water legislation’ and ‘to strengthen local water management and service capacities’ as being among the paramount strategies that are critical in promoting and facilitating sustainable water development and management (UN Secretary General, 2001). Perceptive observers in India also advocate a clutch of instruments in law and rights for better water management, including: (a) a water law and regulatory framework for coordinated action for sustainable water resources management; (b) treating water as an economic good by pricing water resource as well as services, especially outside lifeline uses, to reflect its scarcity value so that it is efficiently used and allocated to high value uses; (c) creation of water rights, preferably tradable, by instituting a system of water withdrawal permits; and (d) participatory water resource management with involvement of women so that ‘water becomes everybody’s business’ (Shah and Van Koppen, 2006).1
