In the eye of the storm

In the last decade, water has emerged as a political, economic and social ­flashpoint in India (Biswas 2016; Tiwari et al. 2009; Joy et al. 2008). Increased urbanization, industrialization and the expansion of commercial agriculture have added up to increase the pressure on water resources (Walker 2014). The state has responded to the intensifying crisis with a characteristic mixture of nonchalance and ideologically-motivated measures of dubious efficacy. One set of responses has entailed privatization or public-private partnerships, whose ostensible goal is to attract private investment into the water sector to promote efficiency. ¹ This is particularly the case with hydropower, where the state has signed hundreds of memoranda of understanding (MOU) with private power companies (Seth 2014). Similar investment in water distribution, especially for domestic consumption, has been less forthcoming due in part to the grassroots resistance which, although piecemeal and ad hoc, has nevertheless created uncertainty and deterred investors. The resistance is rooted in the apprehension that privatization will lead to price increases across the board, thereby making water even more inaccessible to the poor (Nair 2015).