28 May 2019: Talk on 'India’s Inter-State Water Wars: Causes, Cures, and Consequences'

Scott Moore
University of Pennsylvania

Organised by
Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Central Water Commission (CWC)

Abstract:
From the San Francisco Bay area to Sao Paulo to Riyadh, water shortages increasingly cloud economic forecasts. But nowhere is the risk greater than in South Asia, where India, the largest economy and most important regional power, faces crippling shortages and a lack of consensus on what to do about them. In turn, water problems threaten to drag down India’s economic growth and slow its rise to regional power. In this talk, Scott Moore will draw on his recent book, Subnational Hydropolitics: Conflict, Cooperation, and Institution-Building in Shared River Basins, to explore some of the causes of India’s many inter-state water disputes, and what they say about the state of India’s federal system. He'll also discuss some promising ways to convert India’s pervasive sub-national water wars into cooperation.

Date: May 28, 2019
Time: 03:00 P.M.

Venue:
Central Water Commission Auditorium,
First Floor, Library Building,
R K Puram Sector-1,
New Delhi-110066

Note:
RSVP at treads@cprindia.org

Location:

26 March 2019: Talk on 'Intricacies of Interstate Water Coordination Challenges: A View from Rajasthan'

Naveen Mahajan
Secretary, Water Resources, Rajasthan

Organised by
Centre for Policy Research and the Central Water Commission

Abstract:
With over 10% of India's landmass and just 1% of India's surface water to contend with, Rajasthan is a water scarce state. To compound matters, it lies virtually at the tail-end of interstate rivers, Ravi- Beas or Yamuna or Narmada. The talk will bring out the interstate coordination challenges of getting its due share in lucid detail. At times, the State relies on the benevolence, or rather mercy of the upstream States. Despite advances in modern technology, the releases of water are still wrapped in a cloak of opacity either by design or by neglect. Even the basic data of water flows is not captured on real time basis to share across the concerned States. The advantageous power-relation of the upstream States gets reflected in many ways. Projects for drawing the allocated share keeps getting stalled, and the delays become inordinately long. Even the basic deposit works supposed to be carried out on Feeder canals by such States don't get the priority they deserve! Even the basic deposit works supposed to be carried out on Feeder canals by such States don't get the priority they deserve!

We need effective instruments with autonomy and neutrality for interstate coordination to ensure equitable access to water scarce States and downstream States like Rajasthan. The interests of downstream States suffer because of absence of robust interstate institutional mechanisms to coordinate and work with other States.

Date: March 26, 2019
Time: 03:30 A.M.

Venue:
CWC Auditorium,
1st Floor, Library Building,
R K Puram,
New Delhi - 110021

Note:
Please RSVP at treads@cprindia.org.

7 March 2019: Talk on 'The Nitrogen Legacy: Long-Term Effects of Water Pollution on Human Capital'

Esha Zaveri
World Bank, Washington DC

Organised by
Centre for Policy Research and Central Water Commission (CWC)

Abstract:
The five-fold rise in the use of nitrogenous fertilizers since the mid-1960s resulted in profound changes to the nitrogen cycle and exacted a toll on India’s waters— runoff of excess nitrogen from fields increased concentrations of nitrate and nitrite in the rivers to harmful levels. Despite ecological evidence of too much nitrogen on the environment, much less is known about its toll on humans. In this paper, we provide new evidence of the legacy effects of nitrogen pollution and contribute to a growing literature on the persistent effects of early-life exposure on later life health outcomes. We compile a rich dataset of water quality along 145 rivers between the years 1970-2016 and exploit the direction of river flow and the upstream-downstream geographic relationship, coupled with cohort variation in exposure to estimate a pollution-health dose-response function. Preliminary findings show that women exposed to nitrate-nitrite pollution in their earliest years of life are shorter on average and more likely to experience a stillbirth in adulthood than women of similar circumstances who were not exposed to such pollution. Early-life exposure to nitrate-nitrite pollution also lowers later-life labor productivity and depresses adult wages decreasing overall welfare.

Date: March 7, 2019
Time: 03:00 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall, First Floor,
Central Board for Irrigation and Power (CBIP),
Malcha Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi-110021 (India)

Note:
Please RSVP at treads@cprindia.org.

Location: