Water is Life. A Forgotten Struggle.

Dr. Avilash Roul
Executive Director, NGO Forum on ADB

A range of issues such as per capita water, urbanization and industrialization, inefficient irrigation practice, virtual water, inefficient water governance, impact of climate change and missing links of water, energy and food suddenly push the Bank to seriously look into water.
It is a welcome step to look into water using a holistic approach, such as the climate change impact, when selecting projects and programs. A decade has passed, but the Bank has not learned where the serious problem is with regard to implementing Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). The IWRM has historical links to ancient civilizations in Asia and yet the Bank depends on the know-how of consultants who are bereft of a simple understanding of IWRM. The Bank’s ‘Asia-ness’ is questionable with respect to the direction of its water framework.

Participatory irrigation management (PIM) has been a mainstay in age-old irrigation practices of Asian communities. The Bank must not reverse its agenda on PIM and continue to advocate agribusiness, genetic modified crop, and improved fertilizer use and so on. The irrigation projects need enhancement of proper consultation and participation of the farmers. Not bring the market-driven approach to the doorstep of the green field.

Dam rush has to be checked immediately. Solving droughts by diverting water from storage is not the exact solution. The solution to address drought will be a bigger problem given the erratic precipitation nowadays. The impacts are enormous to people, livelihood and environment. On the pretext of building a community-owned storage system, the Bank is in full swing to go for several dam structures.

How far the Bank’s prescription is acceptable to countries like India and China is unknown. But even if the country officials are annoyed with the prescriptions, the Bank, along with other institutions and private players, has carried these forward to harp on the dazzling market in water sector in Asia.

On the other hand, either through closing the space to serious scrutiny from the CSOs or the self-alienation by CSOs themselves, the Bank has been implementing methods which gradually but strongly undermines the concept of ‘water is life.’

The scarcity at the heart of the global water crisis is rooted in power, poverty and inequality -- not physical availability. How the society will address this issue in the face of global environmental challenge depends on how inclusive the decision-making process is. There is a vast opportunity for CSOs to strengthen their advocacy and campaign in the face of this water framework.