Beyond the Rhetoric of Integrated Water Resources Management: The Case of the Tungabhadra Sub-basin

Although Integrated Water Resources Management, as a concept, has gained currency in the global discourse on water, it does not seem to have made much headway in the Indian context. The paper examines the case of Tungabhadra sub-basin in south India and finds that it has made little progress in practical terms with regard to intra- and inter-sectoral allocation of water. The concept of IWRM in Tungabhadra is relatively new and water management has been performed mainly at the state level. As a result, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have their own set of different water governance regimes — water policies, laws and legislations, institutions and practices — with relatively little interaction between them.