Realizing the importance of water as pivotal in supporting and sustaining livelihoods and the fact that India shares about 16% of the global population but has only 4% of the world’s total water resource, the Government of India has made moves since 1995 towards creating common guidelines in the form of a framework for watershed development. However, there are concerns that legislative measures in place to protect and manage India’s water resources are hindered by the lack of political and local awareness in water and land resources management, and in some cases are based upon ingrained and incorrect scientific understanding of water resource management and land use.

Winrock International India(WII), along with the Centre for Land Use and Water Resource Research (CLUWRR), University of Newcastle, U.K and the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD) was involved in a two-year project, ‘Low Base Flows and Livelihoods in India’, which focussed on improving scientific understanding of water flows and its interactions with different land uses and the resultant impacts on rural livelihoods in an arid zone context. More specifically the broad objectives of the study included:

• Improving scientific understanding of forests-water flows interactions in an arid zone context
• Developing decision-making tools such as GIS models, and
• Linking this improved understanding to policy with the aid of these tools and through direct interactions with institutions and policy makers

Watersheds, one each within the states of Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, were selected for detailed study. Within the project framework, WII was responsible for the ‘Sustainable Livelihoods and Perceptions’ component that aimed to gather baseline socio-economic data and institutional perceptions from the selected watersheds. The analysis of this data was envisioned to provide key indicators for use in the GIS model being developed by IITD and CLUWRR and also to identify the gaps and modifications required in land and water management practices and in policy formulation and implementation.

Phase II (2005- 2006): Winrock International India in collaboration with the Centre for Land Use and Water Resource Research (CLUWRR) at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, and the Indian Institute for Technology, Delhi undertook a second phase of the ‘Low Flows’ project. In the first phase, the project focused on improving the scientific understanding of water flows and its interactions with different land uses, with a focus on forests, and the resultant impacts on rural livelihoods. The second phase had a dual focus. Firstly, it examined the linkages between research and policy uptake with regards to water management in Madhya Pradesh using the RAPID framework. Further, it conceptualized and developed a framework for undertaking an institutional analysis of negotiation support systems for watershed environmental services which was applied to WII’s ongoing efforts at developing incentive-based mechanisms for watershed protection services in the Bhoj Wetlands of Madhya Pradesh. In addition to several reports, the project developed two policy briefs that mapped the perceptions on forests-water linkages across stakeholders and identified opportunities and constraints in promoting for improved land and water management in India. These policy briefs were disseminated in several national and international fora, including the 4th World Water Forum held in Mexico in March 2006.

Detailed reports can be viewed at: http://www.cluwrr.ncl.ac.uk/research_projects/ongoing_research/prj_india.php