Who owns the WATER ?

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Water does not resist, it flows carelessly where it wants to go, and nothing can stand against it. Ancient Sanskrit documents like Brihatsamhita of Varahmihira, Arthasastra of Kautilya etc. also indicated resemblance of water channels movement with vein structure in human body. Mystical movement of water clear-out all the misconceptions regarding the ‘Ownership of Water’.

Still one questions often arises, ‘Who owns the Water and who will be responsible in case it harms (floods) or it is harmed (exploited).

Assuming the Groundwater an open access property, people extract water injudiciously resulting degradation of groundwater table. Government have been working to address groundwater issues since 1970, still there are ambiguities regarding the ownership of groundwater resources. India does not have any specific law defining ownership and rights over water resources.

In 19th century, Britain formulated policy regarding ‘Groundwater Ownership’. Later on the same concept was recognized by Indian legal system also. According to this rule, groundwater is a part of land and therefore, landowners have got unrestricted right to extract groundwater. This was observed as against the rule of equality because it excludes the landless from accessing the groundwater. As per List II of the Seventh Schedule of Indian Constitution, only State Government has the authority to formulate region specific rules and in a country like India with huge geographical diversity this is the indispensable.

With the depleting groundwater, questions arising regarding the sustainability of ground water and need of centralized policies. The latest and vastly more progressive Policy recommends that groundwater needs to be managed as a community resource held, by the state, under the public trust doctrine to achieve food security, livelihood protection, and equitable and sustainable development for all (Ministry of Water Resources, 2012).

There are lot of debates and discourse on ownership of water especially over groundwater resources but looking at the present environmental scenario and socio-economic-political condition it would be best to consider ‘Water’ a common property under the regulation of State Government.