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A Comparison of Water Policies for Sustainable Irrigation Management: The Case of India and Australia

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  • Rajendra Poddar
  • M. Qureshi
  • Tian Shi

Abstract

A comparative analysis of irrigation related issues and effectiveness of water policies in India and Australia is conducted to help share the learning from each other’s experience in sustainable irrigation management. Keeping in pace with the global trend of implementing a sustainable water management program, India has adopted the concept of participatory irrigation management (PIM) while Australia has adopted irrigation management transfer (IMT) program. PIM in India is regarded as experimentation in diverse socio-economic settings with mixed results while IMT in Australia has achieved a high level of water use efficiency. Australian irrigation industry is currently driven by market mechanisms where water trading is expected to lead to greater efficiency. However, there are concerns that sole reliance on water use (or economic) efficiency objective may conflict with the objectives of social equity and ecological sustainability. Similar to Australia, there is an opportunity for water markets in India. However, conflict in the objectives of efficiency, equity and sustainability constrain the debate of establishing water markets in India. The comparative analysis indicates that despite both countries have a common goal of sustainable water management, their strategies differ. Nevertheless, India can emulate many of the Australian experiences in water policy reforms, entitlements, institutional arrangements, and corporate style of management while Australia can adopt the best Indian traditions of decentralized participatory and community management for sustainable irrigation water management. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

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  • Rajendra Poddar & M. Qureshi & Tian Shi, 2014. "A Comparison of Water Policies for Sustainable Irrigation Management: The Case of India and Australia," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(4), pages 1079-1094, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:28:y:2014:i:4:p:1079-1094
    DOI: 10.1007/s11269-014-0535-0
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    2. Álvaro-Francisco Morote & Jorge Olcina & Antonio-Manuel Rico, 2017. "Challenges and Proposals for Socio-Ecological Sustainability of the Tagus–Segura Aqueduct (Spain) under Climate Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-24, November.
    3. Pennan Chinnasamy & Govindasamy Agoramoorthy, 2015. "Groundwater Storage and Depletion Trends in Tamil Nadu State, India," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(7), pages 2139-2152, May.
    4. Cuimei Lv & Huiqin Li & Minhua Ling & Xi Guo & Zening Wu & Changkuan Gu & Yang Li, 2021. "An Innovative Emergy Quantification Method for Eco-economic Compensation for Agricultural Water Rights Trading," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 35(3), pages 775-792, February.
    5. Manju, S. & Sagar, Netramani, 2017. "Renewable energy integrated desalination: A sustainable solution to overcome future fresh-water scarcity in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 594-609.
    6. Palomo-Hierro, Sara & Loch, Adam & Pérez-Blanco, C. Dionisio, 2022. "Improving water markets in Spain: Lesson-drawing from the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).

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