Context:

• The 9th edition of the India International Water Week in New Delhi highlighted India’s evolving approach to water management—from expanding access and building infrastructure to ensuring climate resilience, efficient water use, sustainable services and reuse of treated wastewater.
• India’s experience over the past two decades, particularly the reforms initiated in Gujarat between 2001 and 2014 and subsequently scaled nationally, offers lessons for the Global South.
• The central message is that water security is not merely an engineering challenge; it is fundamentally a governance and institutional

India’s Water Governance Journey:

• Over the last 25 years, India has implemented large-scale programmes for water conservation, sanitation, groundwater management, river rejuvenation and household water access.
• These include Swachh Bharat Mission, Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), Jal Shakti Abhiyan, Namami Gange, Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABY), and Per Drop More Crop (PDMC).
• The Gujarat experience demonstrated how political prioritisation, public financing, institutional reform, administrative capacity and community participation could be combined to improve water security.
• These principles subsequently informed national programmes.

Four Lessons for Future Water Governance:

• Lead with governance, not just hardware:
  • Water security requires more than taps, canals and dams. It needs political will, institutions, financing, partnerships and citizen participation.
  • The “4 Ps” framework, articulated through the Delhi Declaration (2018), highlights -
    • Political leadership — placing water security high on the policy agenda.
    • Public and private financing — meeting both capital and recurring expenditure.
    • Partnerships — cooperation among Union, State and local governments, communities, knowledge institutions and development partners.
    • People’s participation — involving communities in local water planning and management.
  • Success story: Initiatives such as Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain, village water-security plans and community-led sanitation demonstrate this governance-centred approach.
• Manage water resources and services together:
  • Infrastructure is ineffective if the underlying water resource is unsustainable. Hence, water-resource management and service delivery must be planned together.
  • Rapid urbanisation and rising industrial and irrigation demand, particularly in Africa and other developing regions, make advance planning essential.
  • Integrated planning can prevent costly retrofitting and reduce future water insecurity. A major emerging opportunity is water reuse, particularly for non-potable purposes.
  • Treated wastewater can support industries such as data centres and semiconductor manufacturing while reducing pressure on freshwater resources.
  • India’s treated-used-water market is projected to reach around ₹73,000 crore annually by 2047, at current prices.
• Put communities at the centre:
  • Sustainable water management depends on community ownership and local institutions.
  • Bodies such as Pani Samitis, supported by reliable infrastructure and appropriate financial and technical assistance, can make water governance more responsive and durable.
  • Gujarat’s Chintan Shivirs provided a platform for stakeholders to identify problems and develop actionable solutions aligned with community needs.
  • The approach was later replicated nationally, including through the Departmental Summit on Water held in September 2026.
  • Thus, effective water governance requires a vertical linkage—from local communities to State and national institutions.
• Think big and build for scale:
  • The world remains off track on SDG 6, which seeks universal access to safe water and sanitation and sustainable management of water resources and ecosystems by 2030.
  • Meeting this goal is estimated to require an additional $500 billion annually.
  • India’s experience with the Jal Jeevan Mission demonstrates the possibility of combining large-scale political commitment, financing, institutional capacity and implementation.

Way Forward:

• India’s next phase of water governance must move beyond access to sustainability by integrating -
  • Climate resilience,
  • Groundwater management,
  • Wastewater reuse,
  • Demand management,
  • Data-driven planning and
  • Community ownership.
• The broader lesson is that water security requires a shift from a supply-side, infrastructure-centric model to an integrated water-governance approach combining:
  • Resource sustainability
  • Service delivery
  • Behavioural change, and
  • Decentralised participation.

Conclusion:

• India’s water governance journey shows that political leadership, institutional capacity, adequate financing and community participation can convert water challenges into opportunities for sustainable development.
• For the Global South, the Indian experience offers a scalable model of climate-resilient, participatory and governance-led water security.