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Proposed Pamba River Basin Organisation
department is mandated to coordinate this responsibility. As described earlier,
the existing practice of allocating responsibilities across several departments (see
weak linkages of WRD above) runs the risk of diluted IWRM implementation. By
nominating a central coordinating agency to impart IWRM skills, this problem
can be overcome. This will also ensure long-term institutionalization of IWRM
practices. This responsibility can be ideally housed in the PRBA.
9.2.5 Economic and financial instruments
While the macro-assessment of economics at the state level is strong and
understood well, the understanding of the situation at the basin level is poor,
mainly because the relevant economic data is unavailable. For example, data
on livelihood issues, opportunity costs of wetland agriculture and non-farm
based activities, subsistence agriculture vis-à-vis large scale commercial farming
etc are either not available or not dependable. Similarly, project managementrelated
financial aspects such as cost benefit analysis of large-scale STPs visà-vis
decentralized waste management systems need to be properly assessed
and understood in the context of the Pamba River Basin. The RBO will have to
develop such technology-related financial instruments and integrate them in the
basin-wide planning process.
10 Proposed Pamba
River Basin
Organisation
As River Basin Organisations (RBOs) are designed to help bring about IWRM
and improve water governance, their responsibilities are becoming increasingly
complex. For an RBO to become a well-functioning agency, it should extend
itself beyond the mere discharge of technical functions. In many river basins in
India, use of water through investment in water infrastructure for urban, industrial,
and agricultural growth is far more than the extent of its renewability. Such
overexploitation of water resources is caused by a disregard for environmental
considerations, incomplete hydrological knowledge, undefined or poorly
understood water rights, etc. The challenge for water management is to view
it from an integrated perspective to provide much stricter scrutiny by decision
makers to avoid over-commitment of water resources. In addition, river basins
are experiencing multiple constraints such as contamination of freshwater,
reduced flow due to sand mining, overdraft of aquifers, etc. On the demand side,
requirement increases as population grows, irrigation often expands, and more
water needs to be allocated. A typical response is too often to seek supply-side
approaches for capturing more water.
The organizational structure of an RBO is of great importance to its performance
in managing the river basin. Three different domains can be identified for its
performance: the institutional set up, its sources of financing, and its formal links
to other organizations.
The decision-making process and procedures of the members of the Authority
that develops its general policies and strategies as well as intermediate bodies
translating those policies into strategies, programmes and projects are of great
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