Manas Chatterji - Conflict Management of Water Resources

Edited by
Manas Chatterji
State University of New York at Binghamton, USA
Saul Arlosoroff
State Commission on the Water Sector Reform, Israel
Gauri Guha
Arkansas State University, USA

First published 2002 by Ashgate Publishing

Reissued 2018 by Routledge
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Manas Chatterji, Saul Arlosoroff and Gauri Guha 2002

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A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 00111551

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-73541-5 (hbk)

ISBN 13: 978-1-315-18673-3 (ebk)

SAUL ARLOSOROFF
Chairperson, State Commission on the Water Sector Reform, Israel
Formally Global Program Manager
World Bank/UNDP Water Unit and Sanitation Program

JAYANTA BANDYOPADHYAY
Indian Institute of Management
Calcutta, India

DAVID G. BANKS
Researcher
School of Oriental and African Studies
London, U.K.

PROSUN BHATTACHARYA
Research Coordinator, Groundwater Arsenic Research Group
Division of Land and Water Resources
Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden

MANAS CHATTERJI
Professor of Management
State University of New York at Binghamton, U.S.A.

Honorary Distinguished Professor
Indian Institute of Management
Calcutta, India

Guest Professor
Peking University
Bejing, China

SAM COLE
Professor of Planning
State University of New York at Buffalo, U.S.A.

ARUN P. ELHANCE
Independent Consultant
Water Resources Conflict Management
New York City, U.S.A.

GAURI GUHA
Arkansas State University, U.S.A.
Formerly Director, Agricultural Climate Regional Planning Unit
Ahmedabad, India

NAGAHARU HAYABUSA
Senior Staff Writer
Asahi Shimbun,
Tokyo, Japan

M. DINSEH KUMAR
Coordinator
Viksat, Thaltej Tekra
Ahmedabad, India

KEITH AKIVA LEHRER
Professor
York University
Toronto, Canada

S.K. MATTOO
Independent Consultant
Ahmedabad, India

ARUN B. MUKHERJEE
Research Scientist
Department of Limnology and Environmental Protection
University of Helsinki, Finland

MOHAN MUNASINGHE
Chief Energy Advisor and Chairperson
National Energy Council, Government of Sri Lanka
formerly of World Bank

RAMLAL PARIKH
Late Chancellor,
Gujarat Vidyapith
Ahmedabad, India

DEVARAT N. PATHAK
Peace Research Center
Gujarat Vidyapith
Ahmedabad, India

JAYANT PATIL
Agro Industries and Tribal Welfare Foundation
Maharashtra, India

T. PRASAD
Prof, of Civil Engineering and Director
Center for Water Studies
Patna University
Bihar, India

ALLAIN SALLEZ
Chair Professor of Urban Economics
ESSEC and ENPE
Paris, France

M.M. SAINJU
Executive Chairperson
Institute for Integrated Development Studies
Kathmandu, Nepal

MARTIN SHERMAN
Dept. of Political Science
Tel Aviv University, Israel

PRAVIN SHETH
Peace Research Center
Gujarat Vidyapith
Ahmedabad, India

ASHOK SWAIN
UN Research Institute for Social Development
Geneva, Switzerland and Associate Professor
Department of Peace and Conflict Research
Uppsala University, Sweden

WEILUO WANG
Lecturer of Urban and Regional Planning
University of Dortmund, Germany

The late RAMLAL PARIKH

It is a great honor for me to have been invited by Professor Manas Chatterji to write this Preface of the book Conflict Management of Water Resources. This is the most significant discussion for ushering an age of sustainable development. Development in any sphere of human life - political, physical, economic, social or spiritual cannot be sustained by macro-planning alone. It requires the specific role of users as partners in any development process. The lack of sustainability in our development process is largely due to over-macronized planning. It is also due to a high degree of verticality, instead of a horizontal model, which requires actively positive initiatives by people at the micro-level. Top-most priority must be given to have-nots rather than the haves. Conflict management in water-resources use will require the application of different principles and different methodological approaches to the development process. In the most effective process, people or users themselves will become planners and macro-planning will be the outcome of hundreds of micro-plans.

The conflicts erupting in determining the use of water-resources primarily arise due to a lack of micro-planning. Proper micro-planning can prevent conflicts from growing at the macro level. This alternative approach is a way towards a non-violent and global society. Conflict resolution is not the outcome of management but a product of societal grassroots development. Keeping this basic approach in mind, I venture to present a Gandhian model of conflict resolution from the perspectives of non-violence.

As the end of the century is drawing near, contemporary events in all-parts of the world reinforce Gandhian ideals of Ahimsa or non-violence. The application of Ahimsa in daily life to facilitate the emergence of Ahimsak Samaj through constructive programmes propounded by Gandhiji is becoming increasingly pertinent. This is a vigorous quest for a society based on Ahimsa and Peace. This requires effort to integrate the ways of Ahimsa in all aspects of our individual lives so that all of humanity moves steadily towards a non-violent global society. Scholars and activists from all over the world are now in pursuit of a world-wide exploration for a nonviolent society as an alternative to the prevalent society which is based on incessant conflicts in personal lives, community life, national lives and international relations. Successful conflict management in any sphere of human-life pre-supposes the necessity of a non-violent approach that was first implemented by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhiji's plea for non-violence does not advocate an absentee role, rather an active, creative and positive role which will resolve conflicts in all spheres of human life in an enduring way. The non-violent approach does not seek temporary solutions to conflicts but works for the elimination of the root causes of specific conflict.