Mollinga, Peter P., A. Dixit., and K. Athukorala. Integrated Water Resources Management: Global Theory, Emerging Practice, and Local Needs.

Mollinga, Peter P., A. Dixit., and K. Athukorala. Integrated Water Resources Management: Global Theory, Emerging Practice, and Local Needs. Water in South Asia (Volume-1). New Delhi: SAGE Publications. 2006, 403 pp., $69.95

This book comprises twelve chapters and deals with integrated water resources management (IWRM) theories and practices in South Asian countries. These chapters are written by authors who are experts in the field. This book is well written, timely, and would make a major contribution to our knowledge and understanding of the IWRM in general and its emerging practices in South Asian countries. IWRM is the process of promoting the coordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources, in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems (WHO). The global foundation of IWRM was laid at the 1992 Dublin conference and the UNCAD Earth Day Summit at Rio de Janeiro.

The authors argue that although many national governments in South Asia are addressing the issue of IWRM through the development of legislative frameworks, movement toward practical applications remains slow. In a recent survey by GWP only Nepal and the Maldives are assessed to be at the initial stages for practicing IWRM. Using theoretical discussions and case studies from India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, the book predicts that in the twenty-first century the rural sector irrigation system in these countries will be called upon to reallocate water to satisfy the drinking water supply for the growing urban population and greater industrial demand. Hence, water transfer out of agriculture would be necessary and inevitable. To search for a solution, various stakeholders must work through negotiations to ensure equity and sustainability of rural culture and livelihood.

One of the strengths of this book is that the case studies are very informative and interesting. One of the key issues that the authors discuss concerns why some of the most successful IWRM programs implemented in EU and Australia will not produce the expected results when applied to South Asian nations. This is because due to a long history of water/irrigation-based civilizations and culture some of the rivers, lakes, tributaries, and estuaries have a special religious and aesthetic value to the people in most of the Asian countries apart from its economic value. Also, unlike EU and Australia stakeholders in IWRM in these countries include poor landless peasants and other poor people whose livelihood depends upon the gathering of flowers from the lakes and ponds and selling them to various places of worship. A successful IWRM program should address the concerns and interests of these stakeholders when applied to the developing countries, a feature uncommon to the industrialized countries.

The first weakness of this book is that except for a couple of authors, all authors are professional scientists, environmentalists, social activists, engineers, politicians, and administrators and not professional economists or agricultural economists. Hence, there is not a lot of economic rigor presented. This book is not written for economists but instead for the general public. The second weakness is the extremely detailed history that has been put together in last three chapters (chapters 10, 11, and 12). These chapters might be valuable and interesting to the administrators and social activists in India and Sri Lanka but scholars and researchers from other parts of the world might consider them not useful. The book will be of most value to someone who is interested in a detailed history of IRWM or to someone pursing a course in this discipline. However, the book contains some discussions on public goods and externalities concerning the use of land, water, and the environment and hence can be of limited use to students and researchers in agricultural economics.

The following is the list of authors, chapter titles, and remarks that should prove useful to those considering buying the book.

1. IWRM in South Asia: A Concept Looking for a Constituency (Peter P. Mollinga): Introduction and overview of the IWRM concepts, components, and ideas.

2. IWRM: The New Sanctioned Discourse? (J. A. Allen): This chapter includes a narrative on the five paradigms that have determined the way the water resources have been perceived and managed during the twentieth century in the North.

3. Solving Problems of 'Fit' at the Expense of Problems of 'Interplay'? The Spatial Reorganization of Water Management Following the EU Water Framework Directive (Timothy Moss): This chapter discusses the European experience with IWRM, in the context of European Water Framework Directive.

4. Limits of Leapfrogging: Issues in Transposing Successful River Basin Management Institutions in the Developing World (Tushaar Shah, Ian Makin, and R. Sakthivadivel): This chapter attempts a broad-brush approach to understanding the material differences in the contexts of the developed country river basins from where idealized institutional models emerge and the developing country river basin context in which these are sought to be applied.

5. Criteria for a Holistic Framework for Water Systems Management in India (Jayanta Bandyopadhyay): This chapter assesses how far IWRM has been integrated into India's national water policy and finds that the policy documents do not reflect any serious recognition of the urgent need for accepting fundamental changes in the traditional reductionist paradigm.

6. Water-Land Linkages: A Relatively Neglected Issue in IWRM (D. J. Bandaragoda): This chapter contends that there ought to be wide awareness of the water-land linkages and related physical, chemical, biological, and ecological processes under different hydro-climates, so that more realistic assessments and strategies can be developed. It then comments on the need to find a solution to existing administrative and legal impediments to a comprehensive application of the concept of IWRM.

7. Water Balance Studies and Hydrological Modeling for IWRM (R. Sakthivadivel): This chapter focuses on four aspects of a basin's water resources; water accounting, water storage and development, hydronomic zoning, and hydrological modeling.

8. Water Allocation between Agriculture and Hydropower: A Case Study of Kalthota Irrigation Scheme, Sri Lanka (Lalani Imbulana).

9. Inter/Intra-Sector Coordination as a Means of IWRM: A Case of Sri Lanka (Ranjith Ratnayake).

10. Approaching IWRM through Multi-Stakeholders' Dialogue: Some experiments from South India (S. Janakarajan): Palar River Basin and Noyyal River Basin in Tamil Nadu and the Cauvery River Basin in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

11. Water Transfers Out of Agriculture: Towards a Win-Win Solution? A Case Study of Thuruwila, Sri Lanka (Kusum Athukorala): This chapter describes a local process of conflict resolution in Sri Lanka.

12. Asserting the Rights of the Toiling Peasantry for Water Use: The Movement of the Dam Oustees and the Drought-Affected Toilers in South Maharastra (Anant Phadke and Bharat Patankar): This chapter describes the history of the dam oustees' movement in South Maharastra, India and the emergence of an alternative approach to water resource development.

Kalyan Chakraborty

Emporia State University