V Ratna Reddy

Livelihoods and Natural Resource Management Institute, Hyderabad, India

Biography

Dr. V. Ratna Reddy is the Director, Livelihoods and Natural Resource Management Institute, Hyderabad, India. He is an Economist specializing in Environmental economics and Natural Resource Management. He is a Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation, Germany. He was a visiting fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK and at the School of Geography, University of Leeds, UK. His current research interests include natural resources and environmental economics, livelihoods analysis and agricultural policy. He has more than hundred publications in International and Indian Journals. He has published Six books, including User Valuation of Renewable Natural Resources: The User Perspective (Nova Science publishers Inc, New York) and Managing Water Resources from Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

Email: vratnareddy@lnrmi.ac.in
Web: www:lnrmi.ac.in

Abstract: Hydrological Externalities and Livelihoods Impacts: Informed Communities for Better Resource Management

V. Ratna Reddy, Livelihoods and Natural resource Management Institute, Hyderabad, India

Hydrological knowledge or information has mostly remained in the domain of scientific community. The communities that interact with the hydrological aspects such as groundwater and surface water on a day to day basis are hardly aware of the information that could critically influence their livelihoods. From the perspective of the communities’ information pertaining to groundwater aquifer characters, potential to provide the water resource, surface groundwater interactions in varying geo-hydrological conditions are important. The public good nature of the resources and their linkages with ecological systems gives rise to externalities that could be pervasive. In a number of countries, especially the developing countries, groundwater is the single largest source of drinking as well as irrigation water. In the absence of scientific information with the communities, extraction of groundwater resources for productive purposes has become a risky venture leading to adverse impacts on livelihoods. The externalities associated with over exploitation of groundwater resources and the resulting widespread well failure is identified as one of the main reasons for pushing farmers in to debt trap and the resultant widespread farmer suicides in India. The negative externalities are increasingly becoming severe in the context of climate variability.

This paper attempts to highlight the importance of hydrological information to the user communities from a socioeconomic perspective. It shows, based on the evidence, how farming communities are getting affected in the absence of the basic hydrological information across socioeconomic groups. It is argued that the negative externalities could be mitigated to a large extent with proper dissemination of information among the communities. In order to make the hydrological information relevant and useful for the communities, it needs to made user friendly and customised for specific needs and users. This needs to be fostered through policy support that paves the way for treating the resources as a common pool resource instead of allowing it to be exploited like a private resource. That is, the hydrological resources ought to be brought under the management regime with the help of policy and governance structures.

Key words: Groundwater, Surface water, Hydrology, Socio-economic, Environmental, Externalities, Developing Countries, India.