Water Territories viewed from Social Sciences

Creation of a working group

As many tank rehabilitation programs have been implemented in the area of Villupuram district and Pondicherry state, where there is an overuse of groundwater in this area, the idea is to combine the knowledge of all the institutions locally involved in the issue of water (PWD, NGOs, universities, research institutes) to generate collectively some analysis of the water problem at a regional scale, and from the social point of view (use of water, water users association implication, agricultural dynamics, labour wages etc…).

For that, a working group has been created and its objectives are twofold:

• to create a kind of atlas of irrigation viewed from the social sciences, that could be called an "atlas of social water management" at a regional scale. Why to choose the tool of mapping? First of all because many projects use already this tool, as it is quite easy to represent tanks and canals on map. Second, it can serve as a base for discussion between us. Third, analysing the mapping bring some new informations.
• to generate some discussions about spatial aspects of water management, about "water territories", from a theoretical point of view as well as a more practical point of view : to propose a solution to mitigate water crisis at the regional level. Indeed, water creates territories according to its availability, the way it is managed and used. These territories can be numerous and they are tangled up. But, as they do not follow the administrative boundaries, various questions arise from a geographical and institutional point of view: what are the implications of such differences for the implementation of water policies? At which scale water management and water policies could be the more effective? Many projects are organised on a watershed basis, but if this delimitation may have some sense to understand the dynamics of surface water, how relevent is it for groundwater? And is this the appropriate frame to analyse the social aspect of water management?

Objectives of the 1st meeting

During this first meeting, various points will be discussed:

• presentation of all the partners and the project they are working on ;
• clarification on the objectives of the working group, the interests and expectation of each partners and the outputs of the working group ;
• discussion about the delimitation of the analysed area and the methodology to be used;
• data to enter in the database for mapping and analysis
• integrating more partners ?
• demand for a specific fund ?
• planning the second meeting : date (mid-november) and agenda

List of invited persons

Pondicherry University

• Dr Devi Prasad, Dept of Ecology,
• Prof S Gunasekaran, Dean, School of Social Sciences and International Studies

French Institute of Pondicherry

• T. Suddhakar, Research Assistant
• Dr I. Prabhakar, Post-Doctorate

PWD Pondicherry, Tank Rehabilitation Project Pondicherry

• Er Anandane, Project Director & Superintendant Er
• M. Anandavelu, GIS
• M. Sivasubramaniam, Sociologist
• Er. Dhandapani, AE- Subdivision II – Bahour
• Er R. Ganeshan, EE PWD

Harvest – NGO, Pondicherry,

• Gilles Boulicot, Executive Director
• Pierre Jorcin , GIS
• Dhandapany, Nodal Officer

CERD – NGO, Pondicherry

• Vasanth

Feral– NGO, Villupuram district

• R.S. Bhalla, Research Fellow

Dhan Foundation – NGO, Villupuram

• K.N. Rajkumar
• A. Gurunathan, Madurai, Project Officer

Guide – NGO, Chengelpettu

• Gilbert Rodrigo, Team Leader

PWD Villupuram

• Shanmughan, AEE, Tindivanam.

DRDA, Villupuram

• M.A. Sampath, Project officer

MIDS (Madras Institute of Development Studies), Chennai

• Prof. Janakarajan

Institute of Water Studies, Chennai

• Er N. Pasumalai Thevan

Anna University

• Dr. M. Ramalingam, Institute of Remote Sensing

Organisers

• Project "Social Management of Water"
• Department of Social Sciences
• French Institute of Pondicherry

Venue

Venue: Jawaharlal Nehru Conference Hall
French Institute of Pondicherry
11, Saint Louis Street
Pondicherry - 605 001

Coordinator

• Olivia Aubriot, IFP