Asian Journal of Environment and Disaster Management 2011 3 1

doi: 10.3850/S1793924011000630

Indigenous Knowledge for Water Management and Drought Mitigation in India

Vinod K. Sharma Indian Institute of Public Administration, I.P. Estate, New Delhi-110 002, India. profvinod@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Water harvesting and equitable distribution of water are two major approaches that have proved successful in the mitigation of droughts in traditional societies in the region. The water harvesting technologies are low cost, use local materials and labor, are time tested, and are based on simple and easy to understand people's science. The concept of equitable distribution of water is a process technology with its roots in local resource governance, under which local people's councils govern how scarce resources will be distributed within the society. The anticipated users of this implementation technology are community leaders, administrative officers, NGO/NPO project managers and staff, experts, teachers and educators, architects and engineers, rural planners, environmental/ecological specialists, policy makers, and researchers. Aside from drought, the implementation technology also addresses heat wave and desertification to protect human lives and properties in rural areas and agricultural lands.

Keywords: Equitable distribution, Resource management, Participation, Low-cost, Local skills, Process technology (PT), Transferable indigenous knowledge (TIK).

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