A desert journey, from a pool where both humans and camels drank, to a bavadi then to a water tap in Khaba village has some valuable lessons about the ground realities of the social forces around water.

On November 28, 2003, roughly 300 grassroots activists, people affected by large dams and representatives from NGOs gathered in a small village in Rasi Salai district in Northeast Thailand. They met for a five-day conference on large dams under the rallying cry of “Rivers for Life.â€As...

Close observers especially in the water and forestry sector point out that user organizations may not fit well within the system of local governance and “linking them to Panchayats may undermine their independence and effectiveness.†Evolving effective interrelationship between...