Includes bibliographical references and index.

Charting the future for effective water governance : conceptualising water justice -- Subsidies and groundwater access in India : from assuring water security to challenging social equity and environmental sustainability -- Changing role of the state in the drinking water sector and the subsidies : case study from Kerala -- Subsidies, groundwater conservation, and equitable access and allocations : case study from Rajasthan -- Subsidies and realisation of the fundamental right to water : balancing rights-duties in judicial and executive discourse -- Articulating the water justice approach in groundwater regulation : balancing the human water demands and rights of nature -- Conclusion : balancing water for human rights and ecosystems : assuring equity and sustainability through water justice.

"This book examines the impact of water-related subsidies on social, and distributive equity and environmental sustainability in groundwater access and regulation in India. This book argues that adopting a water justice framework is essential to ensure equitable and sustainable access to and regulation of groundwater by balancing anthropogenic and ecological water needs. The inherent inequity resulting from property rights-controlled groundwater access gets widened by the social, political, and economic factors determining the subsidy beneficiaries. Adopting a socio-legal approach, the book draws on two contrasting case studies in India: Kerala, a water-secure state, and Rajasthan, an arid state. Arguing for a shift to a new paradigm in water governance, it critically examines the feasibility of the public trust doctrine and rights of nature discourse to analyse the best suitable regulatory framework that can balance the human right to water and ecological sustainability in groundwater resources. It demonstrates the feasibility of adopting various environmental law principles that balance human rights to water and nature. It argues that the hitherto highlighted public trust doctrine cannot address these inequities due to its anthropogenic bias and property rights link. The book examines the applicability of the rights of nature discourse instead of these property rights-based regulations to incorporate and mainstream the concerns of aquifer protection in water governance. This book shall be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners of water law and policy, environmental law, water and social justice, development studies and political ecology"-- Provided by publisher.