Status of Water Resources in Mizoram : Institutions and Management Practices

Water management is very much guided by the water institutions in a country and even in a state. The role of management is particularly important in a state which is relatively less developed in its natural resources. In a state like Mizoram, water management is sufficiently guided by the availability of and demand for water. The present paper is a modest attempt to study the water management practices prevailing in Mizoram on the basis of the supply of and demand for water, using available secondary data. The paper finds that Mizoram has a complex coexistence of government-led, individual family managed and private vendor-supplied water management system, unable to take care of proper water conservation. The reasons are more of institutional than of physical. The paper argues for more government monitoring at all levels, community participation and rainwater harvesting at village level, more watershed management projects, and for all these, arrangements of more funds. Focus should be on the strengths of the existing institutions, and more research should be directed towards finding out a proper combination of existing institutions according to their strength to make water management more effective. Demand management should also be focused for collective action at community or village level. NGOs have a significant role to play in effective water management in the state