DECONSTRUCTING WATERSCARCITY IN WATER-RICH HIMALAYANREGION:A CASE STUDY OF SIKKIM, INDIA
Abstract
Sikkim falls under the Eastern Himalayan Region(EHR) and in spite of being seated in a volumetrically water-rich region with torrential rainfall and abundant water sources, the people living in this mountain state face acute water scarcity not only during the dry seasonbut also during monsoons. While difficult terrain makes engineering acilities for better access to water difficult, the focus on this physical aspect has overshadowed other major shortcomings in the provision of providing water. Contrary to the belief of these mountainousregions which boast of ‘water towers’ do not face water scarcity or if it does, it is only because of biophysical reason, the paper argues and entailsto understand the cause of the existing paradox of “too much, too little” water. Such a complex water system in the hills hasbeen a problem with no or little solution for decades as it has to be looked upon from regional-based solutions in order to have secure water distribution systems.
Water scarcity in mountain regions such as the Himalayas has been studied with a pre-existing notion of scarcity justified by decades of communities' suffering from physical water shortages combined with difficulties of access. The Eastern Himalayan Region (EHR) of India receives significantly high amounts of annual precipitation. Studies have nonethelessshown that this region faces a strange dissonance: an acute water scarcity in a supposedly ‘water-rich’ region. The main objective of this paper is to decipher various drivers of water scarcity by locating the contemporary history of water institutions within the developmenttrajectory of Gangtok, Sikkim particularly focusing on Gangtok Municipal Corporation wards. A key feature of the region's urban water governance that defines the water scarcity narrative is the multiplicity of water institutions and the intertwining of formal and informal institutions at various scales. These factors affect the availability and basicaccess to domestic water by communities in various ways resulting in the creation of a preferred water bundle consisting of informal water markets over and above traditional sourcing from springs and the formal water supply from the formal system.
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