Water and Social Policy

M. Pawar

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781137385512
• eBook ISBN: 9781137385529
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Civil Rights in Law
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Manohar Pawar discusses the relevance and importance of social policy for water issues. By analysing several interrelated perspectives on water, he suggests core values as bases for formulating and implementing social policies so as to provide universal free access to safe drinking water for all, particularly for the most poor and disadvantaged.

1

Introduction to Water and Social Policy

Abstract: In this chapter, Pawar shares his motivations for undertaking research on water and social policy, and introduces the book. His motivations include his life experiences with water, especially in India. The balance of the chapter is devoted to the aims and objectives of the book, its scope and research methods, and some guidelines for reading including outlines of the content and arguments of the five chapters.

Keywords: aims and objectives; introduction to water and social policy; organisation of the book; Pawar’s life experiences with water

Pawar, Manohar. Water and Social Policy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. DOI: 10.1057/9781137385529.0005.

Introduction

This chapter presents the author’s motivation, his life experiences with water, for undertaking this research on water and social policy. It briefly states the aims and objectives and the scope of research, research methods utilised, guidelines for reading the book, and the organisation of the book in terms of the outlines and summaries of the five chapters.

Motivation

The main motivation for writing this book is my life experience with water – precious water! As a young boy growing up in Indian villages, I often experienced unsafe, unacceptable, inaccessible and insufficient water. Now, when I read definitions of acceptable, safe, sufficient and physically accessible water, I cannot but reflect on the fact that I did not have access to such water, that my human right to water was denied and violated, although at that time, perhaps, such a right was unheard of. I was certainly not alone in having such experiences. Billions of people were in the same situation in the 1970s, and even today we seem unable to realise the human right to water of over billion people. The Times of India (2013), a leading Indian newspaper, reported recently that 20 per cent of Indian rural houses do not have access to drinking water. This is a shocking situation in the 21st century, especially given India’s high economic growth rates. Nor is this situation confined to India.

My memories go back to when I was less than ten years old. I remember a dried tributary in which small pits were dug and from which I and others carefully scooped water to fill a ten- or fifteen-litre container to be carried home on my shoulder. As I was not able to reach home in one stretch, I used to have a stopover on a particular step and, after a short break, I bent to bring my shoulder parallel to the step and slowly slid the container on to my shoulder and walked on home. (If I placed the water container on the ground, I was not in a position to lift it by myself on to my shoulder.)

My parents then moved to another village and I lived in that village till I was 16 years old. Unfortunately, this village frequently experienced drought and access to water was a real issue. Many deep wells had dried up; however, a few had tiny springs and people used to wait for water to collect a little bit and then lift it by pulling up a rope several times with semi-filled small buckets from which to fill their own container and then fetch it home. The more people there were around the well lifting water, the less you could get in your bucket, and sometimes you came home with nothing at all. My parents frequently woke myself and my siblings at around midnight to fetch water from the well. The smaller numbers of people at the well at that time ensured a little more water in the buckets. My parents filled the water containers and we all helped to fetch it home where it would last some 24 to 36 hours. On a few occasions, during the day time, I was placed in a metal bucket that was tied to a rope and lowered down inside the well by slowly sliding the rope on a pulley that was fixed to the wall of the well. With great anxiety I would reach the bottom of the well, scoop water directly from the water springs, sometimes for hours, until pulled up from the well. Both going down and coming up in that metal bucket was such a fearful and anxious experience that I will never forget. Imagine if the rope, which was made of coconut fibre, were to break! What then would happen, I used to wonder.

When water was no longer available in nearby wells, I walked a few kilometres to fetch water from wells located in farms. The path to deep wells was usually slippery and risky. To catch water from the tiny spring emerging between rock layers, a long leaf was inserted to make the water flow on to it and so into the container. Other people then helped me to lift the container on to the shoulder and then I carefully climbed from the deep well and walked home by changing the water container from shoulder to shoulder to rest each shoulder from the weight. When I grew a little more, I fetched water on a bicycle. When there was enough water in our own farm well, I jumped and bathed in it while my grandmother washed our family clothes in the same water. We used the same water for drinking and cooking. Later, I myself washed clothes in many wells and had bath in them while we also drank the same water. Such activity of course polluted the water, but I did not realise this as a child and, in any case, there were few other options available.

During my years 11 and 12, while I was studying, I lived in a boarding college that had no sanitation facility. Every morning we walked to a nearby lake for cleaning and bathing. So every day we were polluting the water, but fortunately in this case it was not used for drinking and cooking. Many students had scabies and, at that time, we were told that it was spreading from the polluted lake water. Although it was contagious, bathing in the lake remained common. Later when I moved to urban areas for further studies, I got used to tap water at residential sites.

After migrating to Australia, in my first few days, I was waiting for a train at the platform. As I was thirsty, I walked to a store and asked for a glass of water. The storekeeper quickly picked up a water bottle and asked for money. I suggested to him that I needed water in a glass. His response was that no such water was available there and I had to buy it. I was aware that water was sold in bottles, but I was not prepared to buy it. In my 34 years of life, I had never spent a single cent in buying water. Indeed, buying water to drink was a very strange thing for me. Many big hotels, even after charging substantial accommodation costs, expect customers to pay for their drinking water, though some provide a couple of complimentary water bottles initially. I get deeply disturbed about such hotels’ approach to customers and water.

Having lived in Australia for some time now, my body is used to the treated water. Now, during my visits to India, I cannot drink the water like I used to do. Perhaps my immune system has become weak. I also harbour the fear that if I drink openly available water, I might fall sick. So, in most of my overseas travels, I make it a point to buy bottled water and drink it, not withstanding incidents and comments that bottled water does not guarantee safety in some places as it is not genuine. I have travelled a long way from a free-water culture to a priced-water culture and am still getting used to it.

With this personal experience with precious water, I have also been reflecting on the water issue as a professionally trained social worker and social work educator. I have been teaching a social work and social policy subject for nearly two decades. Although ecological and environmental justice issues, including climate change, have gradually emerged and are entering my professional field (e.g. see Coates, 2004; Mary, 2008; Dominelli, 2012; Gray et al., 2013; Shaw, 2013), they have not significantly influenced the subject of social policy. Drawing on the implications of environmental justice issues, purposeful social policies mostly have not been formulated. Several basic services such as education, health, housing, income protection and employment have been discussed; however, water does not find a place in social policy along with them, despite the United Nations resolutions (details provided in Chapter 2) declaring the human right to water and the International Decade for Action “Water for Life” 2005– 2015. These reflections on my own life experiences with water, along with my awareness of the gap in social policy literature relating to water, are the main motivations for writing this book.

Aims and objectives

The main aim of this book is to present the relevance of social policy and social policy practice for water issues – water security, water insecurity, water availability, water acceptability, water accessibility, water safety, water scarcity, water affordability, water stress, water poverty, water sustainability, water and ecosystems, water as a private good, water as a common good, water science, technology and innovation, and water governance. Towards this aim, its three objectives are

to discuss the concept of social policy and the importance of social policy for water;

to analyse several interrelated perspectives on water; and

to suggest some core values and principles for formulating social policies and its various dimensions, and to present a framework for social policy practice related to water.

Research questions

Some of the key research questions the study addresses are:

What is social policy and why is social policy important for water issues?

What are the core themes around the water issue?

What are the values and principles that should be the bases of social policies relating to water?

How can social policy be practised to address the water issues?

Scope

The scope of this book is global. It refers to water-related issues in both developed and developing countries as they are related, and lessons can be mutually learned from one another. Most of the perspectives on water, values/principles and the suggested policy practice dimensions and framework can be applied in local, national and global contexts. Although the discussion draws examples from both developed and developing countries, those examples are not comprehensive and inclusive of all countries. As the water issue is interdisciplinary in nature, so is this book. It cuts across many social sciences such as sociology, politics, economics, anthropology, philosophy and psychology, and professional disciplines such as social work, social welfare, community development, social development, social policy, human services, management and education. Students and educators in these disciplines, and social policy, community development and project/programme officers in both government and non-government organisations may find the book useful. It would also be of interest to anyone with a general interest in the water issue.

Research method

By employing the qualitative research method (Liamputtong, 2013), data for this research were collected from secondary sources (Stewart and Kamins, 1993; Pawar, 2004). The main sources of secondary data were relevant journal articles, books and United Nations-published reports. Two journal databases – SocINDEX and ProQest Social Science Journals – were used to search relevant articles by using phrases such as “environmental justice”, “water and social policy”, “social aspects of water”, “water governance”, “the human right to water”, “water flooding and injustice” and “impact of water disconnection”. By employing the qualitative content analysis method, by identifying relevant themes and by raising reflective questions (Freshwater, 2011), information from secondary sources was collected and analysed (Liamputtong, 2013). My lived experience with water is part of this research (Gadamer, 1975). The analysis and reflections on it have helped me to articulate the relevance of s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 1  Introduction to Water and Social Policy
• 2  Social Policy and Water
• 3  Contemporary Perspectives on Water
• 4  Bases of Social Policies and Social Action for Water
• 5  Conclusion: Social Policy for Universal Free Drinking Water
• Glossary
• References
• Index