Vol. 3, Issue 7, Part N (2017)

Abstract

The shortage of safe drinking water poses a serious threat to public health as the number of people affected with water crisis has been incrementally increasing year after year. More than two million children die each year before reaching the age of five. Along with the climatic and ecological reasons of scarcity, access to safe drinking water is also constrained by the technological, social, economic and political factors. Technology diffusion in the water and sanitation sector has an important role in this context. In India, diffusion of water and sanitation technologies for clean drinking water has always followed a top to bottom down approach. Since 1970’s the drinking water and sanitation sectors have been subjected to rigorous techno-scientific scrutiny. A number of projects and missions had been initiated to ensure wider reach and safety. One of the marked features of these interventions was the dominance of technocrats and western notions of development. But the recent water policies of the government have shown a paradigm shift; from “the top to bottom down” approach to “bottom-top” approach. It is in tandem with the initiatives for decentralization in development intervention. The present paper tries to explore the consequences of the technocratic dominance that was a defining feature of the development interventions in India. The paper also discusses the emergence of community participation in water governance and the neo-liberal shift of the sector.