Political Ecology of Drought and Water Scarcity-Need for an Ecological Water Resources Policy

While drought has been with us for centuries, the present water scarcity poses a wider and more serious problem to our socio-economic life. Solutions can be sought only on the basis of a comprehensive understanding of the ecological factors at the root of the problem. Drought has generally been associated exclusively with deviations in rainfall. In actual fact the current water scarcity is a result of our failure to ensure the stability of the water cycle in the course of implementing developmental programmes.