Droughts and Integrated Water Resource Management in South Asia, highlights that while available water supplies can be quantified, it is not so with droughts. Droughts are variously experienced, politically inspired, socially constituted and arise essentially from the monopoly of available water. Countering technocratic and naturalistic treatments of droughts by mainstream professionals, the contributors argue that the focus of redressal has to be on the political struggle for equitable sharing rather than the creation of large reservoirs that may again be monopolized by vested interests to generate continuous 'droughts'. The volume attempts to

" Understand the concept of drought;

" Map the diversity in drought situations across South Asia;

" Identify responses to drought;

" Outline viable options for more integrated approaches to drought policies and mitigation strategies; and

" Initiate a process of dialogue on emerging drought issues.

Integrated water resources management acquires special meaning in the South Asian context, where resolution of some of the most pressing water problems requires regional cooperation. The central concern is the livelihood perspective of drought, the political economy of drought relief and dominance of supply-side approaches. This book aims to sensitize policy makers and practitioners to the need for initiating institutional changes for drought management in their respective countries.