Water economies of Bodh Gaya, Bihar: Urban water in rural town

Abstract

The paper engages with the water economies of Bodh Gaya, a small but prominent Buddhist town located in Bihar, India. We analysed the water economies using the neo-Polanyian idea of instituted economic processes. The anthropological approach to water economies helps us explain how drinking water has been produced, distributed, appropriated, and consumed in Bodh Gaya over the last seven decades. The paper argues that the centralised grid-based water supply system, which aims to provide universal access to drinking water to the whole town, has failed to develop. Water as a universal public good was never established in Bodh Gaya. Water was produced, distributed, appropriated and consumed in diverse ways by different groups of individuals and communities. Water remained a community-owned resource, a private, semi-public good, and recently, a commodity, but not purely a public good. Instead of relying on the ideals of centralised grid-based water supply networks to make water available for the whole populace, a more decentralised and hybrid service delivery institutions are needed to reach the diverse local population. The decentralised public water provisioning systems must be supported through appropriate regulatory measures and participatory planning initiatives to make it socially just and environmentally benign.