Proceedings of 'Water Conflicts in Odisha : Issues and way forward' - Organised by Odisha State Centre of the Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India - 28th - 29th March 2011, Bhubaneswar
Development Resource & Training Centre (DRTC), CYSD, Bhubaneswar:
A 2-days Workshop on “Water conflicts in Odisha: Issues and way forward” has been organized during 28th – 29th, March, 2011 at Bhubaneswar by ‘Odisha State Centre’ of the ‘Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India’. Environmental activists, thinkers, academicians, Government Officials, Farmer leader’s and Civil Society Organizations from different parts of the state participated in the workshop along with members of the National Steering Committee of Forum to discuss about the ongoing and emerging water conflicts in different geographies of the state.
Inaugural Session: Chairman Prof. Bibhuti Pattnaik and Chief Guest Prof. Trilochan Pradhan:
The inaugural session started with the welcome address by Tapan Padhi. He introduced the chief guest Dr. Trilochan Pradhan and Dr. Bibhuti Pattnaik and other dignitaries. Then he requested the participant for brief self introductions. After this formality, K J Joy of SOPPECOM in his introductory remark briefly described the evolution, objectives and contributions of the forum. In his description he informed that the Forum (Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India) is a very loose network of institutions and individuals, which started five years back, engaging with and trying to understand serious issues of water conflict around the different geographies of India. In the first phase the forum tried to understand the water conflict and started documenting the various issues of water conflict in the country. In the second phase it is engaged to develop different approaches and methodologies towards conflict documentation, resolution and prevention. Apart from working with two state centres at Odisha and Kerala to document and to attempt methodologies for engaging with active conflict, forum has also put together two working groups for taking up studies towards conflict prevention. One group has deliberated on the entitlement and allocation for life, livelihoods and ecosystem, and its report has recently been released by Mr Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment and forest, Govt of India. Another working group has been working on institution, legal aspects related to water and conflict resolution.
He also informed that the forum is regularly guided by a national steering committee and a national advisory committee comprising of activists, academicians and environmentalists, working on water issues in different parts of India. He also touched upon the objective and process of Forum’s engagement with Water Conflicts in Odisha, through Baitarani Initiative of Shristi, which subsequently elaborated by Project coordinator of the state Centre, Pranab Choudhury.