The Water Governance Standard

Making Water Everybody's Business

600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress, according to NITI Aayog. Since independence, freshwater per capita has decreased 70%. India’s water crisis is galloping. If we want to meet our needs and nature’s sustainably, we must change our behaviour and attitude toward water.
The Water Governance Standard (WGS), designed and developed jointly by WOTR and W-CReS, and supported by IDH, is a groundbreaking methodology that aims to incentivise and nudge rural communities and investors alike to adopt water-smart attitudes and behaviours, while also channelising the necessary financial and technical resources to these communities.
The WGS rates communities based on their water management and governance practices, with ratings ranging from Bronze to Platinum, and provides communities with a “water score”, much as a “credit score” reflects the creditworthiness of a person. In doing so, it seeks to catalyse competitive dynamics in rural communities and uncover promising water investment opportunities that can deliver sustained benefits to both communities and investors, alike.
The WGS also helps identify areas for improvement in a community’s overall water management and governance.

Dr. Dipankar Saha
Chair Prof, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies
Former Member, Central Ground Water Board
Former Member Secretary, Central Ground Water Authority
, “…The Water Governance Standard proposed in this book offers a practical and interesting pathway to move agricultural communities towards using and managing water more effectively and sustainably…"
- Naina Lal Kidwai Chair, India Sanitation Coalition & Chair, Water Mission, FICCI, “…This tool encourages water-smart community action, while it promotes healthy competition between villages…”
Dr. Ashok Dalwai, IAS, Chief Executive Officer National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA),
Dept. of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Government of India, New Delhi, “...The Water Governance Standard as a measure to rate and evaluate water governance by rural communities is a move in the right direction…”
Dr. Alok Sikka
International Water Management Institute
Representative - India & Principal Researcher