IJSTR >> Volume 9 - Issue 2, February 2020 Edition

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AUTHOR(S)

Bhaskar Jyoti Deka

KEYWORDS

ABSTRACT

The concept of ‘market environmentalism’ (ME) and the process of ‘neo-liberalisation of nature’ becomes a new discourse in the field of natural resources management. Commercialisation, privatisation, and market mechanisms are replacing public policies vis-à-vis resource governance. Simultaneously, the movements for establishing human right to water (HRtW) and decentralisation of environmental governance for ensuring the viability of the natural ecosystem are also on the rise. This article sheds light on the optimistic argumentations of ME and then examines them critically. It is concerned with the governance of environmental resources especially ‘waters’, the role of neoliberal forces have diminishing effects in many instances. Taking water as a right more significant than any other constitutional rights citizens exercise legally, the article speculates that moderate state intervention and encouragement for greater public participation are necessary steps to be taken for sustainable governance of water, which would eventually ensure citizens their ‘Right to Water’

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