There are literally a million conflicts taking place around water. Even the most important of them often do not get documented. Some of them like the inter-state disputes on the other hand may have documentation that runs into thousands of pages! How then do we document a conflict? Who does it?

We are thinking of having a documentation that starts from below. We would like the documentation to be a multi-centred effort that in some ways takes care of itself.

Do you know of a case of water conflict that you believe is worth documenting but is as yet undocumented? Do you think you can do it or get someone else to do so? In that case ask them to get in touch with us.

But documentation from below also needs a common framework, format and as far as possible, a common methodology. We also need some assurance of non-partisanship – even while acknowledging that there is no such thing as pure non-partisanship. And we need some kind of review. All these are complex matters.

In our earlier efforts, we had used a format for documenting cases this available on this link. It may serve as a Provisional Format for the case studies to be documented. This was followed by an expert review.

If you want to contribute a case study you can use the provisional format if you so wish and send us the case study. We will get it reviewed and pass it back to you with comments.

However, we think the format does need some tuning up. But this will take time. But you can contribute to this process as well.

If you have any suggestions on what the format, the framework and the methodology of the case studies should be like, your suggestions are welcome. If we find them useful, we will certainly accept them and modify our format accordingly.