Many issues, limited responses: Coping with water insecurity in rural India

• We investigate local rural communities', including farmers, women and village elders, perception of water insecurity.
• Non-climatic factors pose greater threat to water insecurity than climatic factors.
• Coping strategies are found to outnumber adaptation strategies.
• We find predominance of individual or household level strategies, signifying lack of community level planning and adaptation.

We present empirical evidence of coping strategies practiced in response to water insecurity and emerging climate variability in a dry, sub-humid rural district in India. We find non-climatic factors to be largely responsible for the existing water insecure conditions and, as perceived, climatic variations are found to magnify the misery. The causes and impacts of water insecurity result in a complex vicious cycle, pushing rural livelihoods and domestic life to further deprivation and poverty. Counter responses, mostly coping strategies, are found to be spontaneous, reactive and are largely motivated by crisis, which often degrades the resource base, and are found to be detrimental to the health and well-being of the studied communities. We question the advisability of water supply provisions in rural areas that fail to acknowledge the water demands of rural communities. Localized initiatives, including location specific strategies, must be formulated with effective community participation and in conjunction with other developmental programs to ensure water security in rural areas.