Presentation short abstract

Water generates fluidities and territories, with groundwater being a complex resource whose boundaries—biophysical, jurisdictional, or community-defined—are often vague and overlapping. This paper applies boundary logics to explore spring water governance in India's Eastern Himalayan Region.

Presentation long abstract

Water generates both fluidities and territories. Groundwater is a familiar resource, yet its understanding remains limited and often non-interactive. It spans both depth and breadth, with movement ranging from a few centimetres per day to a kilometre over thousands of years. Its physical boundaries are hard to define, making it less visible. Boundaries appear on multiple levels—some clear-cut, while others overlap. These boundaries can be biophysical, jurisdictional, or defined by official state documents. Within the local administrative level, boundaries are often established by communities, based on kinship, ethnicity, or geographical location. There is also an intertwining and blurring of boundaries between formal and informal water provisioning. This paper employs boundary logics to conceptualise and historicise boundaries, laws, and inequalities, thereby rethinking the territorialities of water governance. I aim to understand the various imaginaries of spring water governance in the Eastern Himalayan Region of India that have developed from the creation of territories via boundaries and the laws and practices. Springs are the main water sources influenced by knowledge, representation, and mapping, which differ among lawyers, engineers, farmers, and others. Their experiences shape perceptions of springs and show their success or failure in securing access and creating sufficient overlap between groundwater and its governing rules. Overlapping jurisdictions among departments lead to fragmentation, which hampers effective spring management. Institutions are organised both vertically and horizontally, necessitating coordination. One potential solution is to create a body that ensures water access as a right while safeguarding water sources.