A behavioral perspective on improving water governance in India

India is globally the largest groundwater user and simultaneously among the world’s most water stressed countries (WRI 2016). Almost two thirds of the water requirement for irrigation and 85% of domestic water use depend on groundwater (World Bank 2010). The growing competition over water resources can only be addressed by systemic changes towards sustainable water management. These require understanding the behaviors of actors in the system network, as well as the institutions that shape the direction in which the system moves (Abson et al. 2017).