The Indian Government realising the limitations of centralised model of governance in the recent times been encouraging participatory form of organizations like cooperatives to come up in the water sector. The management paradigm has undergone a rapid change in the recent times. Being member-driven institutions the cooperatives can come up with innovative solutions in the field of water management . As they are embedded in the communities in which they serve, the cooperatives are aware of the local circumstances, problems and issues better than any other organization working at the ground level. Thus they are successful in mobilising resources on their own. Pooling in of joint efforts of the members of a cooperative minimises waste, and provides a definite direction to go ahead. The value of a cooperative lies in its ability to organise farmers in the area, and convince them that a cooperative can be the only successful organisation in solving their problems. The members themselves have full faith in cooperative principles and ideology. The main limitation of a cooperative is that it does not have huge resources like other NGO’s, or any other governmental organization. But, they match up this limitation with their ability to come up with a collective effort which is unique. nt. Against the above theoretical framework, my Paper will try to build up a model of cooperative water management. The model will throw sufficient light on the factor of empowerment. How empowerment of the farming community has been facilitated by involving them in water management? The model will be re-inforced by a case study of Shriram Water Users Cooperative Society Ltd,Pimpalnare in Maharashtra. The case study will mention how the society was formed when the irrigation scheme of the government was a complete failure. The paper will mention that the members of the society came up with definite ideas based on the study of the local realities to solve their problems. The ultimate success of the endeavours of this cooperative can be judged from the fact that there was increase in water availability in the area. There was also increase in the acreage under irrigation. The cooperative also experimented with water harvesting methods to diversify in other areas of cultivation. This led to increase in productivity of the region. The paper will conclude that cooperatives can be an effective mode of participatory governance in the water sector. While using their strengths as strategic advantages, they need to overcome their limitations too by collaborating with other like-minded organizations.

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