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Information Sharing and Outreach as Social Capital in Groundwater Governance

Successful governance of groundwater is process, people, and policy implementation working in tandem. While its success may be measured in desired outcomes, sustaining those outcomes depends on the interaction of these three elements. This paper reports the results of interviews conducted with local groundwater district Directors and district Managers in the state of Texas who make policy decisions and implement those policies, respectively. New paradigms of groundwater governance see public engagement as social capital that results in more effective groundwater management outcomes. The focus of this paper is to test this paradigm by presenting groundwater management and public engagement from the perspective of the professionals and practitioners in groundwater management. I conduct thirteen interviews with groundwater Managers and Directors in Texas. Three themes emerge from a qualitative analysis of these interviews. First, sharing Information and expertise with the public is seen as a public service by groundwater Managers that augments their professional roles. Second, this sharing is an informal, two-way exchange with those who have local experience and knowledge. The two-way exchange is built on social networks that form social capital, lowering the transaction cost of implementing policy by Managers. Third, factors beyond the control of Managers can also affect transaction costs of groundwater management. The transaction costs of groundwater management include coordinating user activity and managing the conflict or tensions that arise over groundwater supply and demand. This paper contributes to the literature on the importance of social capital to groundwater management. Results of the study illustrate the importance of user, well-owner, and stakeholder group engagement to effective and efficient groundwater management and policy outcomes.

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Use of spatial information to remove barriers and to foster enablers of uptake of Nature Based Solutions for food production and water resource management in Ghana and the Netherlands

Water related problems caused by climate change are threatening the future of food systems in both Netherlands and Ghana. In this paper we present the results of a comparative case study analysis. The objective is identifying similarities in the use of spatial information by experts and stakeholders in their attempts to remove the barriers or foster the enablers of NbS uptake in view of climate change. Experiences in this field have been listed in the Rhine-Scheldt Estuaries (the Netherlands) and Bono East Region (Ghana) about rainwater harvesting and reuse of wastewater. The analysis focused on identifying similarities in the use of spatial information by stakeholders in their attempts to remove the barriers or foster the enablers of NBS uptake. Both rainwater harvesting and wastewater treatment techniques are available, and ready to be accepted and applied by farmers and food processing industry. Their uptake however is hampered by multiple barriers, ranging from biophysical and technical barriers to social and institutional barriers. We conclude that spatial information can be an enabler for adoption of nature-based solutions, if the spatial information is applicable for the assessment of a wide range of possible solutions for water scarcity considering food production, either nature-based solutions or technologies. In both case studies we observe a struggle to make the future spatially explicit. In both case studies, the effect on biodiversity of respectively reuse of effluent water and RWH did not play a direct role in the stakeholder dialogue.

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Assessing the Role and Capacity of Water Management Organizations for Ensuring Delta Food Security in Bangladesh

The coastal zone, consisting of one-third country's area, is the most climate-vulnerable region of Bangladesh. The country has invested significantly in coastal zone through the construction and rehabilitation of polders. Despite vast opportunities, land productivity in the polders is very low due to poor water governance and management. To improve in-polder water management, the responsibility of operation and maintenance of the polder water infrastructure has been transferred to Water Management Organizations (WMOs) since 2001. WMOs are currently voluntary organizations but are very important for micro-level agricultural water management. A study was conducted in 2017 and 2018 in a medium saline polder; with a major focus on organizational behaviour: hierarchy in decision-making, transparency, financial accountability, leadership, internal communication, and motivational incentives of the WMOs. The data were collected through a structured questionnaire from 192 respondents of randomly selected eight Water Management Groups (WMGs – the lowest tier of WMOs), out of 40 WMGs of the polder. The results revealed that the WMGs operations are not fully participatory in principle yet. Even the transparency, financial accountability, leadership, and internal communications within WMGs are not strong enough to take the organizational responsibility to address future challenges in food security of the climate-vulnerable polder communities. Improving drainage through efficient water management showed a yield gain of at least 1.5 t/ha in the wet season only. In addition, improved drainage fosters sustainable year-round cropping with high-yielding, high-value and nutrition-rich crops with 2 to 3 times higher productivity than the traditional cropping system. Therefore, investment in water governance particularly in improving drainage in the polders could be a major game-changer in sustaining the food security of the climate-vulnerable polder communities of Bangladesh. The study identified the knowledge gap as a significant concern that demands the need for capacity building of the WMOs.

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Popular culture and Nile hydropolitics: Amharic songs about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Water conflicts and negotiations between riparian states in the Nile Basin have mostly focused on legal, political, technical, and hydrological aspects of the river and dam construction. The contemporary cultural, emotional, and symbolic dimensions of the river and its dams have been largely overlooked. Therefore, this article explores how the Nile is portrayed, embedded, and perceived in Ethiopian popular culture, particularly popular songs. The Abbay, as the Nile is called in Ethiopia, is an integral part of the country’s identity, culture, history and politics. The river is at the heart of Ethiopian public space and popular songs, which both influence and are shaped by public opinion and official government discourses. The narratives communi- cated through these popular songs dramatically changed after construction began for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile in 2011. While most songs had previously lamented and cursed the river’s indifference to Ethiopians’ strife, newer narratives glorify and celebrate the river and the GERD. This study used discourse analysis to illustrate how popular songs shape public opinion about Abbay and mobilize popular support for the construction of the GERD. The article concludes with broader implications for water diplomacy and ongoing GERD negotiations.

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Where space is created societal values are generated – the case of the Sand Engine

A large sandy peninsula and beach were realized in Dutch coastal waters in the Sand Engine pilot project. In addition to the benefits for flood protection, the Sand Engine generates multiple other societal values. It provides a new type of landscape of uncommon size along the Holland coast where nature, culture, history and the future can come together. In this paper we discuss the added value of the Sand Engine for culture and the arts, its iconic value, and the development of knowledge in diverse sciences most notably morphology, archeology and paleontology, as well as its educational function. Then we explore how different governance modes can influence how the added value is generated and what type of societal value arises. We distinguish four different governance modes related to the level of control exercised and the level of autonomous societal development allowed by project initiators and managers: directive, co-creational, facilitatory and observational. Different modes can co-exist and may change over time. For the Sand Engine we find that the knowledge development was highly directed, archeology and paleontology were facilitated, while an observational mode was employed towards arts and culture. This leads to the inference that when the physical and societal space is created, societal value-added initiatives emerge. However, such emergence depends on the societal and institutional context as this can act to constrain or enable the type of societal value generated and the extent to which it is realized. Finally, we suggest that applying a more pro-active governance mode to the Sand Engine even at this stage could lead to more diverse and inclusive societal value generation.

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