Global Water Governance Research Articles

Context-based Good Governance Approach: A Sustainable Solution for Water Crisis

Water governance is a complex, multilevel process based on the socio-political and administrative systems. The sustainable use of water resources is the main challenge of the present-day global water governance. The top-down, technocratic approach to governance made the water crisis, the crisis of governance. Literature shows a radical change towards a more humanistic, situation-based strategy that can solve water issues. The article analyses the significant water challenges, which include governance, scarcity, sustainability and adaptability. The article focuses on the importance of considering good governance principles such as accountability, transparency, responsiveness, effectiveness and efficiency, inclusiveness and equity and citizens’ engagement in water governance, with particular emphasis on the context-based approach. The central argument is that the water governance system differs according to the context of governance, and the application of the good governance principle should follow contextual understanding. A major suggestion is that a context-based, good governance approach can be the sustainable solution to the water crisis.

The Implementation Effect of China’s River and Lake Chief System

The river and lake chief system offers a valuable policy toolkit to mitigate the degradation of water ecology, thereby bolstering water resource management for sustainable water development in China. To evaluate the effects of implementation and improve policy, this study took Beijing as a typical case and conducted a quantitative assessment using multidimensional data. The findings suggest that while the river and lake chief system in Beijing is effective and has significantly contributed to the ecological management of rivers and lakes, there are also notable regional disparities and urban–rural divergences. In addition, human activities are the main sources of environmental pollution in rivers and lakes, which should be the focus of the river and lake chief system. The river and lake chief system needs to embed more public participation and cooperative governance. This research aids in better understanding China’s river and lake chief system for both researchers and practitioners, facilitating the advancement of the knowledge body of global water policy and governance.

Water trading markets: Facilitating financial flows through the hydro-social cycle?

The world is facing a global water crisis, a crisis that is increasingly framed as a crisis of water governance. As water activists have successfully problematised neoliberal water governance, the question about what is going to come next remains. While current governance proposals appear somewhat similar to what came before, one key shift is the increasing articulation of water governance to circuits of global finance, seen through a growth in financial investors in the water sector but also the way that water and water services and infrastructures are being rendered legible for inclusion into financial markets – the first water futures market being one example. This article explores the water futures market in dialogue with three long-standing water trading markets (Australia, USA and Chile) in order to untangle the processes involved in, and barriers to, the financialization of water resources. The argument put forward is that although material barriers to the expansion of a water futures market exist, this does not mean that water resources remain immune to these processes. Instead, logics of crisis, risk management, and questions of financing appear to characterise this shifting terrain of global water governance across the hydro-social cycle. Moreover, when explored as a hydro-social cycle the financialization of these nodes are not singular “one-offs” but may instead feed into, facilitate, or conversely hinder further financialization across the hydro-social cycle.

REVIEW OF WATER POLICY AND MANAGEMENT: COMPARING THE USA AND AFRICA

This research paper conducts a comparative analysis of water policies and management in the United States (USA) and Africa, aiming to distill insights, challenges, and recommendations for global water governance. Examining both regions' historical development, institutional frameworks, and critical challenges reveals diverse approaches to water scarcity, infrastructure, and climate change. The USA's well-established institutions and regulatory frameworks contrast Africa's complex governance landscape, highlighting the need for context-specific solutions. Recommendations emphasize strengthening governance, inclusive stakeholder engagement, and climate change resilience. Recognizing the importance of international collaboration, the paper proposes knowledge exchange and capacity-building initiatives. Ultimately, this research contributes valuable lessons for policymakers, stakeholders, and communities worldwide, fostering a collaborative vision for sustainable water futures.
 Keywords: Water Policies, Water Management, Comparative Analysis, Governance, International Collaboration.

Agricultural water accounting: Complementing a governance monitoring schema with remote sensing calculations at different scales

Water use requires monitoring and quantification at different spatial scales to enhance water security, especially in regions facing water scarcity and threats to food security. Consequently, water metering has been implemented in various countries as part of water governance frameworks. This study aims to evaluate the implementation of a water metering network within the Chilean water governance system, which is based on the commoditisation of water through water rights. Additionally, it assesses the potential of supplementing the water metering network with remote sensing-based estimates of actual evapotranspiration (AET) and discusses the need to integrate these estimates into an appropriate water governance scheme. To conduct this study, publicly available water use reports were obtained from the Water Resources Directorate and subsequently processed to eliminate anomalies in the withdrawal time series. Water withdrawal data was supplemented with information on granted water rights to provide additional insights and contrast water allocations with actual withdrawals. AET estimates from the Mapping EvapoTranspiration at high Resolution with Internalised Calibration (METRIC) model using Landsat scenes were also acquired for the period from 2019 to 2022 to compare withdrawals and water demand in the agricultural sector. It was found that only a small fraction of water rights ( ∼ 2%) is currently being metered. Actual reported withdrawals, on average, amount to approximately one fifth to one fourth of the volumes granted through water rights. However, water extractions vary depending on geographical locations and usage categories. Remote sensing-based AET demonstrates a good correlation with withdrawals, suggesting its potential in auditing water withdrawal records provided by water users and calculating water availability and withdrawals at aggregated scales within an adaptive water governance framework. While different applications were explored within the Chilean context, these have a broader application in global water governance, particularly in regions experiencing similar challenges in water resource management.

Non-Governmental Organization and Its Role in International Water Law—Focusing on Its Participation in Global Water Governance

Non-Governmental Organization and Its Role in International Water Law—Focusing on Its Participation in Global Water Governance

Global Water Initiatives Redux: A Fresh Look at the World of Water

The complex and globally influential mosaic of institutional frameworks, organizations, events, declarations, professional societies, organizations, and networks that focus on water-resources governance collectively known as “global water initiatives” (GWIs) remains starkly understudied. We address this knowledge gap by means of a robust examination of key actors and institutions involved in global water governance and thereby affirm the dynamic and organic nature of the GWI landscape. Our investigation of the changing landscape of GWIs taps historical and current data and employs both text analysis and bibliometric review. We find that: (1) GWIs have diversified, expanded their constituencies, and gradually extended their influence over how water is perceived, governed, and managed; (2) the institutional landscape within which GWIs exist and operate is continuously shifting to accommodate and lubricate the spread of new ideas, ways of thinking, and available science and tools; (3) networks, megaconferences and their declarations, and water-themed journals likely will continue to be at the leading edge of global water governance and policy; and (4) the advent of the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals has enhanced the relevance of UN-Water, the network of water-related United Nations (UN) agencies. Our findings indicate that as the number of GWIs grows, such proliferation has not necessarily led to duplication, but more likely to diversity and interconnectedness. On balance, GWI activity tends to increase awareness-raising, information-sharing, network-building, agenda-setting, and on-the-ground action. GWI behavior both mirrors and influences prevailing worldviews on water governance and management and taken together, GWI efforts continue to shape international water discourse.

The adoption of global water norms in Central America: What separates normative coherence from normative hegemony?

SummaryMotivationWater management is currently sustained by international norms negotiated in global meetings which are replicated worldwide. Integrated Water Resources management (IWRM) and the Human Right to Water and Sanitation (HRWS) are two of the main global norms presented as important ideals for good water governance, and as such are seen as contributing to achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article engages with this logic.PurposeThe article analyses two global water norms in Central America: the IWRM and HRWS, from their regional and national definitions and implementation in order to respond to the following research question: does the adoption of IWRM and the HRWS in Central American water management represent normative coherence for development or normative hegemony manifested by vertically imposed global water governance norms?Methods and approachThe research examines the definition and implementation of IWRM and the HRWS in the Central American Integration System (SICA) and six member states. It examines regional legal frameworks and national water laws and policies. Data collection included reviews of policy documents, academic studies, and grey literature from regional organizations and fieldwork conducted from 2012 to 2019.FindingsIWRM and HRWS are global water norms that have been institutionalized in Central America through development co‐operation partnerships, especially with European donors. This research shows that SICA member states have not implemented these norms due to the opposition of diverse coalitions of water stakeholders, including agribusiness, economic elites, and indigenous communities. The findings indicate that stakeholder participation and normative legitimacy are the defining characteristics that separate normative coherence for sustainable development from normative hegemony.Policy implicationsDespite Central America's legal alignment with the SDGs, significant grassroots opposition to the implementation of global water norms across the region suggests that normative coherence for sustainable development depends on normative alignment and incorporation by states in national legal frameworks but is also conditioned by stakeholder participation. These findings indicate that normative coherence for sustainable development should become more participative in nature in order to promote transformative development as defined by the SDGs. Otherwise, stakeholders may perceive it as normative hegemony.

Hybrid and Multi-Level Adaptive Governance for Sustainable Urban Transformations in the Global South: A Secondary City Case Study

The water governance crisis has critical implications for the transformation of cities through establishment of sustainable water management practices. Adaptive governance approaches, with their potential to address global water governance challenges, are emerging in the context of the global South (GS). A key feature of adaptive governance is its enabling context, or hybridized governance approach which bridges organizational and network activities across multiple implementation scales. Transforming urban water management toward sustainable water governance practices requires flexibility and agility, and a willingness to enable new ideas, features often associated with smaller and newer cities (secondary cities) which are less constrained than the major cities. However, unpacking their potentiality and the scope of such secondary cities to lead the way in transitioning to sustainable water governance remains under-researched. To address this gap, a qualitative study in a representative GS secondary city (Mymensingh in Bangladesh) was undertaken to investigate whether national and local strategies directed toward improving governance and management capacity of the local municipality are yielding sustainable transformations. We identified a significant shift within the governance regime that influences existing power dynamics and decision-making for the delivery of urban water services. Within the traditional state-led governance structure, a hybridized governance is emerging that builds both institutional and actor capacity. However, these hybridized governance activities are strongly dependent on (international) donor investment and guidance, therefore the presence or absence of donor support will likely determine the impact of these activities in the future.

Scholarship on urban Africa’s water crisis narratives: the state of the art

Water crises present a global water governance challenge. To date, scholarship has tended to focus on technological and policy-based solutions, while ignoring the influence of narratives on public buy-in during such crises. Africa is expected to become hotter and drier in future, while its cities experience high levels of informal population growth and inequality. These factors combine to make African cities particularly vulnerable to times of water stress. The aim in this paper is to investigate the state of the ‘art’ on narratives framing domestic water use in African cities during periods of acute water stress and ‘crises’, using a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed academic journal articles. The findings revealed a small population of recently published papers that engage critically with state-generated narratives framing the crisis, limited to case studies on Cape Town and Windhoek. We recommend, however, a greater critical engagement with the anti-establishment narratives that can flourish during periods of acute water stress, and tend to be inflammatory and divisive in nature.

La gobernanza mundial del agua y los derechos sobre el agua a través del prisma de Canaán, un barrio marginal de Haití

In Haitian cities, the disorganization of urban planning most often leads to the creation of new human settlements, which lack basic services, such as the provision of drinking water and sanitation. The proliferation of slums has an unfavorable effect on the hydrological cycle by reducing the permeabilized surfaces, causing significant disturbances in the recharge of groundwater. Furthermore, the impact of global changes on cities today is causing water scarcity, which makes it difficult to manage water resources effectively. Taken in the prism of environmental conditions and the way in which the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince is to be developed, this situation not only deprives the populations of the slums of this vital element, but also violates one of their fundamental rights "the right to water and sanitation". Canaan, a human establishment created following the earthquake of January 12, 2010 by presidential decree, and inhabited by the victims of this event, constitutes in itself a real field laboratory allowing the veracity of such an assertion to be tested. The objective of this work is to analyze in the light of the major trends in global water governance, the right to water, one of the fundamental human rights, in Canaan.

‘God was a rotten plumber’: Common sense, moral economy and ‘financing water for all’

This paper presents a fresh approach to empirical moral economy through a case study of ‘financing water for all’ in global water governance. The period 2007–2011 can be understood as a process of purposive, collective re-making that occurred as the professional sphere’s various actors deployed, resisted and realigned distinct constellations of ‘moral common sense’ around the socio-politically fraught issue of paying for water. The research found that global water governance actors demonstrated significant agency to transform the moral economy by disabling and enabling particular forms of moral common sense with specific socio-political outcomes in mind. Namely, to normalize paying for water by shifting the degree of acceptability of contentious financial instruments, economic mechanisms and governance strategies: water pricing and tariffs, cost recovery, and private sector participation. The ascendance of new forms of moral common sense around the social object of paying for water enabled a shift away from impasse in the politics of ‘financing water for all’, particularly in regards to the association between free (or cheap) water, and moral and human rights to water. Indeed, the new constellation of moral common senses can be understood as having ‘made sense’ of paying for water as a means of realizing rights to water, for self and others. This in turn appeared to enable the re-legitimization of the private sector as a global water governance actor.

A Precipitation Recycling Network to Assess Freshwater Vulnerability: Challenging the Watershed Convention.

Water resources and water scarcity are usually regarded as local aspects for which a watershed‐based management appears adequate. However, precipitation, as a main source of freshwater, may depend on moisture supplied through land evaporation from outside the watershed. This notion of evaporation as a local “green water” supply to precipitation is typically not considered in hydrological water assessments. Here we propose the concept of a watershed precipitation recycling network, which establishes atmospheric pathways and links land surface evaporation as a moisture supply to precipitation, hence contributing to local but also remote freshwater resources. Our results show that up to 74% of summer precipitation over European watersheds depends on moisture supplied from other watersheds, which contradicts the conventional consideration of autarkic watersheds. The proposed network approach illustrates atmospheric pathways and enables the objective assessment of freshwater vulnerability and water scarcity risks under global change. The illustrated watershed interdependence emphasizes the need for global water governance to secure freshwater availability.

Public Attitudes to Inequality in Water Distribution: Insights From Preferences for Water Reallocation From Irrigators to Aboriginal Australians

AbstractWater allocation regimes that adjudicate between competing uses are in many countries under pressure to adapt to increasing demands, climate‐driven shortages, expectations for equity of access, and societal changes in values and priorities. International authorities expound standards for national allocation regimes that include robust processes for addressing the needs of “new entrants” and for varying existing entitlements within sustainable limits. The claims of Indigenous peoples to water represents a newly recognized set of rights and interests that will test the ability of allocation regimes to address the global water governance goal of equity. No study has sought to identify public attitudes or willingness to pay for a fairer allocation of water rights between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous people. We surveyed households from the jurisdictions of Australia's Murray‐Darling Basin, a region undergoing a historic government‐led recovery of water, and found that 69.2% of respondents support the principle of reallocating a small amount of water from irrigators to Aboriginal people via the water market. Using contingent valuation, we estimated households are willing to pay A$21.78 in a one‐off levy. The aggregate value calculated for households in the basin's jurisdictions was A$74.5 million, which is almost double a recent government commitment to fund the acquisition of entitlements for Aboriginal nations of this basin. Results varied by state of residency and affinity with environmental groups. An information treatment that presented narrative accounts from Aboriginal people influenced the results. Insights from this study can inform water reallocation processes.

The global water security: an approach for multilevel governance on hydric resources

Water has been ranked first among the top five global risks in terms of social impact. Yet, the vision of water as a sustainability variable has lost strength to the detriment of the security concept. This paper proposes an approach of global water governance based on water security (WS) to respond to the increasing water shortage on the planet. The method involved the usage of qualitative procedures, the analysis of regulatory documents related to international water management, and the interviews of five experts within the management and regulation sectors. The process was useful in determining five main scopes and to articulate the framework to promote WS: first - risk as water management paradigms; secondly - review of the international regulatory framework and creation of a United Nation specialised agency for WS; thirdly - transversal link for WS between different actors; fourthly - applying WS mechanisms in river basins; fifthly - adoption of new analytical methods.

The global water security: an approach for multilevel governance on hydric resources

Water has been ranked first among the top five global risks in terms of social impact. Yet, the vision of water as a sustainability variable has lost strength to the detriment of the security concept. This paper proposes an approach of global water governance based on water security (WS) to respond to the increasing water shortage on the planet. The method involved the usage of qualitative procedures, the analysis of regulatory documents related to international water management, and the interviews of five experts within the management and regulation sectors. The process was useful in determining five main scopes and to articulate the framework to promote WS: first - risk as water management paradigms; secondly - review of the international regulatory framework and creation of a United Nation specialised agency for WS; thirdly - transversal link for WS between different actors; fourthly - applying WS mechanisms in river basins; fifthly - adoption of new analytical methods.

THE PROTOCOL ON WATER AND HEALTH AS A STRATEGY FOR GLOBAL WATER GOVERNANCE INTEGRATION

AbstractThe 2018 report issued by a High-Level Panel on Water convened by the UN Secretary-General and the President of the World Bank, and consisting of 11 sitting heads of State and government, concluded that one of the main challenges facing global water governance is integration. Finding ways of integrating the different layers and areas of global water governance will, in turn, require institutional innovation. This article explores the potential of a well-tested yet largely under-studied approach to integration, namely that provided by the UNECE/WHO-Europe Protocol on Water and Health. It proposes that the Protocol be relied on both as an instrument and as a model that can be harnessed in four main ways: accession by a State or a regional organization (eg the EU) to the Protocol; amendment to give the Protocol a global scope; as a model framework for development, cooperation and foreign policy; as a model framework for the adoption of a contextualized instrument in another regional context.

From state to system: Financialization and the water-energy-food-climate nexus

The water-energy-food-climate nexus has risen rapidly in global water governance over the past decade. This article examines the role of global financial networks in articulating the nexus and in connecting it to sustainability programs. It provides new insights into critical engagements with the nexus that, to date, have focused predominantly on water security and governance. The article examines how global financial networks conceptualized and concretized the nexus towards two ends: First, the nexus was used to effect the transition from state-oriented development models to financialized approaches of water development and sustainability. Here, the nexus was formulated in critique of, and as a solution to, the previously dominant approach to water development: integrated water resources management (IWRM). Second, the nexus was deployed to connect water, energy, food, and climate to the global economy in terms of complex systems. The identification of risks to the resilience of environmental and economic systems provided a new form of integration across the supply chains affected by the governance and security of water, energy, food, and climate. In both cases, the nexus mobilizes technologies of global finance, such as credit-risk ratings, to construct and defend new strategies for governing water security and to enable sub-sovereign actors, such as municipalities, to be incorporated into the global economy. The paper concludes that alignments of the nexus with sustainability programs, and the Sustainable Development Goals, must be reconsidered in view of the constraints posed by financial orientations towards the risks and resilience of economic and environmental systems.

Global Water Governance and Climate Change: Identifying Innovative Arrangements for Adaptive Transformation

A convoluted network of different water governance systems exists around the world. Collectively, these systems provide insight into how to build sustainable regimes of water use and management. We argue that the challenge is not to make the system less convoluted, but rather to support positive and promising trends in governance, creating a vision for future environmental outcomes. In this paper, we analyse nine water case studies from around the world to help identify potential ‘innovative arrangements’ for addressing existing dilemmas. We argue that such arrangements can be used as a catalyst for crafting new global water governance futures. The nine case studies were selected for their diversity in terms of location, scale and water dilemma, and through an examination of their contexts, structures and processes we identify key themes to consider in the milieu of adaptive transformation. These themes include the importance of acknowledging socio-ecological entanglements, understanding the political dimensions of environmental dilemmas, the recognition of different constructions of the dillema, and the importance of democratized processes.

Water Governance, Stakeholder Engagement, and Sustainable Water Resources Management

Water governance and stakeholder engagement are receiving research attention for their role in formulating and implementing solutions to the world’s critical water challenges. The inspiration for this Special Issue came from our desire to provide a platform for sharing results and informing the global water governance community about the wealth of excellent interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and projects being carried out around the world. The 20 peer-reviewed papers collected in this Special Issue have been grouped into three categories: stakeholder engagement, tools for building water management and governance capacity, and perspectives on water management and governance. Following a brief summary of the papers, concluding remarks that reflect on what the papers, taken as a whole, contribute to our understanding are provided.