Participation In Water Management Research Articles

Citizen Participation in Water Management

If rivers are to be managed sustainably, and the potential to resolve conflicts of use realised, the general public must be more involved in their management. Participation in water management in England and Wales occurs at three levels: formal consultation; public involvement; or actual direct participation by the public. Formal consultations often leave the public in the role of the “objector” and ignore the “silent majority” focusing on the more vociferous minority of the population. Public involvement is less formal and can take a variety of forms. Although not allowing the public to be directly involved in the decision making processes, it provides the public with the opportunity to comment upon plans for river works or the re-development of a river location, or to indicate what they want from the rivers that flow through their own local area and which they use for recreation and amenity. True participation is where the public are actively involved in the decision making processes. Citizen participation at all three levels provides environmental education, however, personal experience promotes a greater environmental awareness and understanding by the public. This paper reflects upon approaches to citizen participation in the UK and provides examples of specific projects involving both formal organisations and the general public.

Citizen participation in water management

Abstract If rivers are to be managed sustainably, and the potential to resolve conflicts of use realised, the general public must be more involved in their management. Participation in water management in England and Wales occurs at three levels: formal consultation; public involvement; or actual direct participation by the public. Formal consultations often leave the public in the role of the “objector” and ignore the “silent majority” focusing on the more vociferous minority of the population. Public involvement is less formal and can take a variety of forms. Although not allowing the public to be directly involved in the decision making processes, it provides the public with the opportunity to comment upon plans for river works or the redevelopment of a river location, or to indicate what they want from the rivers that flow through their own local area and which they use for recreation and amenity. True participation is where the public are actively involved in the decision making processes. Citizen participation at all three levels provides environmental education, however, personal experience promotes a greater environmental awareness and understanding by the public. This paper reflects upon approaches to citizen participation in the UK and provides examples of specific projects involving both formal organisations and the general public.

Safe Drinking Water and its Acquisition: Rural Women's Participation in Water Management in Maharashtra, India

The present study was on the participation of women in 10 villages which had a perennial problem of adequate and safe drinking water. These remote villages are situated in the arid region of Vidarbha in the state of Maharashtra,India. The endeavour to have safe and sufficient drinking water helped the women in fighting not only against poverty but also oppression, exploitation and human rights violation. Discussion and dialogue with men and women of the rural communities were the main methods used for data collection. The participatory research helped the women to realize that they too could be equal to men and advocates of rural sustainable development. The street plays and protests organized by the women and the consistent struggle for water created strong community awareness. The search for safe drinking water and water management by women had an all-pervading effect in all villages. The women also initiated programmes for social forestry and rain water harvesting to protect the environment. For the first time in the recent history of these villages, there was sufficient safe drinking water in seven villages during the summer months of 1997.

Gendered participation in water management: Issues and illustrations from water users' associations in South Asia

The widespread trend to transfer irrigation management responsibility from the state to "communities" or local user groups has by and large ignored the implications of intra-community power differences for the effec- tiveness and equity of water management. Gender is a recurrent source of such differences. Despite the rhetoric on women's participation, a review of evidence from South Asia shows that female participation is minimal in water users' organizations. One reason for this is that the formal and informal membership criteria exclude women. Moreover, the balance between costs and benefits of participation is often negative for women because complying with the rules and practices of the organization involves considerable time costs and social risks, whereas other ways to obtain irrigation services may be more effective for female water users. Although effective, these other and often informal ways of obtaining irrigation services are also typically less secure. More formal participation of women can strengthen women's bargaining position as resource users within households and communities. Greater involvement of women can also strengthen the effectiveness of the organization by improving women's compliance with rules and maintenance contributions. Further detailed and comparative research is required to identify the major factors that affect women's participation and control over resources, if devolution policies are to address the tension between objectives of transferring control over resources to community institutions, and ensuring the participation of all members of the community, especially women.

Public participation in water management and the promotion of environmental education

AbstractIf fresh waters are to be managed sustainably, and the potential to resolve conflicts of use realised, the general public must be more involved in their management. Participation in water management in England and Wales occurs at three levels, formal consultation, public involvement or actual direct participation by the public. Formal consultations often leave the public in the role of the ‘objector’ and ignore the ‘silent majority’, focusing on the more vociferous minority of the population. Public involvement is less formal and can take a variety of forms. Although not allowing the public to be directly involved in the decision‐making processes, it provides the public with the opportunity to comment upon plans for river works or the re‐development of a river location, or to indicate what they want from the rivers that flow through their own local area and which they use for recreation and amenity. True participation is where the public are actively involved in the decision‐making processes. Public participation at all three levels provides environmental education, however, personal experience promotes a greater environmental awareness and understanding by the public.There have been a number of educational initiatives aimed at schools in the United Kingdom which incorporate participation and education. Care of, and learning about, the natural environment is part of Key Stage 2 of the National Curriculum taught in all schools for eight‐ to twelve‐year‐old children.This paper reflects upon approaches to public participation and environmental education in the United Kingdom and provides examples of specific projects and campaigns involving both formal organizations and the general public.

Farmers' Organization in Surface Irrigation Projects: Three Empirical Case Studies from Maharashtra

In a country of uncertain rainfall and with a large population directly dependent on agriculture, multifarious role of Irrigation development can hardly be overemphasized. Subject to different agro-climatic conditions in a country of continental dimension, irrigation is expected to usher an era of high productivity with stability in agricultural production and a wider distribution of available water both in terms of area and number of users served. On counts of both efficiency and equity the performance of most surface irrigation systems in India leaves much to be desired. Apart from the technical difficulties, the main factor responsible for the below par performance is unsatisfactory irrigation management, particularly the delivery and utilization of water at the farm level. Viewed against this background the issue of farmers' involvement and participation in water management and distribution is mooted. In this study we present three case studies of farmers' participation in irrigation management through users' co-operative on three surface irrigation systems in Maharashtra.