Water Governance Arrangements Research Articles

Adapting to Climate Change in Vulnerable Areas: Farmers’ Perceptions in the Punjab, Pakistan

Climate variability and change pose a substantial threat to agricultural practices and livelihoods in the Punjab province of Pakistan, a region of agricultural significance in South Asia. In particular, farmers residing in vulnerable parts of Punjab will be affected by a combination of high exposure to the impacts of climate events, the innate sensitivity of agricultural systems, and constraints on farmers’ adaptive capacity. The situation requires closer engagement with vulnerable farming communities of Punjab to assess their vulnerability and build their capacity for adaptation actions. Through qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with farmers from four highly vulnerable districts of Punjab (Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh, Chakwal, Dera Ghazi Khan), we explored farmers’ perceptions of climate change, their adaptation strategies, and enablers and limitations on adaptation options imposed by the enabling environment. We found issues around water governance, knowledge exchange, and market arrangements for crops as key limitations to farmers’ local adaptation action in highly resource-constrained settings. Moreover, the results indicated the need to address equity issues for small-scale compared to large-scale farmers. Farmers valued their experience-based local knowledge and peer-to-peer sharing networks as pivotal resources in pursuit of their practice-based learning. The research findings highlighted the necessity of directed institutional assistance to empower adaptation by vulnerable small-scale farmers. This study emphasizes the critical significance of the enabling environment that facilitates vulnerable farmers to implement adaptation strategies, thereby promoting the adoption of Vulnerable-Smart Agriculture.

Potential storage augmentation impacts on hydropower production, irrigation water supply and environmental flows in the Indus Basin in Pakistan

Study regionIndus River basin, Pakistan Study focusThe study assesses the implications on irrigation water reliability, hydropower production and environmental flows to the Indus Delta resulting from the implementation of large new storages on the Indus River. These large dams have the potential to impact water supply security of the Indus Basin Irrigation System which operates with a priority of maximising irrigation supply via the 1991 Water Apportionment Accord. Implementation of the Accord under future scenarios involving new large dams is open to interpretation. This study uses the daily time step Indus River System Model to simulate the potential impact of these new large dams on hydropower production, irrigation water supply and flows to the Indus Delta under different Accord interpretations. New insights for the regionPakistan possesses significant potential for increasing hydropower production from the Indus River through the construction of new reservoirs, which could raise the nationwide share of electricity generated from hydropower from 29% to 44–53%. This study demonstrates that augmenting storage capacity can yield threefold benefits – improved end-of-system environmental flows, more reliable irrigation supply for the Rabi season, and increased hydropower production. Additionally, this modelling approach can be instrumental in strengthening the existing water governance arrangements when considering the construction of new dams, thereby improving the health of the Indus delta ecosystem through the construction of dam construction.

Addressing Water Poverty Under Climate Crisis: Implications for Social Policy

Access to safe, clean and affordable water is a basic human right and a global goal towards which climate change poses new challenges that heavily impact the health and wellbeing of people across the globe and exacerbate or create new inequalities. These challenges are shaped by a number of geographical and social conditions that, apart from the risks of weather-driven impacts on water, include water governance and management arrangements in place, including pricing tariffs, and the interplay of social and economic inequalities. Building on examples from Australia, Scotland and England and Wales that illustrate access to water in different types of water provision systems, and regarding to aspects of access, quality and affordability, this paper explores the types of challenges related to water poverty in the context of climate crisis and reflects on the multiple dimensions of water poverty oriented social policy at the interplay of climate change associated risks.

Governance of reform in the Irish public service

Abstract In the academic literature governance is a contested term. It is about how organisations are run and the oversight and accountability that are encompassed in this process. However, it can also be viewed in terms of delivery, ‘getting things done’. In the public service this equates to implementing government policy, which is why the term is sometimes seen as synonymous with public management. Collaborative governance recognises that delivering on many government policies requires different sectors and levels of government working across organisational boundaries. This presents its own additional set of challenges. This paper reviews the governance of public service reform since the financial crisis in 2011. This is a policy area that clearly requires a ‘joined-up’ approach. The paper uses a governance framework that emerged from an extensive research programme between the Environmental Protection Agency and the Institute of Public Administration examining water governance arrangements. While it is clear that governance matters a great deal, achieving it in practice can be complex. This paper identifies strengths and weaknesses in respect of the governance of public service reform and makes recommendations for improvements.

Farmer‐led irrigation development in sub‐Saharan Africa

AbstractFarmer‐led irrigation development (FLID) is a process where individual farmers play a driving role in configuring agricultural technology practices, crop‐specific market linkages, land and water governance arrangements, and informal and formal value chain actor networks. Multilateral donors are increasingly funding FLID as a development strategy in sub‐Saharan Africa to expand irrigation coverage, recognizing co‐benefits such as enhanced climate resilience, improved household food insecurity, and alleviated rural poverty. This review suggests that FLID can be understood as a farmer response to the shortcomings of neoliberal structural adjustment and cost recovery policies. Simultaneously, multilateral donor‐funded FLID projects advance Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) policy tools, exposing a policy paradox. Following multilateral and bilateral donor investments in FLID over 30 years, the review establishes how farmers initiated their own irrigation investments and the subsequent “scale‐up” of FLID by multilateral finance institutions. The stances of multilateral donors (e.g., World Bank) and multilateral entities (e.g., FAO) toward water governance for FLID present a contradictory picture. The review demonstrates how multilateral donors have transformed FLID into distinct agribusiness project models through Water‐Energy‐Food nexus and climate frameworks, with attention to farmers' collective action strategies. However, collective action as an avenue for the expansion of FLID does not automatically guarantee a socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable process across project models. Future research should focus on examining socioeconomic impacts on farmers participating in a project intervention, as well as farmers and irrigated value chain actors in proximal areas, to work toward effective and equitable water governance for FLID.This article is categorized under: Human Water > Water Governance Human Water > Rights to Water

Diving into Water Diplomacy – Exploring the Emergence of a Concept

Abstract The term “water diplomacy” has gained currency among policy makers and academics. It reflects an awareness that the use, management, and protection of transboundary water resources is intrinsically political and often embedded in complex political settings. Based on a review of academic and policy documents, we analyze the variety of understandings and common patterns in the definition of water diplomacy. We also analyze tools, tracks, and levels through which and at which water diplomacy is conducted or analyzed. With our own definition of water diplomacy as deliberative political processes and practices of preventing, mitigating, and resolving disputes over transboundary water resources and developing joint water governance arrangements by applying foreign policy means which are embedded in bi- and/or multilateral relations beyond the water sector and taking place at different tracks and scales, we aim to advance the discourse on water diplomacy both in the academic and policy realms.

Improving water markets in Spain: Lesson-drawing from the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia

The transfer of successful water market governance between international settings is increasingly attractive to policy makers under globalization. This paper tests lesson-drawing approaches to water market governance transfers using data from Spain and the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. Spain is the blueprint country for water market adoption in Europe, while Australia is often presented as a world leader in innovative water market arrangements. A preliminary comparative analysis framework linking water market governance principles to observed institutional arrangements and outcomes is provided. Finally, some key lessons, problems and policy transfer potential to stimulate and enhance Spanish water markets from lesson-drawing approaches are drawn, with an emphasis on adaptive capacity as an institutional performance metric. We find that Spain’s current water governance institutions and arrangements offer a solid platform for marketing reform, where some key adaptive capacity constraints are able to be addressed. The lessons drawn from this study highlight those areas of change which, while challenging, can be achieved in our view.

Urban potable reuse: contrasting perspectives of water industry professionals and elected politicians in Sydney, Australia

ABSTRACT Through interviews of 20 sitting politicians and water practitioners in New South Wales, Australia, this article explores the underlying perceptions of the viability of potable water reuse for Sydney in decision-making practices to explore how politics and water management expertise can come into conflict. In particular, politicians’ stances on the issue of water reuse are affected by the wider politicized but unrelated issue of climate change. Three key themes emerged as barriers to the implementation of water reuse schemes: existing water governance arrangements, limited community support and the perceived lack of a water crisis.

Unequal distribution: Academic knowledge production on water governance in Central Asia

After the Central Asian republics became independent in 1991, the transformation process challenged water governance arrangements at all levels. Analysis of transboundary water governance has mainly found that cooperation has been prevailing over conflict. Much research is driven by the question how global concepts like IWRM or good water governance are implemented in the context of Central Asia; studies reveal how their inherent ideas of participation and transparency clash with local realities. Only few authors have focussed on national water governance. Their studies show how powerful actors either resist reforms or use them to secure or enhance their positions. A genuine focus on region-specific forms of water governance as well as on national politics is underrepresented in the literature, which is explained with funding policies and the restrictions of the authoritarian political regimes.

Mutual Learning and Policy Transfer in Integrated Water Resources Management: A Research Agenda

Integrated water resources management (IWRM) has become a global paradigm for the governance of surface, coastal and groundwater. International bodies such as the European Union, the Global Water Partnership, and the United Nations have taken the lead to promote IWRM principles, while countries worldwide have undertaken reforms to implement these principles and to restructure their domestic or regional water governance arrangements. However, the international transfer of IWRM principles raises a number of theoretical, empirical and normative questions related to its causes, processes and outcomes. These questions will be explored in our Special Issue ‘Governing IWRM: Mutual Learning and Policy Transfer’. This editorial briefly introduces IWRM and links this governance paradigm to theoretical and empirical scholarship on policy transfer. We then summarise the aims and objectives of this Special Issue, provide an overview of the articles brought together here and offer avenues for future research.

Multi-Level Water Governance in The Tsavo Sub-Catchment, Kenya

Water scarcity amid soaring demand poses challenges to sustainable development, particularly when set against the backdrop of a surging global population and climate change. Despite policies that require for the incorporation of multi-level water governance arrangements to support integrated and participatory processes and ensure sustainable and equitable use of water resources, over-allocation of water resources in the Tsavo sub-catchment of southern Kenya, due to competition and scarcity, remains a hindrance. This has led to the reallocation of water resources away from ecosystems to supply irrigation and other economic activities. This study uses Governance Assessment Tool (GAT) to analyze water resource governance regime in the Tsavo sub-catchment. The results show that sub-catchment water governance is influenced by dispersed multi-level actors, some of whom were not connected to hierarchy and whose interests were diverse and conflicting. This was hindering participatory decision-making and efforts to co-produce governance arrangements that are context-specific. Water resource management regulations were developed and implemented by the Water Resources Authority (WRA) with inadequate consultation and limited consideration of local priorities.

The recognition of cultural water requirements in the montane rivers of the Snowy Mountains, Australia

ABSTRACTThe cultural importance of water to the Aboriginal people of the Snowy Mountains is significant. Water is integral to healthy waterways, resource availability, and cultural practices that form customs and belief systems. Although there was previously no comprehensive formal legal mechanism to specifically account for cultural water in the water governance arrangements, the authors document the initial restorative healing process for establishing cultural water management in the Snowy Mountains. We identify the four pillars of restorative healing in cultural water management as (1) respect, (2) recognition, (3) representation, and (4) responsibility and self-determination. The inclusion of cultural requirements in water management in the Snowy Mountains of NSW was undertaken by interviewing Aboriginal elders of five communities that have a direct connection to these waterways. Our discussions and management resulted in (1) the establishment of interim cultural water objectives, (2) the cultural naming of high flow releases to the waterways, (3) ceremonies on country associated with the high flow releases, (4) engagement and input to annual release strategies and (5) amendment of the legislative instrument to provide Aboriginal elders representation in future water management.

An Analysis of Water Governance Arrangements of Metropolitan city in chennai, Tamil nadu

The Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department is responsible for the development of urban areas in the state and for ensuring provision of infrastructure facilities to all the areas of the State. There are 12 municipal corporations, 124 Municipalities and 528 Town Panchayats under the control of Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department. The Government has accorded priority for the provision and access to safe and adequate drinking water to every house hold in the urban local bodies. The Government of India in 2013 has introduced the scheme called Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JN-NURM) to encourage reforms driven, fast tract planned development of identified cities with a focus on efficiency in urban infrastructure/service delivery mechanisms, community participation and accountability of urban local bodies towards citizens. The Mission strategy includes preparing perspective plan called as City Development Plan (CDP), preparing projects, leveraging of funds and incorporating private sector efficiencies. The nodal agency for the State of Tamilnadu is TUFIDCO and the concerned department at Government of Tamilnadu is Municipal Administration and Water Supply.

Alternative governance arrangements for modular water infrastructure: An exploratory review

This article presents an exploratory review of alternative governance arrangements for modular systems in the urban water sector in terms of policy instruments, organizational structure, and underlying mechanisms. We develop an analytical framework to review the literature on alternative arrangements for innovative technologies. The preliminary results highlight the importance of governmental involvement and formal policy instruments to ensure public and environmental health in the context of modular water infrastructures. This is in line with the status quo of conventional water governance arrangements. However, the findings also suggest that informal instruments supplement the formal ones and that instead of political-administrative accountability more horizontal mechanisms, such as answerability toward citizens and consumers, play an important role in the context of new water technologies.

Connections and Collaborations of Local Water Management Organizations of Utah

ABSTRACTFragmented water governance arrangements complicate sustainable water management in the western U.S. where local water management organizations (LWMOs), including municipalities and irrigation groups, directly manage water conveyance systems. LWMOs make critical decisions that determine water delivery and management, but have traditionally not collaborated with one another. Our research examines the ways in which LWMOs are increasingly interconnected within a context of widespread urbanization. We draw on three years of qualitative research on LWMOs in Utah, including interviews and in-depth qualitative case studies, to analyze the conditions under which collaborations between LWMOs emerge, or have not yet occurred. Our findings indicate that historically fragmented LWMOs are engaging in cooperative efforts based on their extensive water infrastructure connections. LWMOs did not transform cooperative efforts into collaborations unless such a collaboration protected internal interests. LWMOs engaged in collaborations primarily to reduce their liabilities in the instance of infrastructure failure.

Water governance in New Zealand – challenges and future directions

New Zealand has one of the most devolved water governance regimes in the world. It has been also one of the first countries to give legal recognition to indigenous (Māori) rights for water, and in 2017 the first to give a river legal status as a person. Yet water governance in New Zealand has recently become politically contentious, primarily because of recent declines in water quality of lowland rivers and lakes brought about by land use intensification, especially intensification of dairy farming. This paper reviews water governance arrangements in New Zealand. The legal anchors for water governance are the Resource Management Act 1991 and the Local Government Act 2002. Fresh water is managed by 16 regional councils under a highly devolved statutory planning regime and a system of resource consents for management of land use, water takes and discharges. Regional council boundaries largely follow catchment boundaries which has facilitated integrated catchment management. Central government has in recent years increased the level of national direction for water management. Its National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2014 requires regional councils to set requires regional councils to set objectives for all freshwater bodies, with limits on abstractions and discharges, by December 2025. They are also required to implement methods to address over‐allocation and to ensure that, overall, water quality within a region is maintained or improved. Consensus‐seeking collaborative processes are being implemented in many regions to establish these objectives and limits in legally binding regional plans. In 2017, further proposals also seek to improve water quality to make 90% of New Zealand rivers swimmable by 2040. Māori seek that their indigenous interests in water be better recognized in law, and there are public demands that royalty payments be levied on exports of bottled water. Water governance has become a political issue in a country which is actually well endowed with fresh water resources.

The capacity gap: Understanding impediments to sustainable drinking water systems in rural Newfoundland and Labrador

This article outlines the results of a two-year research project that examined drinking water challenges in rural and small-town Newfoundland and Labrador. A mixed-methods approach was used, including literature review, media scans, a driver-pressure-state-impact-response analysis, policy workshops, community surveys and consultations, case studies and key informant interviews. This interdisciplinary study examined four interrelated components of drinking water systems: source water quality and quantity; water infrastructure and operations; public perception, awareness and demand; and policy and governance. Issues identified include: aging, degrading and inappropriate infrastructure; high disinfectant by-products; use and misuse of chlorine; long-term boil water advisories; use of untreated water sources; and minimal source water protection. As other studies have found elsewhere in Canada, local actors in Newfoundland and Labrador communities of 1000 or fewer often exhibit inadequate technical/human, social, institutional and financial capacity to address their drinking water challenges. New water policies and governance arrangements are needed that emphasize strategic and efficient investments, including the utilization of regional approaches, long-term planning and asset management activities. Furthermore, greater focus is needed on capacity development and the engagement and education of decision makers, staff, the public, and other groups that can help local governments address their drinking water challenges.

Rationalising water policy and the institutional and water governance arrangements in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Integrated water resources management approaches have been developed worldwide to improve water resources management practices. There are however, lingering issues with reference to the applicability of its integrated principles, especially when shifting from policy to practice (action). By conducting an exploratory case study in the Sao Paulo State, Brazil, this paper explores different stakeholders' perspectives regarding the water policy (Water Act of 1991). Through analysing institutional and water governance arrangements, the research assesses if current water policy is being translated into practice. Analysis suggests that the water policy and proposed principles are aligned with international approaches for water resources management. However, results also indicate that the principles by themselves are not sufficient to guarantee successful practice of a decentralised, participatory and integrated water resources management system. In a complex water management system, such as the one in the Sao Paulo State, coordination among different government levels and sectors is considered to be a key element to improve the likelihood of water policy implementation.

Characterizing local water governance structure in the Philippines: results of the water managers’ 2013 survey

ABSTRACTThis paper provides an empirical basis for local water-governance reforms in the Philippines using primary data from 299 water managers representing water districts, community-based water organizations, irrigators’ associations and local government water providers. Survey results showed that local water organizations are subject to various forms of laws and regulations; there are no set bases for water price determination; and water administration set-up varies from the formal to the loosely informal structures. Recommendations are offered towards responsive local water governance arrangements.

Virtual water trade and the contestation of hydrosocial territories

ABSTRACTGrowing trade in virtual water – the water used to produce exported products from agriculture and mining sectors – affects local communities and the environment, and transforms hydrosocial territories. National and international water regulations reshape communities’ hydrosocial territories by changing water governance structures to favour export commodity sectors, often inducing strong contestation from local communities. Transnational companies formulate and enforce global water governance arrangements oriented toward strengthening export production chains, often through asymmetrical relationships with local groups in water-export regions. These arrangements compromise political representation and water security for both local communities and companies.