International WaTERS Network | University of British Columbia (original) (raw)

Research Fellow Policy Briefs by International WaTERS Network

In Lima, Peru 159,189 homes (7.3%) have inadequate public network water supply and are supplied b... more In Lima, Peru 159,189 homes (7.3%) have inadequate public network water supply and are supplied by a tanker trucks, rivers, wells, water from neighbors or other sources (INEI 2018: 101). This policy brief highlights how the current urban water policies do not include, monitor or support significant sections of urban community or neighborhood water management in Lima-thereby affecting the quantity and quality of water consumed by poor people in peri-urban areas.

Full manuscript: Mendoza, M. (2015) En la periferia de la ciudad y la gobernanza, MSc thesis Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

This research on groundwater governance in peri-urban areas of Lima considers political, economic... more This research on groundwater governance in peri-urban areas of Lima considers political, economic and social factors. The research focused on two sites where Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and individuals have direct access to groundwater. The research found that the competing relationships between the stakeholders involved in groundwater governance jeopardizes water security of peri-urban areas and the whole Lima region.

Water scarcity in some parts of South Africa has led to recycling of municipal wastewater for dom... more Water scarcity in some parts of South Africa has led to recycling of municipal wastewater for domestic applications such as drinking, washing and cooking. This policy brief presents findings on public perceptions and emotions of direct potable reuse (DPR) and a proposal to improve user acceptance through institutional engagement with the public.

This policy brief discusses the conflicts and cooperation in the Brahmaputra river basin in South... more This policy brief discusses the conflicts and cooperation in the Brahmaputra river basin in South Asia (for details see Vij et al., 2019) 1. It draws from the experiences of the Brahmaputra Dialogue, an informal dialogue process between the four riparian countries. The policy brief is divided into three sections. Section 1 elaborates the contextual background of the Brahmaputra river basin. Section 2 discusses the key challenges and opportunities that are shaping transboundary water conflicts and cooperation in the Brahmaputra river basin at the national (Bangladesh and India) and the transboundary level. Lastly, section 3 presents policy-relevant lessons from the Brahmaputra Dialogue for policy-makers working towards transboundary water cooperation.

This policy brief summarizes the findings and analysis of a study on water governance in Bangalor... more This policy brief summarizes the findings and analysis of a study on water governance in Bangalore, India and offers recommendations to curb the negative impact of urban expansion on the city's water distribution networks. Today, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) pumps around 1,500 million litres of water per day from the Cauvery river (Rajashekhar, 2015). This is distributed unevenly across the city and fails to meet current water demand. Rampant groundwater extraction, a private market of water vendors, and the destruction of Bangalore's many water bodies, characterizes the precarious water infrastructure of the city. A lack of sufficient water supply is a key reason agriculture has become untenable for many small farmers on the city's fringe, enabling the government and developers to acquire and convert peripheral rural land into the expanding urban real estate market. Urban expansion onto the agrarian landscape-fields, forest and pasture commons, complex water-catchment system-has undermined water-intensive agrarian livelihoods as well as important avenues of recharge. This intensifies the prevailing insufficiencies surrounding water supply and access.

This brief discusses mining policy's meanings and implications for Indigenous people and peasants... more This brief discusses mining policy's meanings and implications for Indigenous people and peasants and how they defend their water and territory in Quimsacocha, a high Andean wetland located to the southwest of Cuenca city, in the province of Azuay in Ecuador. It contrasts the local strategies for resisting mining which invoke the Ecuadorian Constitution (2008) with the government's attempts to reframe and backtrack environmental guarantees.

The City of Cape Town (CCT), and South Africa in general, have been experiencing significant wate... more The City of Cape Town (CCT), and South Africa in general, have been experiencing significant water shortages due to the ongoing drought. In early April 2017, the CCT was reportedly down to its last 100 days of water (News24, 2017) and on 31 May, the City imposed unprecedented Level 4 water restrictions, which introduced stricter limitations on residential water use, encouraging use of up to 100 liters (l) per person per day; forbidding irrigation with municipal water; and suggesting the use of treated effluent and wastewater for non-potable purposes. The indigent water allocation for impoverished households was capped at 350 l per day (CCT, 2017). On 31 May, CCT announced they will start working on a new Water Resilience Plan to address the future of Cape Town’s water. Due to climate change effects, drought events are no longer within an envelope of predictable probability. In fact, South Africa is likely to experience more frequent droughts in the future. As our research suggests, existing institutional barriers to alternative water source integration may be limiting effective adaptation responses to hydrological variability and regime changes. Our research serves to inform the new Water Resilience Plan by highlighting aspects that can best contribute to increased water-related resilience. We find that Water Sensitive Urban Design principles and enhanced groundwater protection measures show promise to provide a more flexible portfolio approach to drought in Cape Town. This can reduce dependence on dams and surface water and provide additional buffer in times of scarcity. This policy brief is based on research that investigated the water governance landscape of the CCT, with a focus on resilience in the water sector.

Global trends of industrialisation, intensive agriculture, and urban population growth increasing... more Global trends of industrialisation, intensive agriculture, and urban population growth increasingly challenge urban and rural water managers to work together towards positive outcomes. An emergent piece of water management has been to use return water flows from urban areas for rural agricultural production. This policy brief addresses the interlinkage of urban and rural areas along the water chain by assessing the impact of pollution in urban return flows on irrigated agriculture in the Elgin Valley, South Africa.

This fact sheet presents key findings of a study about rural-urban water governance in Lima, Peru... more This fact sheet presents key findings of a study about rural-urban water governance in Lima, Peru, and the specific ways in which trans-Andean water transfers as well as hydropower development for urban electricity reconfigure the rural-urban interface.

The study was made possible by an International WaTERS Graduate Fellowship

Conferences and Workshops by International WaTERS Network

The International WaTERS Network (www.international-waters.org), with support of the Peter Wall I... more The International WaTERS Network (www.international-waters.org), with support of the Peter Wall Institute of Advanced Studies (http://pwias.ubc.ca/), the NEPAD Centers for Excellence (http://www.nepad.org/programme/nepad-water-centres-excellence), the Water Research Commission of South Africa, and other partners (see end of report for full list) were proud to host an international workshop on equity and water-related resilience in southern Africa. We successfully collaborated and shared insights from researchers and practitioners focusing on, and based in, southern Africa. Additionally, this workshop focused on goal setting, research dissemination and grant writing for the future of the International WaTERS Network research program.

Thematically, the workshop critically interrogated notions of resilience, highlighted definitions and framings from different disciplinary traditions, and integrated insights from scholars and practitioners with focus on southern Africa. Considerable attention during the first two days was given to case study work in the region.. The third day was made up of small group and plenary discussions of collaborative publications and grant applications to extend this work, looking ahead to future needs and collaborative possibilities.

Please see our website for the detailed workshop agenda, as well as a full participant list and contact information: http://www.waterequity.pwias.ubc.ca/

Annual Reports by International WaTERS Network

2019 was International WaTERS Network's fifth year. As the major projects have started coming to ... more 2019 was International WaTERS Network's fifth year. As the major projects have started coming to fruition-we reflect on the successes we have had such as the finalization and release of the online Training Modules, publication of two special issues of leading journals, and finalization of additional policy briefs. At the same time, we look at the future and look for new and exciting partnerships that can help drive our work forward. As our initial funding from SSHRC is complete, we also continue to seek additional funding and research collaborations to keep the Network moving forward. Major Events and Activities Training Modules Go LIVE! The​ ​ International WaTERS Network​ is proud to announce the release of our online​ ​ Training Modules​. These training modules are intended to give students and practitioners an open access tool to learn more about water governance challenges-with focus on equity and resilience in the global South. There are 5 modules, each with a number of submodules. Each module contains a mix of videos, open access readings, and the chance to test your knowledge of the material. Many also include reflection and discussion questions that might be helpful teaching resources or learning guides. Each submodule should take between 1 and 2 hours and can be a standalone unit or used in conjunction with the other lessons. As such, to complete all lessons we expect that this will take up to 30 hours of work (watching videos, doing the readings, and so forth). We are happy to provide certification for completion of the course, the instructions are on the module webpage.

2018 was International WaTERS Network's fourth year. As we seek to reposition ourselves and open ... more 2018 was International WaTERS Network's fourth year. As we seek to reposition ourselves and open the membership to a broaer cross section of academics and practitioners in the Global North and South, we also found this was a useful time to reflect on past experiences and learning opportunities.

2017 was the International WaTERS Network's third year. During this time we worked to further sho... more 2017 was the International WaTERS Network's third year. During this time we worked to further showcase our work and to focus more on research conducted in our case study sites of Cape Town (South Africa), Lima (Peru), and Bangalore (India), particularly to explore the key linkages between them. Again focusing on academic and practitioner workshops in our focal regions, we started to look forward in planning our next steps and secure future funding. Major Events and Activities Narrative Inquiries Workshop-Minneapolis Minnesota, December 13, 2017 The Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC) at the University of Minnesota teamed up with International WaTERS to put on a one day workshop entitled: ​ Narrative Inquiries: Understanding Questions of Environment and Justice​ which was held December 13, 2017 in Minneapolis Minnesota. The speakers focused on creative engagement following the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, writing lives and struggles across borders of languages, genres, disciplines and geographical locations, critical international relations, political and postcolonial theory, and water politics and governance, and critical approaches that engage narrative to understand lived experience of water access. We are deeply grateful to ​ Karen Brown​ and ICGC for the opportunity to engage creatively and critically on issues of narrative inquiry, and particularly to explore the potential utility of these approaches and modes of engagement for work on water, environmental justice, and social equity concerns of interest to the Network.

2016 was International WaTERS Network's second year in existence. As we shifted from start-up to ... more 2016 was International WaTERS Network's second year in existence. As we shifted from start-up to a more established network, we increasingly focused on addressing the key linkages between our case study sites of Cape Town (South Africa), Lima (Peru), and Bangalore (India). Building on the work of our Network partners and the field work conducted by our fellows, we hosted a number of academic and practitioner workshops around the world. We began assembling our work for a forthcoming journal special issue, finalized the training modules, and made progress on future goals for our research and training efforts, as well as future funding. The International WaTERS Network and Justicia Hídrica conducted a successful workshop on July 10th, 2016 in Wageningen, The Netherlands with over 40 participants from both Networks and beyond. There were in-depth updates from each of the case studies sites (Bangalore, Cape Town, and Lima) presented both by graduate students who had been awarded Network fellowships and activists and professors who are active in the Network's activities. Additional presentations covered Network themes such as urban-rural linkages and water equity in the global South, including work from Peru and Brazil. The workshop finished with a discussion of future directions for the network's organization and outputs with a stress on the need for additional funding opportunities. We are currently pursuing a special journal issue as an outlet for some of this work, to be edited by several Network members.

2015 was the first year of the International WaTERS Network. Activities for this initial year inc... more 2015 was the first year of the International WaTERS Network. Activities for this initial year including establishing our network infrastructure; creating a web page, listserve, dropbox for sharing files, twitter, and even hosting a competition to design our logo (thanks to Max Goldin for the lovely logo!). The Network hosted its inaugural meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where we held three days of workshops, brainstorming sessions, public forums, and networking dinners focusing on understanding issues such as rural-urban water issues, as well as key concepts such as resilience, and equity and governance challenges. The Network assembled international teams to start work on our online training modules and conducted a needs assessment to better understand how prospective audiences might use the modules to serve particular needs and learning tools. Finally, we conducted a competition and our first graduate fellows who are conducting timely and important field work in our case study sites (Lima, Peru; Bangalore, India and Cape Town, South Africa). Major Events and Activities First Network Meeting-University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) Our first Network meeting brought together more than 25 researchers representing our key institutional partners. Over 3 days, we held workshops, breakout sessions, public forums, and brainstorming events covering topics such as online pedagogical tools to improve student success, guidance to inform the development of our online training modules, an overview of resilience theory and practice, summaries and the key linkages between our case study sites (Lima, Cape Town, and Bangalore), and future Network directions and planning. Importantly, the event served as a networking tool to bring together researchers from around the world to meet each other (many for the first time) and discuss areas of common interest and future collaboration.

In Lima, Peru 159,189 homes (7.3%) have inadequate public network water supply and are supplied b... more In Lima, Peru 159,189 homes (7.3%) have inadequate public network water supply and are supplied by a tanker trucks, rivers, wells, water from neighbors or other sources (INEI 2018: 101). This policy brief highlights how the current urban water policies do not include, monitor or support significant sections of urban community or neighborhood water management in Lima-thereby affecting the quantity and quality of water consumed by poor people in peri-urban areas.

Full manuscript: Mendoza, M. (2015) En la periferia de la ciudad y la gobernanza, MSc thesis Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

This research on groundwater governance in peri-urban areas of Lima considers political, economic... more This research on groundwater governance in peri-urban areas of Lima considers political, economic and social factors. The research focused on two sites where Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and individuals have direct access to groundwater. The research found that the competing relationships between the stakeholders involved in groundwater governance jeopardizes water security of peri-urban areas and the whole Lima region.

Water scarcity in some parts of South Africa has led to recycling of municipal wastewater for dom... more Water scarcity in some parts of South Africa has led to recycling of municipal wastewater for domestic applications such as drinking, washing and cooking. This policy brief presents findings on public perceptions and emotions of direct potable reuse (DPR) and a proposal to improve user acceptance through institutional engagement with the public.

This policy brief discusses the conflicts and cooperation in the Brahmaputra river basin in South... more This policy brief discusses the conflicts and cooperation in the Brahmaputra river basin in South Asia (for details see Vij et al., 2019) 1. It draws from the experiences of the Brahmaputra Dialogue, an informal dialogue process between the four riparian countries. The policy brief is divided into three sections. Section 1 elaborates the contextual background of the Brahmaputra river basin. Section 2 discusses the key challenges and opportunities that are shaping transboundary water conflicts and cooperation in the Brahmaputra river basin at the national (Bangladesh and India) and the transboundary level. Lastly, section 3 presents policy-relevant lessons from the Brahmaputra Dialogue for policy-makers working towards transboundary water cooperation.

This policy brief summarizes the findings and analysis of a study on water governance in Bangalor... more This policy brief summarizes the findings and analysis of a study on water governance in Bangalore, India and offers recommendations to curb the negative impact of urban expansion on the city's water distribution networks. Today, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) pumps around 1,500 million litres of water per day from the Cauvery river (Rajashekhar, 2015). This is distributed unevenly across the city and fails to meet current water demand. Rampant groundwater extraction, a private market of water vendors, and the destruction of Bangalore's many water bodies, characterizes the precarious water infrastructure of the city. A lack of sufficient water supply is a key reason agriculture has become untenable for many small farmers on the city's fringe, enabling the government and developers to acquire and convert peripheral rural land into the expanding urban real estate market. Urban expansion onto the agrarian landscape-fields, forest and pasture commons, complex water-catchment system-has undermined water-intensive agrarian livelihoods as well as important avenues of recharge. This intensifies the prevailing insufficiencies surrounding water supply and access.

This brief discusses mining policy's meanings and implications for Indigenous people and peasants... more This brief discusses mining policy's meanings and implications for Indigenous people and peasants and how they defend their water and territory in Quimsacocha, a high Andean wetland located to the southwest of Cuenca city, in the province of Azuay in Ecuador. It contrasts the local strategies for resisting mining which invoke the Ecuadorian Constitution (2008) with the government's attempts to reframe and backtrack environmental guarantees.

The City of Cape Town (CCT), and South Africa in general, have been experiencing significant wate... more The City of Cape Town (CCT), and South Africa in general, have been experiencing significant water shortages due to the ongoing drought. In early April 2017, the CCT was reportedly down to its last 100 days of water (News24, 2017) and on 31 May, the City imposed unprecedented Level 4 water restrictions, which introduced stricter limitations on residential water use, encouraging use of up to 100 liters (l) per person per day; forbidding irrigation with municipal water; and suggesting the use of treated effluent and wastewater for non-potable purposes. The indigent water allocation for impoverished households was capped at 350 l per day (CCT, 2017). On 31 May, CCT announced they will start working on a new Water Resilience Plan to address the future of Cape Town’s water. Due to climate change effects, drought events are no longer within an envelope of predictable probability. In fact, South Africa is likely to experience more frequent droughts in the future. As our research suggests, existing institutional barriers to alternative water source integration may be limiting effective adaptation responses to hydrological variability and regime changes. Our research serves to inform the new Water Resilience Plan by highlighting aspects that can best contribute to increased water-related resilience. We find that Water Sensitive Urban Design principles and enhanced groundwater protection measures show promise to provide a more flexible portfolio approach to drought in Cape Town. This can reduce dependence on dams and surface water and provide additional buffer in times of scarcity. This policy brief is based on research that investigated the water governance landscape of the CCT, with a focus on resilience in the water sector.

Global trends of industrialisation, intensive agriculture, and urban population growth increasing... more Global trends of industrialisation, intensive agriculture, and urban population growth increasingly challenge urban and rural water managers to work together towards positive outcomes. An emergent piece of water management has been to use return water flows from urban areas for rural agricultural production. This policy brief addresses the interlinkage of urban and rural areas along the water chain by assessing the impact of pollution in urban return flows on irrigated agriculture in the Elgin Valley, South Africa.

This fact sheet presents key findings of a study about rural-urban water governance in Lima, Peru... more This fact sheet presents key findings of a study about rural-urban water governance in Lima, Peru, and the specific ways in which trans-Andean water transfers as well as hydropower development for urban electricity reconfigure the rural-urban interface.

The study was made possible by an International WaTERS Graduate Fellowship

The International WaTERS Network (www.international-waters.org), with support of the Peter Wall I... more The International WaTERS Network (www.international-waters.org), with support of the Peter Wall Institute of Advanced Studies (http://pwias.ubc.ca/), the NEPAD Centers for Excellence (http://www.nepad.org/programme/nepad-water-centres-excellence), the Water Research Commission of South Africa, and other partners (see end of report for full list) were proud to host an international workshop on equity and water-related resilience in southern Africa. We successfully collaborated and shared insights from researchers and practitioners focusing on, and based in, southern Africa. Additionally, this workshop focused on goal setting, research dissemination and grant writing for the future of the International WaTERS Network research program.

Thematically, the workshop critically interrogated notions of resilience, highlighted definitions and framings from different disciplinary traditions, and integrated insights from scholars and practitioners with focus on southern Africa. Considerable attention during the first two days was given to case study work in the region.. The third day was made up of small group and plenary discussions of collaborative publications and grant applications to extend this work, looking ahead to future needs and collaborative possibilities.

Please see our website for the detailed workshop agenda, as well as a full participant list and contact information: http://www.waterequity.pwias.ubc.ca/

2019 was International WaTERS Network's fifth year. As the major projects have started coming to ... more 2019 was International WaTERS Network's fifth year. As the major projects have started coming to fruition-we reflect on the successes we have had such as the finalization and release of the online Training Modules, publication of two special issues of leading journals, and finalization of additional policy briefs. At the same time, we look at the future and look for new and exciting partnerships that can help drive our work forward. As our initial funding from SSHRC is complete, we also continue to seek additional funding and research collaborations to keep the Network moving forward. Major Events and Activities Training Modules Go LIVE! The​ ​ International WaTERS Network​ is proud to announce the release of our online​ ​ Training Modules​. These training modules are intended to give students and practitioners an open access tool to learn more about water governance challenges-with focus on equity and resilience in the global South. There are 5 modules, each with a number of submodules. Each module contains a mix of videos, open access readings, and the chance to test your knowledge of the material. Many also include reflection and discussion questions that might be helpful teaching resources or learning guides. Each submodule should take between 1 and 2 hours and can be a standalone unit or used in conjunction with the other lessons. As such, to complete all lessons we expect that this will take up to 30 hours of work (watching videos, doing the readings, and so forth). We are happy to provide certification for completion of the course, the instructions are on the module webpage.

2018 was International WaTERS Network's fourth year. As we seek to reposition ourselves and open ... more 2018 was International WaTERS Network's fourth year. As we seek to reposition ourselves and open the membership to a broaer cross section of academics and practitioners in the Global North and South, we also found this was a useful time to reflect on past experiences and learning opportunities.

2017 was the International WaTERS Network's third year. During this time we worked to further sho... more 2017 was the International WaTERS Network's third year. During this time we worked to further showcase our work and to focus more on research conducted in our case study sites of Cape Town (South Africa), Lima (Peru), and Bangalore (India), particularly to explore the key linkages between them. Again focusing on academic and practitioner workshops in our focal regions, we started to look forward in planning our next steps and secure future funding. Major Events and Activities Narrative Inquiries Workshop-Minneapolis Minnesota, December 13, 2017 The Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC) at the University of Minnesota teamed up with International WaTERS to put on a one day workshop entitled: ​ Narrative Inquiries: Understanding Questions of Environment and Justice​ which was held December 13, 2017 in Minneapolis Minnesota. The speakers focused on creative engagement following the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, writing lives and struggles across borders of languages, genres, disciplines and geographical locations, critical international relations, political and postcolonial theory, and water politics and governance, and critical approaches that engage narrative to understand lived experience of water access. We are deeply grateful to ​ Karen Brown​ and ICGC for the opportunity to engage creatively and critically on issues of narrative inquiry, and particularly to explore the potential utility of these approaches and modes of engagement for work on water, environmental justice, and social equity concerns of interest to the Network.

2016 was International WaTERS Network's second year in existence. As we shifted from start-up to ... more 2016 was International WaTERS Network's second year in existence. As we shifted from start-up to a more established network, we increasingly focused on addressing the key linkages between our case study sites of Cape Town (South Africa), Lima (Peru), and Bangalore (India). Building on the work of our Network partners and the field work conducted by our fellows, we hosted a number of academic and practitioner workshops around the world. We began assembling our work for a forthcoming journal special issue, finalized the training modules, and made progress on future goals for our research and training efforts, as well as future funding. The International WaTERS Network and Justicia Hídrica conducted a successful workshop on July 10th, 2016 in Wageningen, The Netherlands with over 40 participants from both Networks and beyond. There were in-depth updates from each of the case studies sites (Bangalore, Cape Town, and Lima) presented both by graduate students who had been awarded Network fellowships and activists and professors who are active in the Network's activities. Additional presentations covered Network themes such as urban-rural linkages and water equity in the global South, including work from Peru and Brazil. The workshop finished with a discussion of future directions for the network's organization and outputs with a stress on the need for additional funding opportunities. We are currently pursuing a special journal issue as an outlet for some of this work, to be edited by several Network members.

2015 was the first year of the International WaTERS Network. Activities for this initial year inc... more 2015 was the first year of the International WaTERS Network. Activities for this initial year including establishing our network infrastructure; creating a web page, listserve, dropbox for sharing files, twitter, and even hosting a competition to design our logo (thanks to Max Goldin for the lovely logo!). The Network hosted its inaugural meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where we held three days of workshops, brainstorming sessions, public forums, and networking dinners focusing on understanding issues such as rural-urban water issues, as well as key concepts such as resilience, and equity and governance challenges. The Network assembled international teams to start work on our online training modules and conducted a needs assessment to better understand how prospective audiences might use the modules to serve particular needs and learning tools. Finally, we conducted a competition and our first graduate fellows who are conducting timely and important field work in our case study sites (Lima, Peru; Bangalore, India and Cape Town, South Africa). Major Events and Activities First Network Meeting-University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) Our first Network meeting brought together more than 25 researchers representing our key institutional partners. Over 3 days, we held workshops, breakout sessions, public forums, and brainstorming events covering topics such as online pedagogical tools to improve student success, guidance to inform the development of our online training modules, an overview of resilience theory and practice, summaries and the key linkages between our case study sites (Lima, Cape Town, and Bangalore), and future Network directions and planning. Importantly, the event served as a networking tool to bring together researchers from around the world to meet each other (many for the first time) and discuss areas of common interest and future collaboration.