Dimensions of water governance: insights from research in Latin America and the Middle East (original) (raw)

Abstract

Recent attention has turned from physical water scarcity per se to focus on a 'crisis of governance', or the factors that endanger the water rights of marginalized people and permit the degradation of freshwater resources. Water governance is seen to emphasis previously ignored aspects of water management including: the political nature of water rights and social values, a systems perspective which views water management as the result of problem solving and interactive learning among multiple stakeholders, and the need for that system to adapt to change over time. In other words, water governance is as much about the art of social change as it is about the science of hydrology. This paper argues that efforts to enhance water governance need to address three complementary dimensions: capacity, negotiation and policy. To illustrate, the paper compares the experiences of two projects supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC): the WaDImena project in the ...

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