Water Policy Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The paper (2,52 MB) explores how international law facilitates transboundary cooperation in a manner that is accessible to the wider transboundary water community. It discusses the norms and principles contained in treaties and rules of... more

- by Ashok Swain and +1
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- Water Policy, Water Scarcity and Security, Natural Resources Management, Nile River Basin

Wastewater constitutes an alternative water source for the irrigation sector. To fully benefit from it, and reduce possible adverse effects on public health and the environment, we need to look at the regulation of the practice. A prerequisite for this is an institutional analysis, and the points to consider are the institutional mandates. We used the city of Hyderabad, India, as a case study. There, irrigation with wastewater is not supported or recognized, but it happens in practice. It takes place in an indirect and unplanned way. Institutions fail at enforcing regulations, and little attention is given to formalization of the practice. With this article, we aim to untangle the institutional setup, and by doing so, identify the constraints surrounding development of a formal practice. Ultimately, we aim at contributing to the discussion on the agricultural use of wastewater.

- by Cecilia Saldías
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- Case Studies, Environmental Health, Agriculture, Public Health

Abstract. The water management problem is at the forefront of public policy priorities in many countries because of the growing scarcity of water and its considerable economic and social implications. At the core of water policy is the need to foster a more rational use of the resource, and one way of fostering efficiency might be the creation of an agile market of water rights. However, the design and operation of such a market is not an easy endeavor because it needs to coexist in a complex social and legal framework that has evolved to ...

- by Antonio Garrido
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- Water Management, Water Policy, Case Study, Human Right to Water

The Halda River of Chattogram is an icon being the only tidal river supporting the spawning of the genetically pure major Indian carp species. Halda is declared as the Bangabandhu Fisheries Heritage due to the broader support for movement towards its conservation. Discrete studies addressed water quality, land-use changes, ecosystem valuation, etc. without taking an integrated heritage conservation approach. This study aims to elucidate priority policy interventions for its integrated management by mapping significant constraints against Halda conservation. Published journal articles, newspaper reports, and reports on Halda from different organizations served as secondary information sources. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaires from 132 respondents from the egg collectors, tobacco farmers, and the rubber dam irrigation project users living in three Upazilas adjacent to the Halda River-Manikchhari, Hathazari, and Raozan. Key informant interviews were taken from the professionals of government and non-government institutions and researchers. Egg collectors appreciated the Upazila administration (65%) and the Department of Fisheries (48%) as effectively working institutions. Administrative bodies marked pollution (73%) as the main challenge in Halda conservation. Based on findings, recommendations were made which may assist the policymakers in developing strategies for integrated management of the river.

- by Abdullah Al Asek and +2
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- Rivers, Sustainable Water Resources Management, Integrated Water Resources Management, Water Policy
- by Frank R Rijsberman
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- Water Policy
- by P B Anand
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- Water Policy, Urban Water Management, Water and Sanitation, Water scarcity

A desalination plant is currently under construction near Wonthaggi, in Victoria, regional Australia. Protesters living near the plant have been negatively labelled ‘NIMBYs’, or people who selfishly and irrationally/ignorantly oppose proximate developments that benefit the wider community. This paper critiques both the concept of NIMBY, as well as the assumption that opposition is demonstrated only by protest behaviour. Drawing on a 2010 survey, we show that opponents who live close by are indeed more likely to protest, although proximity to the site does not influence attitude, while concerns about ‘procedural justice’ are significant in predicting both attitude and protest behaviour.

- by Tanya King
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- NIMBY Syndrome, Water Policy, Desalination

In urban communities, infrastructures that support living are indispensable. There is increased interest in alternative ways of providing such support systems, including semi-autonomous infrastructures resulting from the self-organization of local actors. In this study, we analyze the emergence and management of such infrastructures in light of the theory of complex adaptive systems, within which they are called ‘inverse infrastructures’. Empirical evidence is drawn from the case of water cooperatives in the town of Ikaalinen, Finland. Our analysis shows that, with favorable preconditions in place, inverse infrastructures may contribute significantly to local infrastructure services and so also to the functioning of society.

- by Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko
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- Water, Self-Organization, Infrastructure Planning, Urban Planning

Conventional benchmarking measures focus mainly on water produced whilst ignoring water produced but not reaching consumers, unaccounted for water (UFW). Benchmarking must credit utilities for a reduction in UFW and improvements in service delivery. This study measures the performance of 20 urban water utilities using data from an Asian Development Bank survey of Indian water utilities in 2005. It applies directional distance function as an analytical tool for measuring performance of water utilities. The results reveal that at the mean level, Indian water utilities have the potential of increasing water delivery levels and reducing UFW by 20%. About half of that can be realized by changing the scale of operation. Metering of the water delivered and the length of the distribution network are major determinants of performance of water utilities.

- by Surender Kumar
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- Environmental Science, Data Envelopment Analysis, Strategy, Water Policy
- by Edward Maltby
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- Genetics, Innovation Policy, Ecosystem Approach, Water Policy
- by Joan Cortinas Muñoz
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- Water Policy, United States, Sociology of the environment

The water resources of the Incomati river basin, shared between South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique, are intensively used. Moreover, the basin is situated in a part of Africa that over the last 40 years has experienced a dynamic, sometimes turbulent and volatile, political history. Both ingredients might have been sufficient for the emergence of confrontations over water. Tensions between Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland over Incomati waters existed but never escalated. This case study attempts to explain why cooperation prevailed, by presenting information about the natural characteristics of the basin, its political history, water developments and the negotiations that took place during the period 1967–2002. The paper provides four explanations why tensions did not escalate and cooperation prevailed. It is concluded that the developments in the Incomati basin support the hypothesis that water drives peoples and countries towards cooperation. Increased water use has indeed...

- by Pieter van der Zaag
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- International Law, Irrigation, Resource sharing, Cooperation
- by Kristina Murphy
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- NIMBY Syndrome, Water Policy, Desalination
- by Jens Newig
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- Communication, Stakeholders, Water Policy, Financing
- by Sara Dolnicar
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- Environmental Management, Multidisciplinary, Research Agenda, Knowledge

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is one of the most influential development institutions in the Greater Mekong sub-region in the push to build large-scale infrastructure including hydroelectric dams. Controversies over big dams in Asia have unveiled the lack of effective governance mechanisms through which all stakeholder interests can be taken into account in resource management decision making. In the case of the Theun-Hinboun hydropower project in Lao PDR, the actions of the ADB have showed inadequacies regarding the project decision making and implementation processes although the project has been economically successful and the ADB has enhanced the country's capacity build-up. The aim of the article is to review the history of the Theun-Hinboun project and identify areas that need to be strengthened recognizing future planning needs, and to identify important future lines of study at Theun-Hinboun. Good governance can be enhanced by institutionalizing participation at the p...

- by Sari Jusi
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- Poverty, Hydropower, Water Policy, Project evaluation
- by Abdi Muse
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- Water resources, Risk assessment, Water Policy, Risk Assessment
- by Guido M. Bazzani
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- Business, Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Geology

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources represented a benchmark in the assessment of water consumption from electricity production. The numbers for hydropower ranged from very low to much larger than the other renewable technologies, partly explained by methodological problems. One of the methodological shortcomings identified was the lack of guidance on how to allocate the water consumption rates in multipurpose reservoirs. This paper is, according to the authors’ knowledge, the first attempt to evaluate, test and propose a methodology for the allocation of water consumption from such reservoirs. We tested four different allocation methods in four different cases, all serving three to five functions, including drinking water supply, irrigation, flood control, industrial water, ecological flow and power generation. Based on our case studies we consider volume allocation to be the most robust approach for allocating water consumption b...

- by Ingunn Modahl
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- Engineering, Water Policy, Public Administration and Policy
- by Heather Cooley and +1
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- Climate Change, Water quality, Environmental Justice, Water Management
- by Nir Becker
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- Water Policy, Economic valuation, Public Administration and Policy

This paper proposes a partial reconceptualization and a redesign of the Framework of Hydro-Hegemony, an analytical tool devised to study how power, hegemony, and power asymmetries can influence transboundary water politics. This is done by presenting the original Circle of Hydro-Hegemony (CHH), an analytical framework that places the neo-Gramscian notion of hegemony at the centre of its structure, to illustrate how various forms of power are connective in the function of hegemony. Following a theoretical discussion on how the concepts of power and hegemony can interact, the case of the Aral Sea basin in Central Asia will provide a practical application of the CHH to transboundary water politics.

- by Filippo Menga
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- International Relations, Water, Gramsci, Hegemony

The rapid growth in consumption of bottled water across the globe has drawn attention of policy makers and academicians alike. However, its consumption practices have been examined primarily in the context of industrialized countries. Drawing on studies of Science, Technology and Society, Public Understanding of Science, and institutions, this article explores the nuances of the consumption conundrum of bottled water in India. This mixed method study relies on data collected through surveys and ethnography of consumption practices at selected sites in Delhi. We find reasons for bottled water consumption to vary with the site of consumption. Although the notions of “purity” and “scarcity” drive consumption behavior, these attributes are far from being objective. Rather, they are shaped by a complex mix of sociocultural factors, public understanding of science, and trust on various institutional mechanisms of water provisioning.

- by Aviram Sharma
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- Urban Geography, Political Economy, Social Sciences, Quality

Confronting devastating floods regularly is a critical challenge for Bangladesh. Dhaka, the capital and a megacity at the forefront of rapid, unplanned urbanization, has been experiencing consistent challenges and threats of flood since 1954. Since then, to ensure flood protection and control, the city authorities have adapted diverse flood risk management strategies (FRMS). Regardless of the overall progress in flood risk management policies in the national development agenda, the inertness of their implementation means the city remains vulnerable. Along with that, several divergences from the development plans, for instance, the new town development in flood flow zone, the declaration to convert a residential zone into a retention area, illegal acquisition of wetlands for property development have also been observed. Therefore, the objective is to review the diversification of FRMS at the national level and to identify the convergence or divergence on the development plans at the ...

- by Tahmina Rahman
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- Water Policy, Public Administration and Policy

Singapore has depended on water imports from neighbouring catchments in Johor, Malaysia since its founding. Despite long-standing cooperation, economic, environmental, and political forces are destabilizing cross-strait water flows. Johor has historically been water-abundant, but increased water consumption from economic development and population growth in combination with water stresses from drought and pollution have reduced its dry season water catchments. Johor has taken recent far-reaching measures including requesting additional water supply from Singapore, rationing supply to residential and commercial users, and requesting RM660 million in federal support for construction of a new dam at Sungai Ulu Sedili, and there appears to be bilateral support for continuing the Singapore-Malaysia water trade. However, water stress in Johor risks undermining the bedrock of the relationship, and creates the need for redoubled regulatory diligence and clear-minded diplomacy by authorities in Johor, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur.

- by Jackson Ewing
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- Asian Studies, International Relations, Southeast Asian Studies, Water
- by Loukia Vassiliou
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- Water Management, Water Policy, Water Supply, Water Demand

Integrated water resources management (IWRM) has been prescribed in the global water policy literature for decades. This article looks at how the concept has been applied in Nepal. It highlights the normative approach in IWRM policy formulation, the existing institutional barriers to apply it and how these resulted in the framing of IWRM ‘implementation’ as merely a compilation of donor-funded projects. Current
discourse on IWRM highlights the need to shift the emphasis from national policy formulation to local adaptive, pragmatic approaches to IWRM. This article brings to light the need to identify potential entry points to scale up locally rooted water management approaches towards the development of nested institutional set-ups in water resources management.

- by Floriane CLEMENT
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- Nepal, Water Policy, IWRM

This paper addresses hydro-hegemony from the perspective of International Water Law, by examining the role of law in upstream/downstream negotiations. It is built on the understanding that International Water Law constitutes an element of power relations, asserting that it is a source of structural and bargaining power. The first section of the paper discusses main principles that have emerged, and their establishment as terms of reference for water cooperation. In the second part, competing claims are analyzed to see how co-riparians in the Euphrates and Tigris basins have provided deliberately conflicting interpretations over “International rivers”, “equitable and reasonable utilization”, “no harm”, “prior notification” and “consultation” to derive negotiating positions and influence from International Water Law. Conclusions point to the understanding of water law as a structural variable, impacting on the actors’ constraints and options and enhancing the structural power of the non hegemonic
riparians. International Water Law appears to operate as well as process-related variable which influences the process and outcome of water negotiations. As a source of bargaining power, legal principles increase the legitimacy of downstream riparians and enhances their bargaining position in the negotiation process.

- by Innocent Nhapi
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- Water Policy, Public Administration and Policy

Due to bad economics or poor infrastructure, every year millions of people, most of them children, die from diseases associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene. Water scarcity, poor water quality and inadequate sanitation negatively impact food security, livelihood choices and educational opportunities for poor families across the world. On September 25th 2015 in the United Nations Resolutions A/RES/70/1 , many countries adopted a set of goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development Goals (SDG) agenda. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years. Goal 6: " Ensure access to water and sanitation for all " is to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all. Aiming for water security up to 2050, with population growth coupled with a blooming tourism industry, irrigation requirements as well as industrial and commercial growth will put additional pressure on existing water supply network. Hence, there is a high need for a national water policy to respond to future anticipated growth in water demand in Mauritius. Mauritius receives an annual rainfall of about 2000mm which corresponds to an annual volume of about 3700 Mm3. Yet, Mauritius suffers from chronic water shortage problems that can severely have impacts on its economy and the well-being of its population (SOHUN et al, 2012). During the past years, it has become a necessity for the authorities responsible for water supply to water rationing in order to cater for shortage and drastic water cuts. The target for a national water policy is to cover a100% potable water by 2020 and 75% urban sewerage coverage by 2040. The water policy clearly demarcates that to solve the emerging water resources, the supply side as well as the demand side will have to be managed more carefully than at present (Mauritius, 2014). With Climate Change uncertainties and increasing water demand, the authorities should give the highest of priorities to securing water availability for its sustained development in the key sectors such as the social and economic, for ensuring agricultural productivities and food security. The water resources management strategies are the medium to long-term actions that will pave the way for the implementation of the water-related policies and achieve the developmental goals for the water sector. The aim of this paper is to analyse whether the promulgation of a new National Water Policy will enhance the sustainable development of the water sector in the country.

Among other emerging contaminants in water, per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have garnered international attention from the scientific community on a global scale. Some countries, such as the United States, have found that PFASs are present in humans on a wide scale. Although two PFASs have been widely studied-Perfluorooctanoic acid and Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid-many more PFASs are being created by industry and are either not known, not studied, or both. The objective of this literature review on PFASs is to give an overview of the information available about PFASs related to human exposure. The information from this literature review on the exposure of humans to PFASs through drinking water and the lack of many conventional drinking water treatment systems' ability to remove PFASs (particularly short-chain PFASs) suggests that current regulatory limits are insufficient to adequately protect humans. This is especially true for particularly vulnerable populations such as infants, young children, and developing children (pubescent). The gaps in the current knowledge and in current regulatory approaches could have long-term effects on human health.

- by Anam Chohan and +3
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- Water quality, Environmental Health, Water Policy, Groundwater and Surface water Contamination

Anthropological approaches to relations have customarily relied on
ethnographic accounts of relations empirically observed through
fieldwork, overlooking, in general, the ways in which the very
notion of relation is locally conceptualised and put into practice.
In this article, we provide a general characterisation of how
relations are theorised and practiced in indigenous southern Chile.
We propose the expression ‘unfinished objectivation’ to refer to
an ideal type of relationship in the Mapuche lived world, which
corresponds neither to a subject–object dichotomy nor to a totally
intersubjective model. Unfinished objectivation presupposes a
type of relation in which those entities that are connected are
submitted to the force of one another, but only to the unstable
and contingent point before which they lose their irreducible
autonomy and agency. To explore the model of unfinished
objectivation we focus on the human–water relationship, which
illustrates the tension between the need for objectivation, as well
as recognition of the subjectivity of beings involved in the
relationship. Nowhere is this tension clearer than in conflicts over
water rights and ownership status, which have arisen from the
commodification of water resources in neoliberal Chile.

- by Piergiorgio Di Giminiani and +1
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- Indigenous Studies, Political Ecology, Economic Anthropology, Capitalism
- by Mohamed Dawoud
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- Engineering, Design, Groundwater, Urban Development
- by Raul Pacheco-Vega
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- Regulation And Governance, Mexico, Water Policy, Water governance

Bringing together the analysis of a diverse team of social scientists, this book proposes a new approach to environmental problems. Cutting through the fragmented perspectives on water crises, it seeks to shift the analytic perspectives on water policy by looking at the social logics behind environmental issues. Most importantly, it analyzes the dynamic influences on water management, as well as the social and institutional forces that orient water and conservation policies. The first work of its kind, The Field of Water Policy: Power and Scarcity in the American Southwest brings the tools of Pierre Bourdieu’s field sociology to bear on a moment of environmental crisis, with a study of the logics of water policy in the American Southwest, a region that allows us to see the contest over the management of scarce resources in a context of lasting drought. As such, it will appeal to scholars in the social and political sciences with interests in the environment and the management of natural resources.

- by Joan Cortinas Muñoz and +1
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- Environmental Sociology, Environmental Studies, Pierre Bourdieu, California History

Plans are underway to construct twelve large hydropower projects on the un-dammed lower and middle mainstream Mekong River in Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia. One of the planned projects is a 30–32 meter–high hydroelectric dam with an expected 240 MW installed generating capacity to be built on the Hou Sahong Channel, less than one kilometer north of the Laos–Cambodia border, in the Khone Falls area of Khong District, Champasak Province, southern Laos. The project’s objective is to generate revenue by exporting electricity to Thailand or Cambodia. Concerns have been raised about the Don SahongDam(DSD), however. The main ones relate to potential repercussions on aquatic resources, and especially wild-capture fisheries dependent on migratory fish. This article examines the regional implications of the DSD, including possible impacts on food security, nutrition, and poverty alleviation. Fisheries losses in the Mekong Region from the DSD would negatively affect the nutrition of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people, especially in parts of Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand where nutritional standards are already low. Mekong fisheries are integral to food security in the region, and the DSD would make it difficult for governments, especially in Laos and Cambodia, to reach their health-related United Nations Millennium Development Goals and their objectives for reducing poverty.

- by Ian G Baird
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- Nutrition, Laos (Lao PDR), Food, Health

Fish farming is considered an important agricultural activity that is capable of ending nutritional deficiencies of the world and contributing to poverty reduction. Its proponents argue that aquaculture will meet the food security needs of millions of people in developing countries who will benefit from relatively inexpensive protein,
while depleted capture fisheries are allowed to replenish. Egypt is Africa’s leading aquaculture country, followed by Nigeria with similar production systems. The dominant species of fish cultured in Egypt and Nigeria are Tilapia and African catfish, respectively. The aquaculture industries in these two counties are very promising, as
there is a presence of water bodies, some institutional commitment, and high demand for fish among others. Despite some gains made by the countries and the huge potential of the aquaculture sector, it is however bedeviled with constraints such as low technology adoption, inadequate supply of fingerlings, high cost of fish feed, etc. This work is an overview of the aquaculture sectors of Egypt and Nigeria, which includes the production systems, prospects, and potentials of the sector and the constraints that affect aquaculture

- by Anna Lukasiewicz
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- Water Policy, Public Administration and Policy

That talk is never disinterested complicates the relationship between the environment and the claims people make about it. Talk about place, and one's self in it, is particularly complex when the environment poses risk or is otherwise problematized. This study, a secondary analysis of interview data, seeks to extend discursive work on place-identity by examining the ways in which 14 residents of a small English village talk about themselves and their locale. The locale accommodates an active quarry, and many residents had lodged complaints to the quarry about dust, noise and vibrations from blasting. Attention to the interactional context of the interviews illustrates the ways in which (simply) interviewing people about their locale can threaten self- and place-identity. When asked about life in the village, interviewees oriented to two main dilemmas in protecting self- and place-identity: (1) how to justify continued residence in a challenging environment and (2) how to complain about the locale whilst maintaining positive place-identity. Discursive responses to these dilemmas drew upon typical identity processes, such as self- and place distinctiveness and the formulation of out-groups, as well as upon constructions of localized power-sharing and morally obligated tolerance of risk. We suggest that research on problematical places, and of environmental risk, needs to be sensitized to how it may constitute a threat to self- and place-identity, and how this may mediate formulations self and place, as well as of environmental risk.

- by Anna Madill
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- Real Estate, Business Ethics, Environmental Engineering, Discourse Analysis
- by Meg Sherval
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- Decision Making, Multidisciplinary, Water Management, Water Policy

This study discusses the future of irrigation improvement in Egypt in the shadow of the evaluation of Irrigation Improvement Project (IIP) that was implemented during last decades.
The evaluation showed that there was a problem in achieving the targets of the project. More over and based on general observation, the sustainability of the project is threaten.
The study discuss the factor behind this limited performance including the general factors that are related to different society factors or the specific factors that are related to the project itself.
The study ended by discussing how the elements of IIP could be incorporated into an integrated approach for better achievement of irrigation improvement.