Transforming Legal Access to Water to Redress Social Inequity and Economic Inefficiency

Author(s):  
Gavin Quibell ◽  
Robyn Stein ◽  
Ashwin Seetal ◽  
Noxolo Ncapayi
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahana Mukherjee ◽  
Ludwin Molina ◽  
Matt Robinson

Author(s):  
Daniel Berkowitz ◽  
Karen B. Clay

Although political and legal institutions are essential to any nation's economic development, the forces that have shaped these institutions are poorly understood. Drawing on rich evidence about the development of the American states from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century, this book documents the mechanisms through which geographical and historical conditions—such as climate, access to water transportation, and early legal systems—impacted political and judicial institutions and economic growth. The book shows how a state's geography and climate influenced whether elites based their wealth in agriculture or trade. States with more occupationally diverse elites in 1860 had greater levels of political competition in their legislature from 1866 to 2000. The book also examines the effects of early legal systems. Because of their colonial history, thirteen states had an operational civil-law legal system prior to statehood. All of these states except Louisiana would later adopt common law. By the late eighteenth century, the two legal systems differed in their balances of power. In civil-law systems, judiciaries were subordinate to legislatures, whereas in common-law systems, the two were more equal. Former civil-law states and common-law states exhibit persistent differences in the structure of their courts, the retention of judges, and judicial budgets. Moreover, changes in court structures, retention procedures, and budgets occur under very different conditions in civil-law and common-law states. This book illustrates how initial geographical and historical conditions can determine the evolution of political and legal institutions and long-run growth.


Water Policy ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 627-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edina Sinanovic ◽  
Sandi Mbatsha ◽  
Stephen Gundry ◽  
Jim Wright ◽  
Clas Rehnberg

The burden of water-related disease is closely related to both the socio-economic situation and public health issues like access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene services. Poverty eradication, through improved access to water and sanitation, is the South African government's major priority. This is partly achieved through subsidising the cost of water and sanitation provision to the poor in rural areas. Whilst the new policies have made a remarkable impact on improved access to water and sanitation services, a general problem since the new approach in 1994 has been the lack of integration of policies for water and sanitation and health. This paper analyses the policies concerning rural water supply and sanitation in South Africa. It considers the structure of institutions, the division of responsibilities and legislated and financial capacity of the South Africa's water sector. A more integrated approach for the policies aiming at water access, sanitation and health is needed. In addition, as the local government's capacity to implement different programmes is limited, a review of the financing system is necessary.


2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 288
Author(s):  
Qing-Chang Ren ◽  
Jing-Jing Xuan ◽  
Chuan-Yan Che ◽  
Xin-Chao Yan ◽  
Zhong-Ze Hu

In this trial we aimed to assess the effects of dietary supplementation of 4-O-methyl-glucuronoarabinoxylan (4OMG) on growth performance, thigh meat quality and small intestine development of female Partridge-Shank broilers. A total of 240 1-day-old female Partridge-Shank broilers were randomly distributed to four groups with three replicates of 20 within each group. Groups received either 0, 15, 20 or 25 g 4OMG/kg DM of diet. During the whole experiment of 60 days, broilers had ad libitum access to water and feed. At pen level, feed intake was recorded daily and broilers were weighed at the start and end of the experiment. For each group, three pens with a total of 20 broilers were randomly selected to determine the thigh meat quality and the small intestine development of broilers. Broilers fed diets with higher 4OMG had greater final liveweight (P = 0.004), daily bodyweight gain (P = 0.004) and gain-to-feed ratio (P < 0.001), muscle pH values (P = 0.031) and redness (P = 0.001), duodenal weight index (P = 0.042), jejunal (P = 0.043) and ileal length (P = 0.049), duodenal (P < 0.001) and ileal villus height (P = 0.008), but lower percentage of dead birds (P < 0.001), drip loss (P = 0.042) and shear force value (P = 0.043) of the thigh muscles. These results indicate that increasing dietary supplementation of 4OMG may improve growth performance and meat quality of female Partridge-Shank broilers through better development of small intestine.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 443
Author(s):  
Camille Rousset ◽  
Timothy J. Clough ◽  
Peter R. Grace ◽  
David W. Rowlings ◽  
Clemens Scheer

Pastures require year-round access to water and in some locations rely on irrigation during dry periods. Currently, there is a dearth of knowledge about the potential for using irrigation to mitigate N2O emissions. This study aimed to mitigate N2O losses from intensely managed pastures by adjusting irrigation frequency using soil gas diffusivity (Dp/Do) thresholds. Two irrigation regimes were compared; a standard irrigation treatment based on farmer practice (15 mm applied every 3 days) versus an optimised irrigation treatment where irrigation was applied when soil Dp/Do was ≈0.033 (equivalent to 50% of plant available water). Cow urine was applied at a rate of 700 kg N ha−1 to simulate a ruminant urine deposition event. In addition to N2O fluxes, soil moisture content was monitored hourly, Dp/Do was modelled, and pasture dry matter production was measured. Standard irrigation practices resulted in higher (p = 0.09) cumulative N2O emissions than the optimised irrigation treatment. Pasture growth rates under treatments did not differ. Denitrification during re-wetting events (irrigation and rain) contributed to soil N2O emissions. These results warrant further modelling of irrigation management as a mitigation option for N2O emissions from pasture soils, based on Dp/Do thresholds, rainfall, plant water demands and evapotranspiration.


2021 ◽  
pp. 096466392110316
Author(s):  
Chloé Nicolas-Artero

This article shows how geo-legal devices created to deal with environmental crisis situations make access to drinking water precarious and contribute to the overexploitation and contamination of water resources. It relies on qualitative methods (interviews, observations, archive work) to identify and analyse two geo-legal devices applied in the case study of the Elqui Valley in Chile. The first device, generated by the Declaration of Water Scarcity, allows private sanitation companies to concentrate water rights and extend their supply network, thus producing an overexploitation of water resources. In the context of mining pollution, the second device is structured around the implementation of the Rural Drinking Water Programme and the distribution of water by tankers, which has made access to drinking water more precarious for the population and does nothing to prevent pollution.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Jodar-Abellan ◽  
María Inmaculada López-Ortiz ◽  
Joaquín Melgarejo-Moreno

The issues of wastewater treatment and the reuse of water are of great importance, especially in areas where the shortage of conventional resources is a structural problem, as it is in the case of Spain. Wastewater reuse is a valid mechanism to avoid problems derived from droughts and water scarcity. It allows access to water resources in areas with water restrictions and to prevent futures scenarios, due to it being expected that water consumption will double by 2050 over the world. Thus, the likelihood that this unconventional, strategic resource would become scarce is unquestionable, particularly in cases where water planning and exploitation systems prioritize the preservation, protection, and improvement of water quality, as well as the sustainable and efficient use of natural resources. This paper shows how wastewater treatment and reuse are linked, as the reuse of wastewater is associated with a previous regeneration, and both of them are essential tools for maximizing environmental outcomes, as called for in the European Union Directives.


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