scholarly journals A review on water governance in Sri Lanka: the lessons learnt for future water policy formulation

Water Policy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. S. K. Chandrasekara ◽  
S. K. Chandrasekara ◽  
P. H. Sarath Gamini ◽  
J. Obeysekera ◽  
H. Manthrithilake ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Institutional Arrangement ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Water Policies ◽  
Shared Data ◽  
Regular Review

Abstract Sri Lanka has no water scarcity within the country, and per capita, water availability is adequate to cater for the country's estimated peak population. Nevertheless, the frequent variability of spatial and temporal water availability and extreme events have built up a water scarcity in Sri Lanka, which has been observed during the last two to three decades. Therefore, effective and efficient water governance is most important in today's context, and regular review and amendment of policies, laws, and regulations are crucial to mitigate water scarcity. Although a few attempts were initiated, none of them succeeded. In this study, historical and present water governance mechanisms, including coordinating mechanisms and implementing water management agencies in Sri Lanka, were comprehensively reviewed. Further, the previously proposed water policies, their status and reasons for the failures of policies were discussed. Finally, the formulation of a novel institutional arrangement or altering the existing institutional arrangement with shared data and allocating non-shared responsibilities to each institution is suggested for better water governance in Sri Lanka.

scholarly journals Las políticas del agua en España: bases para un desarrollo turístico equilibrado, en el contexto de la desglobalización

2020 ◽  
pp. 427-460
Author(s):  
Ignacio Sotelo Pérez ◽  
María Sotelo Pérez ◽  
José Miguel Febles Díaz
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Law ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Royal Decree ◽  
Water Policies ◽  
Progressive Development ◽  
Tourist Destinations ◽  
Legal Guidelines

Las actividades económicas relacionadas con el turismo necesitan, a diferentes escalas, de una política relacionada con el agua, en nuestro caso en España. El objetivo principal de la presente investigación es mostrar las directrices que marcan, o debieran señalar, el camino para la utilización de un recurso escaso como es el agua, para que las actividades turísticas puedan desarrollarse de forma equilibrada, marcando y favoreciendo el crecimiento de los diferentes destinos turísticos, coadyuvando al logro de unas condiciones de vida más ecuánimes. De esta forma, al analizar la política de Aguas con detenimiento, se determina como en España, desde la aparición en la época democrática actual, de la Ley de Aguas de 1985, hasta aproximadamente la presentación del Real Decreto que aprueba el reglamento de la Planificación Hidrológica, se ha ido denotando un progresivo desarrollo en cuanto a los asuntos que han tenido que ir afrontando las diferentes políticas hídricas. En esta línea, las directrices legales relativas al recurso hídrico, han ido amoldándose a las exigencias de las circunstancias, principalmente a las tendencias comunitarias encarnadas en la renombrada Directiva 2000/60/CE, que exigía esencialmente, que se garantizase una disponibilidad de aguas racional, de tal forma que se revitalizase las diversas actividades sociales. Economic activities related to tourism need, at different scales, a policy related to water, in our case in Spain. The main objective of the present investigation is to show the guidelines that mark, or should indicate, the path for the use of a scarce resource such as water, so that the tourist activities can be developed in a balanced way, marking and favoring the growth of the different tourist destinations, contributing to the achievement of more equanimous living conditions. Thus, when analyzing the Water policy in detail, it is determined as in Spain, since the appearance in the current democratic era, of the Water Law of 1985, until approximately the presentation of the Royal Decree that approves the regulation of Hydrological Planning, it has been denoting a progressive development in terms of the issues that have had to face the different water policies. Along these lines, the legal guidelines related to water resources have been adapting to the demands of the circumstances, mainly to the community trends embodied in the renowned Directive 2000/60/EC, which essentially required that rational water availability be guaranteed, so that the various social activities were revitalized.  

scholarly journals Interest group perceptions on water policy reforms: insight from a water-stressed basin

Water Policy ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 794-810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Encarna Esteban ◽  
Ariel Dinar ◽  
José Albiac ◽  
Alfonso Calera ◽  
Marta García-Mollá ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Water Policies ◽  
Group Perceptions ◽  
Water Users ◽  
Group Characteristics

Abstract Water policies have been implemented worldwide to face water stress. However, the existence of water users' groups with opposite interests and different political power results in the plain failure or low effectiveness of water policy reforms. A better understanding of users' perceptions regarding policy outcomes is important to avoid the failure of water policies and the intensification of water conflicts. This paper empirically examines the divergent perception of interest groups on the implementation of different policies dealing with water scarcity and their proactive involvement with water agencies. We have conducted a survey in the Jucar River Basin (a water-stressed basin in southeastern Spain) to analyze interest group opinions regarding water policy effectiveness and water institutions' performance in water management. Questionnaires were sent to the main irrigation districts and urban water utilities within the basin. The collected information gives a general picture of the behavior of opposite water interest groups in this basin. The analysis of the perceptions on water policy reform between the groups highlights the existence of significant differences between preferred measures to address water scarcity and lobbying capacity. These differences depend on the size of the group, the specific basin location, and other group characteristics.

Water Governance and Management in Indus Basin - Challenges & Threats

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marium Sara Minhas Bandeali
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
The State ◽  
Indus Basin

Water governance and management are important challenges for the River Indus Basin in Pakistan. Water governance refers to social, political and economic factors that influence water management. The water scarcity and water security are a major concern for the state to control its water resources. The study aims to give Sindh water policy by exploring the challenges to Indus Basin in managing water resources and to identify opportunities Indus Basin can look to improve water management. Interviews were conducted from water experts and analysts having 5 years’ experience or more in the water sector of Pakistan through a semi-structured self-developed questionnaire using purposive sampling technique and transcripts were analyzed using thematic content analysis. The findings show that increasing population, climatic change and rising demand of water are major challenges Indus is facing and Indus with time is getting water-scarce therefore need strong institutions, civil society and legislatures to ensure equitable distribution of water and maintain the ecosystem. The study emphasizes that water governance and management are necessary for sustainable use of water. Pakistan, the water stress country needs to address ‘governance’ at a wider scale to solve problems in the Indus Basin for the livelihood of people. The research will benefit the state, water experts, institutions as well as civil society to promote efficient use of water in Indus Basin.

Regulation of Water

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Water Policy ◽  
State Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Water Law ◽  
Water Regulation ◽  
Water Policies ◽  
Broad View ◽  
National Water

This chapter focuses on legal instruments that take a broad view of water regulation. There are, as yet, no framework statutory instruments at the state or Union level but drafts have been prepared and this chapter reproduces the latest draft National Water Framework Bill. The next section then moves on to water policies that have been adopted at the Union and state level for some years, highlighting here the National Water Policy, 2012. The last section focuses on an upcoming area of water law, inter-sectoral allocation of water, an issue that is not yet well covered in legal instruments. This section highlights some state-level instruments that seek to address the issue.

Integrated watershed management in Quebec (Canada): a participatory approach centred on local solidarity

2006 ◽  
Vol 53 (10) ◽  
pp. 301-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Baril ◽  
Y. Maranda ◽  
J. Baudrand
Keyword(s):  
Water Policy ◽  
Integrated Management ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Public Consultation ◽  
Master Plan ◽  
Integrated Water Management ◽  
The Government ◽  
Development Perspective ◽  
Initial Process

The Quebec Water Policy was launched in November 2002 in support of reform of the water governance. One of the government commitments is to gradually implement watershed-based management for 33 major watercourses located primarily in the St. Lawrence plain. At the local and regional levels, watershed organizations are responsible for implementing integrated management, from a sustainable-development perspective, by preparing a master plan for water (MPW), which will include watercourses, lakes, wetlands and aquifers. These watershed organizations rely on public consultation, as well as local and regional expertise, on the responsibilities for water of the municipalities and regional county municipalities of the territory, as well as those of the ministries and other government agencies. They are also required to observe national priorities regarding protection, restoration, and development of water resources and to comply with relevant guidelines, directives, standards, regulations, and legislation. The role of watershed organizations is to act as planning and consultation tables. Government representatives are present, on the initial process, as the facilitator and for scientific and technical support. They do not have, at this moment, any voting or decisional rights. After two years, integrated water management mobilized water stakeholders on watersheds and they are on their way to initiating their first MPW.

scholarly journals How downstream sub-basins depend on upstream inflows to avoid scarcity: typology and global analysis of transboundary rivers

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 2795-2809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hafsa Ahmed Munia ◽  
Joseph H. A. Guillaume ◽  
Naho Mirumachi ◽  
Yoshihide Wada ◽  
Matti Kummu
Keyword(s):  
Water Stress ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Water Shortage ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Available Water

Abstract. Countries sharing river basins are often dependent upon water originating outside their boundaries; meaning that without that upstream water, water scarcity may occur with flow-on implications for water use and management. We develop a formalisation of this concept drawing on ideas about the transition between regimes from resilience literature, using water stress and water shortage as indicators of water scarcity. In our analytical framework, dependency occurs if water from upstream is needed to avoid scarcity. This can be diagnosed by comparing different types of water availability on which a sub-basin relies, in particular local runoff and upstream inflows. At the same time, possible upstream water withdrawals reduce available water downstream, influencing the latter water availability. By developing a framework of scarcity and dependency, we contribute to the understanding of transitions between system regimes. We apply our analytical framework to global transboundary river basins at the scale of sub-basin areas (SBAs). Our results show that 1175 million people live under water stress (42 % of the total transboundary population). Surprisingly, the majority (1150 million) of these currently suffer from stress only due to their own excessive water use and possible water from upstream does not have impact on the stress status – i.e. they are not yet dependent on upstream water to avoid stress – but could still impact on the intensity of the stress. At the same time, 386 million people (14 %) live in SBAs that can avoid stress owing to available water from upstream and have thus upstream dependency. In the case of water shortage, 306 million people (11 %) live in SBAs dependent on upstream water to avoid possible shortage. The identification of transitions between system regimes sheds light on how SBAs may be affected in the future, potentially contributing to further refined analysis of inter- and intrabasin hydro-political power relations and strategic planning of management practices in transboundary basins.

Water Scarcity and Conflict Between Upstream and Downstream Riparian Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 07 (03) ◽  
pp. 2150012
Author(s):  
Sahar Farid Yousef
Keyword(s):  
Water Availability ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Allocation ◽  
Allocation Problem ◽  
The Other ◽  
Backward Induction ◽  
Transboundary River ◽  
Militarized Conflicts ◽  
The Future ◽  
Water Scarce

More than one-quarter of the world’s population lives in water-scarce areas, while most countries share at least one transboundary river. If water scarcity is this prevalent, should we expect riparian countries to fight over the water allocation of shared rivers? To answer this question, I develop a modified one-shot three-stage river-sharing game where countries can resort to force to solve their water allocation problem. Using backward induction, I solve for the probability of the downstream country initiating conflict against the upstream country and the likelihood of the latter responding with force to the former’s hostile actions. I test the model empirically using a set of all upstream–downstream riparian dyads with available data from AQUASTAT and the Correlates of War Project for the years 1960–2010. The main contribution of this paper is that it demonstrates how upstream and downstream riparian countries differ in their decision to use force against the other country when experiencing water scarcity. I find that water scarcity increases the likelihood of the downstream country initiating the conflict, but it has no effect on the upstream country’s likelihood of responding with force. If history is a predictor of the future, then the results imply that as more riparian countries become water-scarce, militarized conflicts between upstream and downstream countries are likely to increase, especially if there is heterogeneity in water availability between the riparian dyad.

scholarly journals Modelling global water stress of the recent past: on the relative importance of trends in water demand and climate variability

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 3785-3808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Wada ◽  
L. P. H. van Beek ◽  
M. F. P. Bierkens
Keyword(s):  
Water Stress ◽  
Climate Variability ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Extreme Events ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Blue Water ◽  
Global Population

Abstract. During the past decades, human water use has more than doubled, yet available freshwater resources are finite. As a result, water scarcity has been prevalent in various regions of the world. Here, we present the first global assessment of past development of water stress considering not only climate variability but also growing water demand, desalinated water use and non-renewable groundwater abstraction over the period 1960–2001 at a spatial resolution of 0.5°. Agricultural water demand is estimated based on past extents of irrigated areas and livestock densities. We approximate past economic development based on GDP, energy and household consumption and electricity production, which are subsequently used together with population numbers to estimate industrial and domestic water demand. Climate variability is expressed by simulated blue water availability defined by freshwater in rivers, lakes, wetlands and reservoirs by means of the global hydrological model PCR-GLOBWB. We thus define blue water stress by comparing blue water availability with corresponding net total blue water demand by means of the commonly used, Water Scarcity Index. The results show a drastic increase in the global population living under water-stressed conditions (i.e. moderate to high water stress) due to growing water demand, primarily for irrigation, which has more than doubled from 1708/818 to 3708/1832 km3 yr−1 (gross/net) over the period 1960–2000. We estimate that 800 million people or 27% of the global population were living under water-stressed conditions for 1960. This number is eventually increased to 2.6 billion or 43% for 2000. Our results indicate that increased water demand is a decisive factor for heightened water stress in various regions such as India and North China, enhancing the intensity of water stress up to 200%, while climate variability is often a main determinant of extreme events. However, our results also suggest that in several emerging and developing economies (e.g. India, Turkey, Romania and Cuba) some of past extreme events were anthropogenically driven due to increased water demand rather than being climate-induced.

Recycling of Greywater (GW) through Natural Adsorbents

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.12) ◽  
pp. 1140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mukesh Chandra Kestwal ◽  
Ravi Kumar Patel ◽  
Benoit Teychene ◽  
Prasenjit Mondal ◽  
Sukdeb Pal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Availability ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Secondary Treatment ◽  
Valuable Resource ◽  
Simple Method ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Natural Adsorbent ◽  
Minimum Change ◽  
Natural Adsorbents ◽  
Individual Household

Reuse of water has been a popular choice toward balancing water scarcity and managing water availability in defined areas.  GW which can be defined as the wastewater that comprises water from baths, showers etc, when managed and treated properly could be valuable resource for sectors like agricultural and horticultural. GW is one of the best option if treated and if not, it will mix with the sewage stream. It is possible to intercept this GW at the household level using minimum change in design, and with the primary and secondary treatment it can be recycled for garden washing, flushing and many purposes. In the present work, GW from student accommodation were collected, characterized and treated through series of natural adsorbent. Various parameters such as TDS, pH, Turbidity, BOD,COD, amount of nitrate and phosphorus were measured and it was found that most of the parameters were considerably in range after treatment.  A simple method has been proposed that may be applied at individual household level. 

scholarly journals Integrated assessment of global water scarcity over the 21st century under multiple climate change mitigation policies

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 2859-2883 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. I. Hejazi ◽  
J. Edmonds ◽  
L. Clarke ◽  
P. Kyle ◽  
E. Davies ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Baseline Scenario ◽  
Water Demands ◽  
Global Water ◽  
Mitigation Policies

Abstract. Water scarcity conditions over the 21st century both globally and regionally are assessed in the context of climate change and climate mitigation policies, by estimating both water availability and water demand within the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM), a leading community-integrated assessment model of energy, agriculture, climate, and water. To quantify changes in future water availability, a new gridded water-balance global hydrologic model – namely, the Global Water Availability Model (GWAM) – is developed and evaluated. Global water demands for six major demand sectors (irrigation, livestock, domestic, electricity generation, primary energy production, and manufacturing) are modeled in GCAM at the regional scale (14 geopolitical regions, 151 sub-regions) and then spatially downscaled to 0.5° × 0.5° resolution to match the scale of GWAM. Using a baseline scenario (i.e., no climate change mitigation policy) with radiative forcing reaching 8.8 W m−2 (equivalent to the SRES A1Fi emission scenario) and three climate policy scenarios with increasing mitigation stringency of 7.7, 5.5, and 4.2 W m−2 (equivalent to the SRES A2, B2, and B1 emission scenarios, respectively), we investigate the effects of emission mitigation policies on water scarcity. Two carbon tax regimes (a universal carbon tax (UCT) which includes land use change emissions, and a fossil fuel and industrial emissions carbon tax (FFICT) which excludes land use change emissions) are analyzed. The baseline scenario results in more than half of the world population living under extreme water scarcity by the end of the 21st century. Additionally, in years 2050 and 2095, 36% (28%) and 44% (39%) of the global population, respectively, is projected to live in grid cells (in basins) that will experience greater water demands than the amount of available water in a year (i.e., the water scarcity index (WSI) > 1.0). When comparing the climate policy scenarios to the baseline scenario while maintaining the same baseline socioeconomic assumptions, water scarcity declines under a UCT mitigation policy but increases with a FFICT mitigation scenario by the year 2095, particularly with more stringent climate mitigation targets. Under the FFICT scenario, water scarcity is projected to increase, driven by higher water demands for bio-energy crops.

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