scholarly journals Assessing Awareness about Volta Basin Authority, Code of Conduct and Water Governance Challenges in the Volta Basin

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 059-068
Author(s):  
Abdul-Razak Zakaria ◽  
Kenichi Matsui
Keyword(s):  
Water Governance ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
Volta Basin ◽  
Governance Challenges

Water Ownership and Governance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Babidge
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Regulatory Control ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
Key Sites

Water governance refers to the material and regulatory control of water and waters. It involves questions such as who makes decisions about water and how; at what scale such decisions are made in relation to different waters; and who and which water or ecosystem benefits. Classical work in anthropology considered how irrigation practices may have given rise to the development of state forms, and in response to early-21st-century privatization regimes, anthropologists have considered how different groups have challenged the apparent global dominance of commodity values and water as property. Infrastructures for water distribution in urban areas (such as systems of canals, pipes, and faucets), and considerations of the sociocultural effects of hydrological unit delineation and definition (e.g., groundwater or river “basins”) have become key sites for the ethnographic investigation of water governance, emerging forms of personhood, and societal inequalities. The diversity in anthropologies of water unsettles generalized models in global regimes of water governance. The anthropology of water governance and ownership considers the context and contingencies of water and power. It reveals the global dominance of markets, rights, and technical approaches to water management, such as the case of “private water” in Chile, in which water markets have failed to provide equity and environmental health, but also how certain groups avoided complete privatization of water under this extreme example. Ethnographic studies of the cultural organization of resource scarcity over topographically complex and remote terrain, such as that of irrigators in the Andean cordillera, express the diversity of human innovation at the intersection of politics and ecology. In arid South Eastern Australia, basin plans that treat water as a unit of calculation and economic trade place social and ecological relations in peril. Infrastructures of development provide a narrative of unsettled state and development ideologies, and the problem of groundwater management reveals governance challenges in the face of unstable, unknown, and invisible material. Anthropological studies of water contribute to knowledge of earth’s diverse humanity, knowledge practices, and ecologies. Researchers propose that water governance might engage with human differences articulated at multiple scales, as well as in understanding water’s material agency and waters as dynamic, especially in an ever-changing climate.

Critical analysis of water governance challenges of Songkhla Lake Basin, Thailand

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 293-314
Author(s):  
Peter E. Cookey ◽  
Rotchanatch Darnsawasdi ◽  
Chatchai Ratanachai
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
Songkhla Lake

Water governance challenges presented by nanotechnologies: tracking, identifying and quantifying nanomaterials (the ultimate disparate source) in our waterways

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 552-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iseult Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Water Governance ◽  
High Surface ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Enabling Technology ◽  
Multiple Products ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
Multiple Routes ◽  
Disparate Source

Nanotechnologies are considered an enabling technology, as they enhance the functioning of a wide range of products and processes. They are increasingly appearing in consumer products, including sun creams, socks and outdoor paints, resulting in the potential for direct access of nanomaterials (NMs) into wastewater and the environment. As such, they could be considered as the ultimate disparate source, with multiple products and multiple routes into the environment, as well as numerous transformation pathways, such that the final form may bear little resemblance to the initially produced form. NMs thus represent a significant governance and regulatory challenge, for a number of reasons, related to their small size, which makes detection challenging, especially against a background of naturally occurring nanoscale entities (clay and sediment particles, etc.), and their large surface area and high surface energy which leads to very dynamic behaviour and a strong tendency to interact with (bind) anything they come into contact with. Some initial considerations of regulatory issues related to Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals, the Water Framework Directive, and the potential for benign-by-design approaches exploiting the potential for recovery or recycling of NMs at the design phase are presented, aimed at reducing the risk of unintentional accumulation of NMs in our waterways.

The Oxford Handbook of Water Politics and Policy

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Diverse Group ◽  
Transboundary Water ◽  
Water Politics ◽  
Politics Of Scale ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Water Institutions ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
And Performance

This handbook gathers a diverse group of leading scholars of water politics and policy. Authors were tasked to present forward-looking chapters in their areas of expertise, flagging key trends in both research and practice. The volume is organized into six sections: poverty, rights, and ethics; food, energy, and water; water and the politics of scale; law, economics, and water management; the politics of transboundary water; and the politics of water knowledge. Cross-cutting themes include governance challenges rooted in the mobility, unpredictability, and public-goods dimensions of water; tensions and synergies among equity, efficiency, and sustainability; the distributive consequences of water governance; the design and performance of water institutions; and the implications of climate change.

Small systems, big challenges: review of small drinking water system governance

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 378-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiely McFarlane ◽  
Leila M. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
English Language ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Water System ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Customer Base ◽  
Governance Challenges

Small drinking water systems (SDWS) are widely identified as presenting particular challenges for drinking water management and governance in industrialised nations because of their small customer base, geographic isolation, and limited human and financial capacity. Consequently, an increasing number and range of scholars have examined SDWS over the last 30 years. Much of this work has been technocentric in nature, focused on SDWS technologies and operations, with limited attention to how these systems are managed, governed, and situated within broader social and political–economic contexts. This review seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the governance dimensions of SDWS by drawing together existing literature relating to SDWS governance and exploring its key themes, research foci, and emerging directions. This overview is intended to provide guidance to scholars and practitioners interested in specific aspects of SDWS governance and a baseline against which researchers can position future work. The review identified 117 academic articles published in English-language journals between 1990 and 2016 that referred to some aspect of drinking water governance in small, rural, and Indigenous communities in industrialised nations. The articles’ content and bibliographic information were analysed to identify the locations, methods, journals, and themes included in research on SDWS governance. Further analysis of SDWS’ governance dimensions is organised around four questions identified as central to SDWS research: what governance challenges are experienced by SDWS, and what are their causes, solutions, and effects? Overall, the review revealed that the SDWS governance literature is piecemeal and fragmented, with few attempts to theorise SDWS governance or to engage in interdisciplinary, cross-jurisdictional conversations. The majority of articles examine North American SDWS, retain a technocratic orientation to drinking water governance, and are published in technical or industry journals. Such research tends to focus on the governance challenges SDWS face and proposed solutions to systems’ performance, capacity, and regulatory challenges. A small but growing number of studies examine the causal factors underpinning these governance challenges and their socio-spatially differentiated impacts on communities. Looking forward, the review argues for a more holistic, integrative approach to research on SDWS governance, building on a water governance framework.

scholarly journals Improving New Zealand water governance: challenges and recommendations

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Eppel
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Fresh Water ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Overwhelming Majority ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
New Zealanders

Our lives and our livelihoods depend on fresh water. Our cities and the appeal of our countryside to New Zealanders and tourists alike are based on plentiful supplies of fresh water. The overwhelming majority of New Zealand’s exports – not least agricultural and horticultural – require water, and in large quantities. Indeed, in many respects water is New Zealand’s largest export. Yet the management of our fresh water has not been ideal. We have over-allocated, and badly polluted some of our water resources. Such problems point to significant weaknesses in the governance of fresh water in this country. This article explores these governance issues through a complex adaptive systems lens and outlines some possible solutions.

Reallocation of Water Resources in the Arab Region

2019 ◽  
pp. 321-337
Author(s):  
Otieno Odhiambo Luther
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Policy Option ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Equitable Distribution ◽  
Arab Region ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Governance Challenges

Water is an integral part of ecosystems. Water is essential to earth's living creatures and central to maintaining the earth's ecosystems. In most of the world, both water quantity and quality problems are becoming more acute, since the available water resources are being over-utilized and stressed beyond the sustainability point. The contemporary global water crises including inefficient use and lack of equitable distribution are mainly due to the crises of governance. Water governance emerged as a comprehensive framework by replacing all the existing paradigms including integrated water resource management. Though water governance focuses many aspects in ensuring sustainable use of water resources and its equitable distribution, reallocation of water resources may be the most appropriate policy option to achieve these objectives. Reallocation will systematically address the uneven distribution of water resources across the sectors and prevent excessive allocation of water to a particular sector. Based on secondary sources, this chapter analyzes the challenges involved in water governance in terms of water reallocation in the Arab countries where the allocation of water for agriculture is very high. Addressing water scarcity in the Arab region lies mainly in effectively managing the growing demand. Major water governance challenges with respect reallocation of water resources are tariff, metering, and billing, which led to the excessive use in an unprecedented manner.

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