Ebbs and Flows of Authority: Decentralization, Development and the Hydrosocial Cycle in Lesotho

Dominant development discourse holds that water scarcity reflects geophysical limitations, lack of infrastructure or lack of government provision. However, this paper outlines the ways in which scarcity can only be fully explained in the context of development, specifically, neoliberal economic policies and related notions of good governance. Water is Lesotho’s primary natural resource, yet many of its inhabitants remain severely water insecure. Presently, decentralization and Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) are embraced in Lesotho as a philosophy and method to engage varied stakeholders and to empower community members. Using a water committee in Qalo, Lesotho as a case study, this paper explores the micro-politics of water governance. As individuals contest who is responsible for managing water resources for the village—by aligning themselves with traditional chiefs, elected officials, or neither—they transform or reinforce specific hydro-social configurations. While decentralized resource management aims to increase equity and local ownership over resources, as well as moderate the authority of traditional chiefs, water access is instead impacted by conflicts over management responsibility for water resources. Drawing on theories of political ecology and governmentality to extend recent scholarship on IWRM, this paper re-centers the political in water governance by situating local tensions within national policies and development agendas and demonstrating how scarcity is hydro-social.

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Gradation of stakeholder participation in water resources management in the Densu Basin in Ghana

Oguaa Journal of Social Sciences ◽

10.47963/joss.v9i1.323 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 9-24

Author(s):

Nana Amma Anokye

Keyword(s):

Resource Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Water Resource ◽

Water Resources Management ◽

Water Resource Management ◽

Good Governance ◽

Stakeholder Participation ◽

Economic Incentives ◽

Resources Management ◽

Local Livelihoods

The literature shows that degrading water resources is partly due to the lack of stakeholder participation in its management. It also underscores that intensive stakeholder participation is vital for democracy, good governance, and sustainable development in water resources management. However, the gradation of stakeholder participation in water resources management has not been widely studied. I applied the extended ladder of participation in water resource management in the Densu Basin in Ghana. I collected data through 123 interviews and 26 focus group discussions in addition to an examination of policy and legal documents on water resource management. My findings show that the activities that affect the lives of the communities influence the intensity of their participation in the Densu Basin. I therefore recommend that for local people to manage their water resources sustainably and intensively, government and non-governmental agencies must link management activities with local livelihoods and create awareness of the importance of the ecosystem to community sustenance. My findings again show that inducing communities through economic incentives is only appropriate for short term water resource management needs as such incentives cannot be sustained. However, an approach that stimulates communities to participate through their own initiatives after being helped to identify their needs is likely to lead to intensive and sustainable participation in water resource management.

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Women, Water Resource Management, and Sustainable Development: The Turkey-North Cyprus Water Pipeline Project

Resources ◽

10.3390/resources7030050 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 50

Author(s):

Emine Eminel Sülün

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Resource Management ◽

Political Ecology ◽

Water Resource ◽

Water Resource Management ◽

Water Governance ◽

Resource Governance ◽

North Cyprus ◽

Pipeline Project ◽

Water Pipeline

Women’s role in water resource management is recognized, yet the implementation of methods and strategies to get beyond gender-based obstacles to women’s equal participation in water resource management related projects remain vague. Mainstream considerations on the gender aspects of development and environment focus on women as having an intrinsic relationship with the environment. Women are perceived as a natural reflection of their responsibilities for the household and the comfort and security of future generations. Contrary to mainstream environmental and political ecology research, this paper sees gender as relevant within policy and practice across multiple levels, and within institutions related to natural resource governance. Based on this, the paper looks at the sustainable development and water governance issues with the help of a specific case: the Turkey-North Cyprus Water Pipeline Project. Through broad reviews of project documentation, interviews with people who were directly involved with the project and with women’s organizations the paper draws insights on the gender aspect of the decision-making mechanisms related to water governance. The results indicate that participation by women in resource management is marginal in North Cyprus. The paper discusses that this is a reflection of a broader problem, which is gender inequality. In conclusion, one can argue that future water projects need to realize more sustainable outcomes and greater effects on gender equality in North Cyprus.

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Fifty Years of Water Resource Management Policies in Tunisia: From Supply Management to Territorial Equity

حِكامة ◽

10.31430/htel3680 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 9-35

Author(s):

Abdelkarim Daoud

Keyword(s):

Resource Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Water Resource ◽

Water Resource Management ◽

Good Governance ◽

Demand Management ◽

Water System ◽

Resource Governance ◽

Management Policies ◽

The Government

Water resources in Tunisia are scarce and unevenly distributed between regions. As well, rainfall varies year-to-year. This study deals with the development of water resource management policies in Tunisia during the last five decades, starting with supply and mobilization management programs that transferred water resources from the interior to the coastal territories where the most important cities are and most economic activity takes place. This policy resulted in the establishment of an interconnected water system that remained in place until the end of the last century. The study also reviews the success of the demand management system the government has been forced by the increase in both urban consumption of water and agricultural needs to adopt. We also review the many challenges that set the current situation apart from previous periods of stress on the system, including high demand, climate change and social movements in the inner cities demanding the right for water, protected in the 2014 Constitution, be respected. The study highlights these challenges and suggests elements for a new resource governance that would draw on the accumulated good governance of the last five decades

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The Need for Land Use Assessment in Enhancing the Implementation of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)

Jurnal Teknologi ◽

10.11113/jt.v73.4332 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 73 (5) ◽

Author(s):

Anis Syazwani Sukereman ◽

Robiah Suratman ◽

Chang Wai Sin

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Resource Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Water Resource ◽

Water Resource Management ◽

Work Performance ◽

Good Governance ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Integrated Water Resource Management ◽

Implementation Progress

Over 20 years, there has been an explosive growth of interest in the application of Integrated Water Resource Management among majority of developing and developed countries in settling various type of water issue. Unfortunately, the effective implementation of this approach still remains in doubt. Fragmented water resources legislation, complexity of constitutional framework on water resources management, lack of coordination among stakeholders and overlapping of authorities in managing water resources are among the issues that challenge the Integrated Water Resource Management implementation. Therefore, this paper attempts to review the broad literature regarding what is still wrong with this approach and propose the solution on how to enhance the current implementation. Since, there is still no authorized framework available to be used by the stakeholders involved in assessing land use practice and comparing the effectiveness of the implementation progress between states in Malaysia, this paper briefly concludes that there is a need to develop a framework for Land Use Assessment as a work performance guideline especially to the various stakeholders involved. Therefore, it is hope that this finding would offer better improvement to water resource management through effective, good governance and practical ways.

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Women, Water & Well-Being: A Case Study of ‘Kuttadampadam’ in Palakkad, Kerala

Shanlax International Journal of Arts, Science and Humanities ◽

10.34293/sijash.v7i1.534 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 44-49

Author(s):

V Shinju ◽

Aswathi Prasad

Keyword(s):

Resource Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Natural Resources ◽

Water Resource ◽

Water Resource Management ◽

Well Being ◽

Starting Point ◽

Role Of Women

The natural resources are repository for the survival of all of us, so they must be used efficiently to meet the present needs while conserving them for future generations. An action to develop capacities from global to household levels for their sustainable management and regulation is required henceforth. Of these natural resources, water resources are most precious. If there is no water; there would be no life on earth. Since ‘water is the elixir of life’, water resource management has been considered as one of the most relevant areas of intervention. Understanding the gender dimensions of water resource management is a starting point for reversing the degradation of water resources. Women play an important role here since they have to access the water resources for almost all the activities on a daily basis. As the women are the strong social agents, effective and improved water preservation techniques could be achieved through their empowerment that may eventually lead to the well-being of the households in particular and of the community in general. Therefore, the major research question posed in this study is to analyze the role of women in the preservation and management of water, an inevitable, precious but diminishing natural resource. The study also intends to describe the relationship between the three ‘W's-Women, Water & Well-being. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are essential here as it is a contingent issue in the present scenario. Psychological dimensions were also explored since the issue is affecting the routine life of the community. The case study of women belonging to the Kuttadampadam region was done to explain the role of women in preserving water resources in the areas affecting severe water scarcity.

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Online Command Area Water Resource Management System

APTIKOM Journal on Computer Science and Information Technologies ◽

10.34306/csit.v5i2.141 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 70-74

Author(s):

P. Pallavi ◽

Shaik Salam

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Resource Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Water Resource ◽

Water Resource Management ◽

Management Practices ◽

Web Gis ◽

Command Area ◽

Space Technology ◽

Server Side

Water is an important, but often ignored element in sustainable development by now it has been clear that urgent action is needed to avoid global water crisis. Water resource management is the activity of planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of water resources. Successful management of water resources requires accurate knowledge of their resource distribution to meet up the competing demands and mechanisms to make good decisions using advanced recent technologies.Towards evolving comprehensive management plan in suitable conservation and utilization of water resources space technology plays a crucial role in managing country’s available water resources. Systematic approaches involving judicious combination of conventional server side scripting programming and remote sensing techniques pave way for achieving optimum planning and operational of water resources projects. new methodologies and 24/7 accessible system need to be built, these by reducing the dependency on complex infrastructure an specialist domain Open source web GIS systems have proven their rich in application of server side scripting and easy to use client application tools. Present study and implementation aims to provide wizard based or easily driven tools online for command area management practices. In this large endeavour modules for handling remote sensing data, online raster processing, statistics and indices generation will be developed.

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“We Don’t Drink the Water Here”: The Reproduction of Undrinkable Water for First Nations in Canada

Water ◽

10.3390/w11051079 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 1079 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Warrick Baijius ◽

Robert J. Patrick

Keyword(s):

Political Ecology ◽

First Nations ◽

Water Resource Management ◽

Water Governance ◽

Case Study Research ◽

First Nation ◽

Governance Capacity ◽

Water Problem ◽

Source Water Protection ◽

Current Water

First Nation communities in Canada are disproportionately plagued by undrinkable water and insufficient household sanitation. In addition, water resource management in First Nation communities has long been a technocratic and scientific mission controlled by state-led authorities. There has been limited engagement of First Nations in decision-making around water management and water governance. As such, problems associated with access to drinkable water and household sanitation are commonly positioned as hydrological or environmental problems (flood or drought) to be fixed by technical and engineering solutions. This apolitical reading has been criticized for not addressing the root cause of the First Nation water problem, but instead, of reproducing it. In this paper, an approach using political ecology will tease out key factors contributing to the current water problem in many First Nation communities. Using case study research set in source water protection planning, this paper explains how persistent colonial practices of the state continue to reproduce undrinkable water and insufficient household sanitation. Solutions to this ‘water problem’ require greater attention to First Nations water governance capacity and structures.

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Impacts of Climate and Land-Use Change on Blue and Green Water: A Case Study of the Upper Ganjiang River Basin, China

Water ◽

10.3390/w12102661 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (10) ◽

pp. 2661

Author(s):

Yongfen Zhang ◽

Chongjun Tang ◽

Aizhong Ye ◽

Taihui Zheng ◽

Xiaofei Nie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Resource Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Land Use Change ◽

River Basin ◽

Water Resource ◽

Water Resource Management ◽

Green Water ◽

Precipitation Changes ◽

Ganjiang River Basin

Quantitatively figuring out the effects of climate and land-use change on water resources and their components is essential for water resource management. This study investigates the effects of climate and land-use change on blue and green water and their components in the upper Ganjiang River basin from the 1980s to the 2010s by comparing the simulated changes in blue and green water resources by using a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model forced by five climate and land-use scenarios. The results suggest that the blue water flow (BWF) decreased by 86.03 mm year−1, while green water flow (GWF) and green water storage (GWS) increased by 8.61 mm year−1 and 12.51 mm year−1, respectively. The spatial distribution of blue and green water was impacted by climate, wind direction, topography, and elevation. Climate change was the main factor affecting blue and green water resources in the basin; land-use change had strong effects only locally. Precipitation changes significantly amplified the BWF changes. The proportion of surface runoff in BWF was positively correlated with precipitation changes; lateral flow showed the opposite tendency. Higher temperatures resulted in increased GWF and decreased BWF, both of which were most sensitive to temperature increases up to 1 °C. All agricultural land and forestland conversion scenarios resulted in decreased BWF and increased GWF in the watershed. GWS was less affected by climate and land-use change than GWF and BWF, and the trends in GWS were not significant. The study provides a reference for blue and green water resource management in humid areas.

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Examining ‘willingness to participate’ in community-based water resource management in a transboundary conservation area in Central America

Water Policy ◽

10.2166/wp.2016.005 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 18 (6) ◽

pp. 1334-1352 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Jyoti S. Jennewein ◽

Kelly W. Jones

Keyword(s):

Resource Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Water Resource ◽

Water Resource Management ◽

Multivariate Regression Analysis ◽

Willingness To Participate ◽

Community Based ◽

Conservation Area ◽

Transboundary Conservation ◽

Access To Water

Operationalizing integrated water resource management (IWRM) often involves decentralization of water management via community-based management (CBM). While attention has been given to the components leading to successful CBM, less is known about what factors motivate people's willingness to participate (WTP) in such programs. This study analyzed factors that influence household WTP in CBM in a transboundary watershed located where El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras converge – the Trifinio Region. Several variables were hypothesized to influence WTP: sense of community (SOC), dependence on water resources, level of concern for water resources, and socio-economic characteristics. In 2014, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 62 households in five communities. Most respondents reported high levels of WTP in future CBM initiatives, and multivariate regression analysis revealed that SOC was the most important predictor of WTP, with wealth and perceptions of watershed management also statistically significant. Qualitative analyses revealed water availability was more concerning than water quality, and perceptions of inequitable access to water is an important constraint to developing CBM strategies. Taken together, these results suggest that enhancing SOC and relationships between local and regional levels of governance prior to establishing community-based projects would facilitate more success in implementing IWRM.

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Smart Water Technology for Efficient Water Resource Management: A Review

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13236268 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (23) ◽

pp. 6268

Author(s):

Aditya Dinesh Gupta ◽

Prerna Pandey ◽

Andrés Feijóo ◽

Zaher Mundher Yaseen ◽

Neeraj Dhanraj Bokde

Keyword(s):

Resource Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Water Resource ◽

Water Scarcity ◽

Distribution System ◽

Data Exchange ◽

Water Resource Management ◽

Treatment Plant ◽

Energy Utilization ◽

Smart Water

According to the United Nation’s World Water Development Report, by 2050 more than 50% of the world’s population will be under high water scarcity. To avoid water stress, water resources are needed to be managed more securely. Smart water technology (SWT) has evolved for proper management and saving of water resources. Smart water system (SWS) uses sensor, information, and communication technology (ICT) to provide real-time monitoring of data such as pressure, water ow, water quality, moisture, etc. with the capability to detect any abnormalities such as non-revenue water (NRW) losses, water contamination in the water distribution system (WDS). It makes water and energy utilization more efficient in the water treatment plant and agriculture. In addition, the standardization of data format i.e., use of Water Mark UP language 2.0 has made data exchange easier for between different water authorities. This review research exhibits the current state-of-the-art of the on-going SWT along with present challenges and future scope on the mentioned technologies. A conclusion is drawn that smart technologies can lead to better water resource management, which can lead to the reduction of water scarcity worldwide. High implementation cost may act as a barrier to the implementation of SWT in developing countries, whereas data security and its reliability along with system ability to give accurate results are some of the key challenges in its field implementation.

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