scholarly journals Analysing inter-relationships among water, governance, human development variables in developing countries: WatSan4Dev database coherency analysis

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 485-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Dondeynaz ◽  
C. Carmona Moreno ◽  
J. J. Céspedes Lorente

Abstract. The "Integrated Water Resources Management" principle was formally laid down at the International Conference on Water and Sustainable development in Dublin 1992. One of the main results of this conference is that improving Water and Sanitation Services (WSS), being a complex and interdisciplinary issue, passes through collaboration and coordination of different sectors (environment, health, economic activities, governance, and international cooperation). These sectors influence or are influenced by the access to WSS. The understanding of these interrelations appears as crucial for decision makers in the water sector. In this framework, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (EC) has developed a new database (WatSan4Dev database) containing 45 indicators (called variables in this paper) from environmental, socio-economic, governance and financial aid flows data in developing countries. This paper describes the development of the WatSan4Dev dataset, the statistical processes needed to improve the data quality; and, finally, the analysis to verify the database coherence is presented. At the light of the first analysis, WatSan4Dev Dataset shows the coherency among the different variables that are confirmed by the direct field experience and/or the scientific literature in the domain. Preliminary analysis of the relationships indicates that the informal urbanisation development is an important factor influencing negatively the percentage of the population having access to WSS. Health, and in particular children health, benefits from the improvement of WSS. Efficient environmental governance is also an important factor for providing improved water supply services. The database would be at the base of posterior analyses to better understand the interrelationships between the different indicators associated in the water sector in developing countries. A data model using the different indicators will be realised on the next phase of this research work.

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 3791-3816 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Dondeynaz ◽  
C. Carmona Moreno ◽  
J. J. Céspedes Lorente

Abstract. The "Integrated Water Resources Management" principle was formally laid down at the International Conference on Water and Sustainable development in Dublin 1992. One of the main results of this conference is that improving Water and Sanitation Services (WSS), being a complex and interdisciplinary issue, passes through collaboration and coordination of different sectors (environment, health, economic activities, governance, and international cooperation). These sectors influence or are influenced by the access to WSS. The understanding of these interrelations appears as crucial for decision makers in the water sector. In this framework, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (EC) has developed a new database (WatSan4Dev database) containing 42 indicators (called variables in this paper) from environmental, socio-economic, governance and financial aid flows data in developing countries. This paper describes the development of the WatSan4Dev dataset, the statistical processes needed to improve the data quality, and finally, the analysis to verify the database coherence is presented. Based on 25 relevant variables, the relationships between variables are described and organised into five factors (HDP – Human Development against Poverty, AP – Human Activity Pressure on water resources, WR – Water Resources, ODA – Official Development Aid, CEC – Country Environmental Concern). Linear regression methods are used to identify key variables having influence on water supply and sanitation. First analysis indicates that the informal urbanisation development is an important factor negatively influencing the percentage of the population having access to WSS. Health, and in particular children's health, benefits from the improvement of WSS. Irrigation is also enhancing Water Supply service thanks to multi-purpose infrastructure. Five country profiles are also created to deeper understand and synthetize the amount of information gathered. This new classification of countries is useful in identifying countries with a less advanced position and weaknesses to be tackled. The relevance of indicators gathered to represent environmental and water resources state is questioned in the discussion section. The paper concludes with the necessity to increase the reliability of current indicators and calls for further research on specific indicators, in particular on water quality at national scale, in order to better include environmental state in analysis to WSS.


Water Policy ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 845-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Uhlendahl ◽  
Pritam Salian ◽  
Claudia Casarotto ◽  
Jakob Doetsch

The implementation of principles for water governance is widely accepted but challenging for the whole water sector of a developing country like Zambia, because of the legal and administrative changes and organizational requirements involved. In February 2010, a revised water policy for Zambia was approved by the Cabinet. The revised National Water Policy 2010 aims to improve water resources management by establishing institutional coordination and by defining roles as well as responsibilities for various ministries. Taking into account the previous political and administration changes, this paper points out the problems and challenges of the implementation of good water governance mechanisms in Zambia. Focusing on the Kafue River Basin, from which water is abstracted for a variety of conflicting purposes (like municipal supplies, industrial use, mining, irrigation of agricultural land, fishery activities, wetland reserves and hydropower production), the gaps in implementing good water governance and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Zambia are identified, as well as the factors causing these gaps in the Zambian water sector. The paper finishes with a overview of the opportunities given by the new water policy through Water User Associations (WUAs) at a local level.


2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 1425-1440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iskandar Abdullaev ◽  
Shavkat Rakhmatullaev

Information technologies can act as technical artifacts and can facilitate stakeholder communication, supporting decision making in a complex societal context. The water sector is one such example where limited water resources are threatened by climate change and growing competition for resources between sectors, regions and countries. Attempts to improve water governance and management through information technologies have been made by international, regional and national water agencies for the last 20 years in Central Asia. However, early attempts were focused on collection, systematization and analysis of the generic data related to the water sector in the region. There are still significant gaps (technical, human and financial capacities) for application of such technologies at the lower operational levels of water management, i.e. where the full dimensions of variables, interactions and complexities are observed and, most importantly, everyday politics of water are performed. The aim of this paper is to present practical results on improving water management in Central Asia through the application of better data management tools at the operational level across diverse institutional settings, i.e. transboundary, watershed levels in the region.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7339
Author(s):  
Khaldoon A. Mourad

The water sector in Somalia is fragmented and needs coordination to establish a functioning water governance system. Therefore, commitments from all affected stakeholders are needed to support water resources development in Somalia. This paper proposed a water compact for Somalia that can address all water sector challenges to approach sustainability. The paper starts by analyzing water sector stakeholders in Somalia, describing their missions and relationship with the compact, categorizing all selected stakeholders based on their power and interest, and identifying key stakeholders. Based on the outcome from the national workshop and the literature, a water compact was proposed highlighting possible actions to solve the identified challenges. The compact covered four thematic areas: water governance, water use and services, water resilience, and integrated water resources management, which were discussed by all engaged stakeholders in a national workshop. The water compact will ensure sustainable water resources management. The paper highlighted the need for engaging the local media and the local people to get the much needed and valued feedback for possible interventions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Compagnucci ◽  
Francesca Spigarelli

Ongoing global climate change, growing population and the intensification of economic activities, increase pressure on water resources, a situation many see as a water governance crisis. Water-related issues are becoming a limiting factor for sustainable economic growth and require a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach, to foster innovative solutions. This paper provides an evidence-based contribution to understanding Triple Helix Model (THM) relations and the path to innovation policy in the water sector. The analysis focuses on the interaction between university–industry–government, with specific reference to the Murcia region in Southeast Spain. This region combines a chronic shortage of water and a leading role for agriculture. Starting from the experience of a researcher, working for the General Water Council of the Murcia Region, this paper is based on both desk research and in-depth personal interviews with representatives of THM actors. In addition, a questionnaire was forwarded to all those companies in charge of providing water services in the Murcia region. The study has found that stakeholders are not fully cooperative in seeking innovation. The main challenges are the renewal of water-related facilities and the improvement of remote control systems, denitrification and desalination technologies and achieving better energy efficiency. To this aim, THM approach is suggested as a source of local innovation policies, identifying a series of tools to foster a collaborative approach.


2018 ◽  
Vol 04 (03) ◽  
pp. 1750002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel W. Bromley ◽  
Glen Anderson

We develop a series of diagnostic models covering 82 of the world’s poorest countries over the period 1991–2015. Our purpose is to assess several important attributes of water governance in these developing countries. Specifically: (1) do water-related public services make important contributions to per capita GDP and general livelihood prospects? (2) what factors seem to explain the quite different national commitments to the provision of water-related public services? and (3) do observed variations in water-related public services provide evidence of governance quality? Our diagnostic models suggest that water-related public services indeed contribute to per capita GDP and to improved public health outcomes across these developing countries. We then derive a variable capturing fiscal effort in the provision of quasi-public services — the availability of improved water supply and sanitation services — controlling for variations in national ability to pay (per capita GDP). We call this commitment an index of instrumental governance. With this index of instrumental governance, we conclude that water governance offers an important measure of a proxy for the civic commitment of governments in the world’s poorest nations. We conclude that an important aspect of “governance” is captured by the extent to which governments make difficult financial commitments that will improve per capita GDP and general livelihood prospects of their citizens.


Water Policy ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (S2) ◽  
pp. 19-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Håkan Tropp

New forms of governance focusing on process-oriented societal co-steering through, for example, formal and informal networks, partnerships and dialogue, have emerged within the water sector. The governance transformation is intrinsically linked to the increasing focus on the complexity of water management and the multifunctional character of water and the search for alternative forms of organisation. The emergence of concepts like integrated water resources management and river basin management should be seen in the light of the governance transformation. The full potential of the governance transformation for improved management of water resources and services is yet to be fully realised. Water decision-makers and managers are currently not prepared to fully realise the development potentials of new forms of governance, such as facilitating inclusive decision-making processes, coordination and negotiated outcomes. There is thus a need for additional sociocratic knowledge and capacity development that, for example, puts the emphasis on the management of people and processes, diversity of organisation and knowledge sharing. As a part of this it is paramount to treat politics as a part of the problem as well as of the solution and to broaden water issues outside the water sector itself.


1993 ◽  
Vol 32 (4II) ◽  
pp. 1225-1233
Author(s):  
Sabur Ghayur

The barani (rain-fed) region accounts for about a fifth of the cultivated area in Pakistan. It has the potential to significantly increase crop production levels. Similarly, considerable scope exists in this area for the development of forests, fruit and vegetable gardening, pasture and stock rearing. Most of the natural resources are also found in this tract. Its hilly areas possess a vast potential for tourism. Besides, significant opportunities exist for irrigation and hydroelectric power generation. An optimum utilisation of all this potential, obviously, is employmentgenerating and income-augmenting. Despite all such realisations this region as a whole, unfortunately, is identified as the least attended to area in terms of provision of socio-physical infrastructure, other development programmes and, even, research work. This led to a deterioration of the employment situation in the barani region as a whole. A poor information base and analysis thereof on employment and manpower related variables is also the consequence of such a treatment to this area. I This paper, using the data of a field survey, tries to fill, though partly, the vacuum on employment and related variables in the rural barani region. An attempt is made here to record and analyse the labour force participation rates, employment pattern (main economic activities) and unemployment/underemployment levels prevailing in the rural baran; areas of the provinces of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 883 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandeep Keshavan ◽  
Fernando Torres Andón ◽  
Audrey Gallud ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
Knut Reinert ◽  
...  

Engineered nanomaterials are potentially very useful for a variety of applications, but studies are needed to ascertain whether these materials pose a risk to human health. Here, we studied three benchmark nanomaterials (Ag nanoparticles, TiO2 nanoparticles, and multi-walled carbon nanotubes, MWCNTs) procured from the nanomaterial repository at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. Having established a sub-lethal concentration of these materials using two human cell lines representative of the immune system and the lungs, respectively, we performed RNA sequencing of the macrophage-like cell line after exposure for 6, 12, and 24 h. Downstream analysis of the transcriptomics data revealed significant effects on chemokine signaling pathways. CCR2 was identified as the most significantly upregulated gene in MWCNT-exposed cells. Using multiplex assays to evaluate cytokine and chemokine secretion, we could show significant effects of MWCNTs on several chemokines, including CCL2, a ligand of CCR2. The results demonstrate the importance of evaluating sub-lethal concentrations of nanomaterials in relevant target cells.


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