Your search found 9 records
1 Closas, Alvar; Molle, Francois. 2018. Chronicle of a demise foretold: state vs. local groundwater management in Texas and the high plains aquifer system. Water Alternatives, 11(3):511-532.
Groundwater management ; Groundwater depletion ; Water governance ; Water policy ; Water rights ; Water supply ; Water use ; Water conservation ; Water storage ; Water demand ; Aquifers ; Legal aspects ; Regulations ; Co-management ; Local communities ; Pumping / USA / Texas / Nebraska / Ogallala
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048957)
http://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/alldoc/articles/vol11/v11issue3/451-a11-3-4
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H048957.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H048957.pdf
(949 KB)
This paper assesses a case of co-management of groundwater between the state of Texas, pushing for the rationalisation of groundwater management, and local (mainly farming) communities organised in Groundwater Conservation Districts (GCDs), which are protective of their private groundwater rights. We first describe the main legal and policy steps that have shaped this relationship. The article focuses on the Texan portion of the Ogallala Aquifer in the High Plains aquifer system – an almost non-renewable system covering 90,000 km2 and providing 95% of the irrigation needs in northern Texas. With this example, we further highlight the strategies of both parties, the different political, administrative, legal and regulatory complexities of the struggle around the definition of GCD-level aquifer management rules (the so-called 'Desired Future Conditions'). We end by reflecting on the power balance that has resulted from successive adjustments to a co-management form of governance, the advantages and disadvantages of a multi-layered state water governance system, and whether the de facto 'managed depletion' of the Ogallala Aquifer in Texas should be seen as an achievement or a failure.
2 Molle, F.; Lopez-Gunn, E.; van Steenbergen, F. 2018. The local and national politics of groundwater overexploitation. Water Alternatives, 11(3):445-457. (Special issue: Local- and National-level Politics of Groundwater Overexploitation).
Groundwater extraction ; Political aspects ; Water governance ; Water policy ; Resource depletion ; Water resources ; Co-management ; Water use ; Wells ; Aquifers ; Legal aspects ; Licences ; Case studies
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048995)
http://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/alldoc/articles/vol11/v11issue3/448-a11-3-1/file
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H048995.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H048995.pdf
(0.64 MB) (656 KB)
Groundwater overexploitation is a worldwide phenomenon with important consequences and as yet few effective solutions. Work on groundwater governance often emphasises the roles of both formal state-centred policies and tools on the one hand, and self-governance and collective action on the other. Yet, empirically grounded work is limited and scattered, making it difficult to identify and characterise key emerging trends. Groundwater policy making is frequently premised on an overestimation of the power of the state, which is often seen as incapable or unwilling to act and constrained by a myriad of logistical, political and legal issues. Actors on the ground either find many ways to circumvent regulations or develop their own bricolage of patched, often uncoordinated, solutions; whereas in other cases corruption and capture occur, for example in water right trading rules, sometimes with the complicity – even bribing – of officials. Failed regulation has a continued impact on the environment and the crowding out of those lacking the financial means to continue the race to the bottom. Groundwater governance systems vary widely according to the situation, from state-centred governance to co-management and rare instances of community-centred management. The collection of papers in this issue illustrates the diversity of situations, the key role of the state, the political intricacies of achieving sustainability and establishing a mode of governance that can account for the externalities of groundwater overdraft, and the opportunities to establish cooperative arrangements.
3 Tran, T. A.; Pittock, J.; Tuan, L. A. 2019. Adaptive co-management in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: examining the interface between flood management and adaptation. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 35(2):325-341. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2018.1437713]
Water management ; Flood control ; Adaptation ; Co-management ; Water policy ; Local government ; Stakeholders ; Corporate culture ; Farmers ; Households ; Case studies ; Deltas / Vietnam / Mekong Delta / An Giang / Dong Thap / Can Tho
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049090)
(0.89 MB)
The rural landscapes of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta have undergone a dramatic change, where flood management and adaptation are at the forefront. This article investigates how these synergies facilitate policy change. Drawing on qualitative information from the literature, focus group discussions, and interviews, the article argues that there are confrontational but complementary effects between them, which evolve towards adaptive co-management. Collaborative learning between local governments and farmers enables shared understanding of water management drawbacks, leading to policy change. The article recommends that more attention be given to this approach to guide strategic water policy development in the region.
4 Lebel, L.; Lebel, P.; Chuah, C. J. 2019. Governance of aquaculture water use. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 35(4):659-681. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2018.1457513]
Aquaculture ; Water use ; Water governance ; Water quality ; Water allocation ; State intervention ; Co-management ; Technological changes ; Innovation ; Certification ; Regulations ; Incentives ; Communication ; Information dissemination
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049205)
(1.53 MB)
Successful aquaculture depends on access to sufficient water of adequate quality, and should not significantly degrade water quality or damage ecosystems in receiving waters. While water management technologies have received a lot of attention as potential solutions, many of the outstanding challenges are collective-action problems that depend on improving aquaculture governance. In high-income countries, aquaculture is often subject to multiple regulations that constrain the development of the sector, whereas in most low- and middle-income countries, regulations are fewer, less demanding or not implemented. Many of the promising and innovative governance initiatives involve a combination of rules, information and incentives, as well as negotiation among multiple stakeholders.
5 van Koppen, Barbara; Molose, V.; Phasha, K.; Bophela, T.; Modiba, I.; White, M.; Magombeyi, Manuel S.; Jacobs-Mata, Inga. 2020. Guidelines for community-led multiple use water services: evidence from rural South Africa. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 36p. (IWMI Working Paper 194) [doi: https://doi.org/10.5337/2020.213]
Multiple use water services ; Water supply ; Co-management ; Guidelines ; Rural communities ; Communal irrigation systems ; Small scale systems ; Planning ; Participatory approaches ; Integrated management ; Water resources ; Water management ; Water storage ; Water quality ; Infrastructure ; Boreholes ; Construction ; Innovation ; Technical aid ; Collaboration ; Costs ; Financing ; Institutions ; Capacity building ; State intervention ; Nongovernmental organizations ; Decision making ; Climate change adaptation ; Women's participation ; Inclusion ; Labour ; Wages ; Villages ; Households / South Africa / Sekhukhune / Vhembe / Ga Mokgotho / Ga Moela / Phiring / Ha Gumbu / Khalavha / Tshakhuma
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: IWMI Record No: H050124)
(3.74 MB)
The African Water Facility, together with the Water Research Commission, South Africa, as its implementing agent, supported the demonstration project Operationalizing community-led Multiple Use water Services (MUS) in South Africa. As knowledge broker and research partner in this project, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) analyzed processes and impacts at the local level, where the nongovernmental organization Tsogang Water and Sanitation demonstrated community-led MUS in six diverse rural communities in two of the poorest districts of South Africa, Sekhukhune and Vhembe districts - Ga Mokgotho, Ga Moela and Phiring in the Sekhukhune District Municipality, and Tshakhuma, Khalavha and Ha Gumbu in Vhembe District Municipality. In conventional water infrastructure projects, external state or non-state agencies plan, diagnose, design and prioritize solutions, mobilize funding, and implement the procurement of materials, recruitment of workers and construction. However, this MUS project facilitated decision-making by communities, and provided technical and institutional advice and capacity development. Based on IWMI’s evidence, tools and manuals, the project team organized learning alliances and policy dialogues from municipal to national level on the replication of community-led MUS by water services authorities; government departments of water, agriculture, and others; employment generation programs; climate and disaster management; and corporate social responsibility initiatives.
This working paper synthesizes the lessons learned about the six steps of the community-led MUS process in all six communities. The step-wise process appeared to be welcome and effective across the board. The duration of the process and the costs of facilitation, technical and institutional capacity development, and engineering advice and quality control were comparable to conventional approaches. However, the respective responsibilities of the government and communities, also in longer-term co-management arrangements, depended on the type of infrastructure. Some communities were supported to improve their communal self supply systems. In other communities, the process enabled an extension of the reticulation of borehole systems owned, operated and maintained by municipalities. Almost all households used water supplies at homesteads for multiple purposes, underscoring synergies in cross-sectoral collaboration between the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and irrigation sectors.
This working paper synthesizes the lessons learned about the six steps of the community-led MUS process in all six communities. The step-wise process appeared to be welcome and effective across the board. The duration of the process and the costs of facilitation, technical and institutional capacity development, and engineering advice and quality control were comparable to conventional approaches. However, the respective responsibilities of the government and communities, also in longer-term co-management arrangements, depended on the type of infrastructure. Some communities were supported to improve their communal self supply systems. In other communities, the process enabled an extension of the reticulation of borehole systems owned, operated and maintained by municipalities. Almost all households used water supplies at homesteads for multiple purposes, underscoring synergies in cross-sectoral collaboration between the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and irrigation sectors.
6 Malekpour, S.; Tawfik, S.; Chesterfield, C. 2021. Designing collaborative governance for nature-based solutions. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 62:127177. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127177]
Urban development ; Co-management ; Governance ; Water management ; Climate change ; Transformation ; Infrastructure ; Sustainability ; Decision making ; Stakeholders ; Local government ; Frameworks / Australia / Melbourne / Perth / Brabham / Gold Coast / Upper Merri / Fishermans Bend / Currumbin Ecovillage
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050532)
(5.26 MB)
Urbanisation, population growth and climate change, among other challenges, have put pressure on urban infrastructure systems, prompting a shift from large-scale centralised infrastructure to localised nature-based solutions. Mainstreaming nature-based solutions requires a change in the planning and governance systems, and mediating new relationships and configurations between different actors through collaborative governance. Yet, limited guidance exists on how to design collaborative governance for delivering nature-based solutions. This has led to collaboration processes that are established on an ad-hoc basis, relying on the experiences, skills and viewpoints of their champions to endure. This paper synthesises and extends a suite of theoretical frameworks with the practice-based knowledge of urban practitioners across Australia (n = 42), to develop a framework for designing collaborative governance. The framework offers key principles and considerations for designing collaborations on nature-based solutions. It emphasises upfront planning that carefully considers the desired outcomes (the ‘why’), assesses the operating environment/context (the ‘what’), engages the right actors at the required level of influence (the ‘who’), and uses fit-for-purpose structures and process for interaction (the ‘how’). The framework also highlights that all those elements need to be considered with the intended level of impact in mind. To illustrate the application of our framework, we will use empirical examples from major urban development programs across Australia that have adopted water sensitive urban design (as part of the broader family of nature-based solutions) through cross-sectoral collaborations.
7 Mapedza, Everisto. 2023. Managing African commons in the context of Covid-19 challenges. International Journal of the Commons, 17(1):105-108. (Special issue: Managing African Commons in the Context of Covid-19 Challenges) [doi: https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1268]
Commons ; Gender ; Climate change ; Forestry ; Co-management ; Water tenure ; Customary tenure ; Communities ; COVID-19 / Africa
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051881)
https://storage.googleapis.com/jnl-up-j-ijc-files/journals/1/articles/1268/64367d2440982.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051881.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051881.pdf
(0.71 MB) (725 KB)
8 Mapedza, Everisto. (Ed.) 2023. Managing African commons in the context of Covid-19 challenges. International Journal of the Commons, 17(1):1-108. (Special issue with contributions by IWMI authors)
Commons ; Gender ; Climate change adaptation ; Climate change mitigation ; Water tenure ; Customary tenure ; Agroforestry ; Co-management ; Institutions ; Women ; Water sharing ; Infrastructure ; Political aspects ; Governance ; Financing ; Communities ; Resilience ; Social aspects ; COVID-19 / Africa / Ghana
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051882)
(0.18 MB)
9 van Koppen, Barbara; Nohayi, Ngowenani; Jacobs-Mata, Inga; Nortje, Karen. 2024. Meeting each other halfway: institutionalizing community participation in integrated development plans and water services development plans in South Africa. Synthesis report to the WRC Project No. C2020/2021-00538, titled ‘Institutionalizing Inclusive Community-led Planning of Water Supply in Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and Water Services Development Plan (WSDP). Pretoria, South Africa: Water Research Commission (WRC). 82p. (WRC Report No. 3130/1/24)
Community involvement ; Development plans ; Water supply ; Accountability ; Co-management ; Capacity development ; Stakeholders ; Planning ; Frameworks ; Political aspects ; Communities ; Municipal governments / South Africa
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H052927)
https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/3130%20final.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052927.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052927.pdf
(3.50 MB) (3.50 MB)
South Africa’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and Water Services Development Plan (WSDP) processes provide a legally binding framework, or so-called ‘long route to accountability’, in which citizens can hold their elected political representatives accountable. This includes municipalities’ prioritization and allocation of available internal and external financial, technical and institutional resources for service delivery, and the appointment of internal or external service providers to that end. On the ground, communities interact directly with these service providers in a short route to accountability. However, when it comes to participation for improved water services, communities in low-income rural and urban areas seem inactive. Instead, they protest on the streets. Addressing this void, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) started establishing and supporting Water and Sanitation Community Forums (WSCFs). In collaboration with DWS and eight WSCFs, and supported by the Water Research Commission (WRC), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) implemented the project ‘Institutionalizing inclusive community-led planning of water supply in IDP and WSDP’. The project examined the stumbling blocks in the implementation of this long route to accountability or in other institutional issues that seem to ignore ordinary community members in under-resourced settings. This evidence is the basis for recommendations to revive the IDP and active participation in the water sector.
The project has two main outputs. The user-friendly “Guidelines for Water and Sanitation Community Forums, municipal officials, and other decision-makers to integrate participatory planning into Integrated Development Plan and Water Services Development Plan processes” synthesize the experiences and aspirations of the WSCFs, as emerged from direct and mutual engagements and dialogues. The present report combines these experiences with extensive literature review on the South African context, disentangling public water services delivery according to the World Bank’s long and short routes to accountability.
Our analysis suggests main obstacles in the first leg of the long route to accountability, in which communities express their problems and priorities in the IDP processes via the wards up to the mayor of the Water Services Authority. Voices about specific water issues are quite technical and get lost amidst of many other needs. Even if communities communicate acute problems of lack of maintenance and breakdowns of municipal infrastructure, response is slow or absent. Further, officials tend to focus on municipal systems only. Yet, where municipal water services fail or haven’t been implemented as yet, communities find alternatives. Communities already take over some operation and maintenance of municipal systems and are keen to formalise. Communities also participate actively from the planning phase onwards in small systems by NGOs, donors, or private sector, although post-construction support remains needed. Further, especially in rural areas, many individuals or small groups invest in their own sustainable self-supply. Support to self-supply is cost effective and sustainable. In these various existing or potential co-management modalities, communities and municipal officials or other support agencies meet each other halfway to improve access to water, which none can achieve on its own.
However, without clear community voices bottom-up in the first leg of the long route to accountability, decision-making by both politicians and technical departments is, inevitably, top-down in the second leg of the long route to accountability. Once a few selected projects have crystallized ‘behind closed doors’, they become parachute projects, without genuine involvement by the community from the planning and design phase onwards. IDP processes risk become just tick-boxing to show compliance. Lack of accountability to communities in this second leg of the long route to accountability, at its turn, contributes to some of the well-known challenges of Water Services Authorities: debts, bias to new infrastructure instead of maintenance even in low-income areas, failing free basic water services, and general lack of transparency, if not corruption, in complex horizontal and vertical coordination requirements, all of which is compounded by an overall lack of technical capacity.
Based on this evidence, the study recommends the further institutionalization of the WSCFs in the IDP, WSDP and WSA structures and developing their technical and institutional capacity. With their grounded experiences of local needs and opportunities in the short route to accountability they provide precious information and agency to governmental and non-governmental support agencies, including the service providers they mobilise. Fit-for-purpose arrangements to compensate costs or remunerate tasks will secure sustainability. In this way, the current national support to the WSDP to WSA will meet the bottom-up voices in technically and institutionally competent water chapters of the IDPs from local to national level and vice versa. Multi-scale clustered WSCFs, DWS and municipalities in Vhembe already prove this can work well.
The project has two main outputs. The user-friendly “Guidelines for Water and Sanitation Community Forums, municipal officials, and other decision-makers to integrate participatory planning into Integrated Development Plan and Water Services Development Plan processes” synthesize the experiences and aspirations of the WSCFs, as emerged from direct and mutual engagements and dialogues. The present report combines these experiences with extensive literature review on the South African context, disentangling public water services delivery according to the World Bank’s long and short routes to accountability.
Our analysis suggests main obstacles in the first leg of the long route to accountability, in which communities express their problems and priorities in the IDP processes via the wards up to the mayor of the Water Services Authority. Voices about specific water issues are quite technical and get lost amidst of many other needs. Even if communities communicate acute problems of lack of maintenance and breakdowns of municipal infrastructure, response is slow or absent. Further, officials tend to focus on municipal systems only. Yet, where municipal water services fail or haven’t been implemented as yet, communities find alternatives. Communities already take over some operation and maintenance of municipal systems and are keen to formalise. Communities also participate actively from the planning phase onwards in small systems by NGOs, donors, or private sector, although post-construction support remains needed. Further, especially in rural areas, many individuals or small groups invest in their own sustainable self-supply. Support to self-supply is cost effective and sustainable. In these various existing or potential co-management modalities, communities and municipal officials or other support agencies meet each other halfway to improve access to water, which none can achieve on its own.
However, without clear community voices bottom-up in the first leg of the long route to accountability, decision-making by both politicians and technical departments is, inevitably, top-down in the second leg of the long route to accountability. Once a few selected projects have crystallized ‘behind closed doors’, they become parachute projects, without genuine involvement by the community from the planning and design phase onwards. IDP processes risk become just tick-boxing to show compliance. Lack of accountability to communities in this second leg of the long route to accountability, at its turn, contributes to some of the well-known challenges of Water Services Authorities: debts, bias to new infrastructure instead of maintenance even in low-income areas, failing free basic water services, and general lack of transparency, if not corruption, in complex horizontal and vertical coordination requirements, all of which is compounded by an overall lack of technical capacity.
Based on this evidence, the study recommends the further institutionalization of the WSCFs in the IDP, WSDP and WSA structures and developing their technical and institutional capacity. With their grounded experiences of local needs and opportunities in the short route to accountability they provide precious information and agency to governmental and non-governmental support agencies, including the service providers they mobilise. Fit-for-purpose arrangements to compensate costs or remunerate tasks will secure sustainability. In this way, the current national support to the WSDP to WSA will meet the bottom-up voices in technically and institutionally competent water chapters of the IDPs from local to national level and vice versa. Multi-scale clustered WSCFs, DWS and municipalities in Vhembe already prove this can work well.
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