Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
live within borderlands, transboundary water governance, therefore, is linked to
issues of environmental justice, decolonization, and self-determination.
This leads us to a dilemma: how are we to govern water resources that span
political borders when our institutions and frameworks are bound within fixed
jurisdictions and nation-state frameworks? Furthermore, how are these governance
systems able to equitably represent (and protect) diverse populations when the
systems themselves are wrought with power-dynamics and colonial legacies, and
the impacts of degraded environments are unevenly felt across populations?
This topic grapples with these dilemmas by analyzing the social and political
contexts of transboundary water governance, and highlighting the rescaling of
governance mechanisms and emerging strategies of Indigenous communities to
address transboundary water issues. It asks three interrelated questions: “How are
governance mechanisms changing to address the social, political, and ecological
aspects of transboundary water?”, “How are the Indigenous-led governance
mechanisms linked to the twinned goals of ecosystem protection and processes of
self-determination, empowerment, and decolonization?”, and the last question,
which is generalizable across populations and asks, simply What makes a good
upstream neighbor?”
To answer the first question, I look into institutional changes related to trans-
boundary water governance. To answer the second question, I look at the different
tools and methods Indigenous communities have adopted to address water issues
of shared concern. To answer the last question, I seek to identify universal principles
that foster equitability and justice as it relates to governing transboundary - or
shared - waters.
These questions are of global relevance. With almost the entire world's water
basins crossing political borders of some kind, and almost all major water basins
crossing nation-state boundaries, understanding the hydrosocial complexities of
transboundary water is of universal importance (Wolf, 1999; Conca, 2006; Norman
et al. , 2013). The issue becomes an urgent one in the face of declining water supplies,
failing infrastructure, increased pollution, stressed ecosystems, and global climate
change. Despite the ongoing international campaign to make access to clean water
a fundamental human right, the United Nations estimates that 768 million people
do not have access to clean drinking water and 2.5 billion have inadequate
sanitation services (Brichieri-Colombi, 2009; Mirosa and Harris, 2012; United
Nations, 2013). Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to water-related
issues. In Canada, for example, both rural and remote Indigenous communities as
well as those in urban settings face higher incidence of health issues related to
inadequate drinking water than the rest of the population (Phare, 2009, 2013; White
et al. , 2012). However, the issues go beyond drinking water.
For many Indigenous communities throughout the world, protecting water
sources is foundational to preserving and protecting traditional lifeways (La Duke,
1999; Holifield et al. , 2009; Holifield, 2010). Yet these water sources are threat-
ened due to extraterritorial pollution, and are exacerbated by fixed geographic spaces
located on historically marginalized lands (Harris, 2002). The environmental
stressors are particularly pronounced for Indigenous communities whose traditional
 
 
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