Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of or inadequate pricing mechanisms are perceived as the main causes for inefficient and
wasteful water use. It advocates to delegate authority over water management away from gov
ernment and state agencies to technical commissions at decentralized levels that are supposed
to act rationally and efficiently. (Allan 2001; Mehta 2000).
These three schools, as different as they are, have two aspects in common: First, as far as
applied, they failed in ensuring water supply and overcoming the water crisis providing
people with potable water, preventing water related diseases and deaths, reaching sustainable
water use in agriculture. Still more than one billion of people lack access to safe drinking water.
The experiences of the last decades show that neither large scale projects nor new technolo
gies, neither a centralized state system nor the free market forces can alone guarantee an effi
cient and equitable management of water resources (UNESCO 2003: 374; Rogers, Hall 2003).
Second, no school reflected the complexity of water. All three paradigms resulted in sectoral
instead of comprehensive policies. Depending on usage (agriculture, industry, sanitation, ecol
ogy, communal water supply, etc), different agencies are responsible for water management. As
these agencies mainly act without much coordination, the consequences are duplication and
ambiguities of competencies, fragmented policies, and inconsistent strategies. This structure is
mirrored in development projects (Gleick 2000; Black, Hall 2003).
The criticism led to a new, political institutional approach. Experts involved in reform
projects experienced the significance of the political framework, of unequal access, and of
political will for effective water management. Not only is there a lack of physical resources or
financial and technical means, but the societal capacities to handle and distribute the available
water resources effectively and equitably are scarce as well. Water scarcity is hence not neces
sarily a phenomenon of physical water shortage (first order scarcity). It may be also a second
order scarcity: a socio economic scarcity grounded in a lack of mechanisms to increase effi
ciency, or a third order scarcity grounded in a lack of adaptive social and cultural capabilities in
a society. A fourth order scarcity is seen when it arises as a construct of discursive and political
processes and entitlement failures. In such a view, an adequate solution strategy demands not
only financial and technical means or economic incentives. Supportive institutions, such as a
sound water policy and law, civil society, state capacities, or deliberative decision making are
also required (Ohlson, Turnton 2000; Mehta 2006). The main message of this approach is best
summed up in a sentence of one of its foremost promoters, the Global Water Partnership 6 :
“The current water crisis is mainly a crisis of water governance“(UNDP, GWP, ICLEI 2002:
2). This statement suggests that failings in water supply are not necessarily rooted in actual
water shortage or lack of technical possibilities but rather in unsound water governance.
This role of governance has long been neglected, the UNESCO even speaks of a “politi
cal taboo in North South development cooperation dialogue” (UNESCO 2006: 50). In the
Rio declaration of 1992 governance was not even mentioned as a factor for sustainable devel
opment. However, subsequently it was highlighted at several conferences. At the 2nd World
Water Forum in The Hague in 2000, Good Governance was acknowledged as one of the main
challenges to reach water security. At the 2001 Bonn Freshwater Conference, Water Gover
nance was ranked among the three areas of priority action (besides mobilizing financial re
sources as well as capacity building and knowledge sharing). Therefore, it can be named the
birthplace of this concept as it was this conference where it got international attention and was
accepted by the international community (UNESCO 2003: 24 28; ADB 2004). The next chap
ter will provide a closer inspection of this approach.
6 The Global Water Partnership was established in 1996 by the World Bank, UNDP, and SIDA, and encompasses
international donor organizations, government agencies, public as well as private institutes engaged in the water field.
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