Water Governance and Water Institutional Reform - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 10

was broadened to include institutional reform, Integrated Water Resources Management
(IWRM), legal framework and equitable access, a definition that was confirmed by the Johan
nesburg summit in 2003.
IWRM is by far the most popular conception concerning reform of water management it
self. Basic principles of IWRM are water management according to basin boundaries (instead
of administrative ones), decentralization, subsidiarity, participation of all stakeholders, demand
orientation, and gender equality. IWRM can therefore be defined as “a process which pro
motes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in
order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without
comprising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.“ (Black, Hall 2003: 5). Though IWRM is dealt
as a tool for good water governance and endorsed by almost all concerned international organ
izations, the concept is rather vague and therefore criticized as being an “aggregation of trendy
words” (Biswas 2004:4) with no clear operational directives for implementation.
The UNESCO listed the following components as parts of good water governance. They
are more or less identical with the general features of good governance.
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Transparency: processes and decisions should be transparent for the public and it
should be possible to obtain information;

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Participation and Responsiveness: water users should have a voice in the decision
making process, and institutions should react to their demands and preferences;

Accountability: governments, civil society organizations, as well as the private sector
should be accountable to the public;
- Equity: all members and groups in society should have the same opportunity to im
prove their well being;
- Coherency: the complexity of water resources issues should to be taken into account
and integrated, coherent policies should be developed;
- Ethics: water governance should be based on the ethical principles of a society, e.g.
respecting traditional water rights (UNESCO 2003: 373; Rogers, Hall 2003).
The challenge of good water governance is hence not to decide on the exact water use or water
distribution but to set up an overarching institutional and administrative framework that allows
different actors with different objectives to articulate their interests and participate in the polit
ical processes of decision making and implementation. As water governance shall be in line
with the specific context of a country, it is clear that there cannot be a globally fitting blueprint
concept. The measures to be taken depend on the economic, social, cultural, and political
conditions of each country.
In summary, good water governance has four dimensions (see Figure 2): a social, an evi
ronmental, an economic and a political dimension. The social dimension aims at equitable
distribution of water usage between poor and rich people, between different economic sec
tors, between rural and urban needs. The environmental dimension aims at sustainable use
taking into account ecological needs and water quality issues. The economic dimension aims at
efficient use, thereby contributing to improved water access and sustainability. Finally, the
political dimension aims at democratic empowerment of the water users in order to achieve an
equitable and target oriented water management.

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