Water Governance in the Context of IWRM: Switzerland - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 121

Chapter 7
Water Governance in the Context of IWRM:
Switzerland

Abstract This chapter outlines the work completed for the ACQWA project on
the governance assessments for the Chilean and Swiss case area and is used to
provide vital background to the water governance situation and challenges in the
Swiss case area. In the Swiss case, despite the fulfilment of accountability, trans-
parency and participation indicators, the assessment suggested that there is a
significant gap between the conceptual strands of IWRM in federal laws and policies
and their translation at the regional and local levels. The complex institutional
framework, legislative provisions and levels of sovereignty which govern water
resources in the Canton Valais implied a lack of coordination and long term
planning amongst the different politico administrative levels and sector groups.
These challenges are linked to concerns that the ramifications of climate change
and expanding water uses are not adequately reflected in the current governance
framework.

Keywords Rhône, Canton Valais, Switzerland • Water governance assessment
• Legislative and policy challenges • IWRM • Sectoral and subsidiarity challenges

7.1 Introduction to the Assessment

The STRIVER/BRAHMATWINN governance assessment represents a systematic
methodology to measure governance in the specific context of IWRM, which has
been applied in a number of basins within Portugal, Spain, Vietnam and India as
part of the STRIVER ( www.striver.no ) and BRAHMATWINN ( www.brahmatwinn.
uni-jena.de/ ) projects (Allan et al. 2007 ). Its application in the Rhône Basin in the
Valais, Switzerland and the Aconcagua Basin in Chile provides a baseline assessment
of the governance context as it specially relates and addresses water governance in
river basins.