Water Governance in the Context of IWRM: Switzerland - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 122

The indicator approach to water governance is based on three core elements of
good governance:

• Accountability: holding governments responsible for their actions; contestability

of political power.
Transparency: right to information; availability and clarity of information. •

• Participation: involvement of citizens in decision making.

A comprehensive set of indicators was developed in the style of a questionnaire
comprising 18 key questions, and 60 sub-questions testing both commitment (degree to
which the governance context adheres to accepted standards of good governance) and
process (extent to which this governance context is implemented in reality) (Allan and
Rieu-Clarke 2007 ). The methodology provides a tool to assess existing laws, policies
and formal institutions as well as how the relevant governance arrangements have been
implemented in practice. The output provides an important benchmark for identifying
potential gaps and barriers to implementing IWRM (Rieu-Clarke et al. 2008 , p 2) and
baseline from which to better understand core governance mechanisms that may affect
adaptive capacity in water governance arrangements. Research was conducted initially
through a desktop study to gather all relevant information on the laws as well as policies
and institutions related to governance and IWRM. Interviews then ascertained the degree
to which the law has been implemented. The following chapters provide an overview of
the findings from the governance assessments, as a useful baseline from which to move
deeper into the adaptive capacity assessment work that will be presented in Part III.

7.2 Swiss Water Governance Assessment

There are a number of laws with water elements at both the federal and cantonal
level in Switzerland as shown in Table 7.1 . The main federal provisions for property
rights concerning water are set out in the Swiss Civil Code (CC) 664, 704 and 705.
If a deed holder wishes to use these waters, they are required to follow federal law
governing use and protection. Public property is deemed as rivers, streams, lakes,
glaciers, as well as springs arising from uncultivable land. However, in Switzerland,
federal provisions refer or imply additional cantonal legislation, which differs across
the cantons, some of which have not passed additional regulation at all. In Valais, a
more decentralised canton, while the lateral rivers of the Rhône are property of the
communes, the Rhône itself is the property of the canton.

7.2.1 Accountability

Switzerland represents a direct democratic system and high level of decentralisation
for decision making and planning. The primary system to challenge laws is through
its citizens' constitutional rights to petition (FC Art. 33), initiative and referendum