Governance in the Face of Uncertainty and Change - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 190

waters diminish. The emergency drought provisions allow for the flexible and pro-
visional use of alternative water sources (wells/groundwater) as a means of short
term coping, but also provide protection for groundwater rights holders who may
hold the DGA liable for any affectation of third party rights. However, the effective-
ness of the declaration is limited to the level of government financial assistance that
would allow farmers to actually exploit the water resources to which they've been
granted temporary access.
Adaptation at the Junta de Vigilancia and Canalista level is characterised by
the Turno, which enables farmers to quickly shift to an alternative water distribu-
tion model. The model of temporary coping allows for the proportional reduction
of water rights distribution based on different 'shifts' or 'turns', aims to minimise
drought impacts across the basin (Box 10.2 ). In Switzerland, company and asso-
ciation agreements are in place between different actors (e.g. commune utility and
farmers; commune utility and cable car companies; hydropower utilities and cable
car companies) for short term adaptation of water supply for irrigation and
artificial snow production. In addition there are commune level regulations on
water provision during emergency times that provide guidelines for supply and
sanitation in extreme events, but there are no overarching rules on scarcity or
drought.
Knowledge
In Chile, the initiation of declaring the drought zone is guided by an internal tech-
nical regulation of the DGA, which sets the hydrological parameters by which
drought should be declared. However, the present regional DGA office deems these
parameters, and the data that informs them, to be out of date, and no longer relevant
to the decision criteria for which it is needed. Despite challenges in the breadth and
transparency of state monitoring and assessment, mechanisms are in place at the
channel and junta level to evaluate the amount of water every day and proportion-
ally reduce allocations during times of stress. Private actors also are open to learn-
ing from other areas and seeking government support for diversification and
technical adaptation options as a potential means of coping with climate change
impacts. Government actors have the technical capacity to carry out and use
research on climate change impact across the water intense sectors. Increasing
attention is being paid by government bodies (DGA, DOH and CNR) on improving
the state and transparency of hydrological assessment and water rights information
to build capacity for managing increasingly scarce water resources, as well as to
inform policies such as a National Dam Policy (hard infrastructural adaptation).
In the Swiss case, improvements are being planned and implemented for local
level monitoring on run off and water quality from increased precipitation as part of
the reaction plans for coping with impacts on quality and quantity (in relation to
extreme precipitation events). Flood management planning takes into account the
likelihood of increasing water risks from climate change as prescribed by the top
down regional planning concept that involves both federal and cantonal levels.