Operationalising Adaptive Capacity - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 242

Network indicators Operationalisation Chile Switzerland

Collaboration : Individual
power relations, levels
of trust, relative
strength of social fibres
holding groups
together, levels of trust/
distrust between
parties. Power
balances/imbalances
affecting cooperation or
collaboration.

Broken agreements between JdV leads to a lack
of trust across upstream and downstream
sections of the basin and diminishes the
ability to informally manage water sharing,
thereby requiring intervention from the DGA;
weaker economic actors (including smaller
farmers, or those last in the canal) struggle to
protect their water rights from quality or
quantity damage by stronger economic actors
(e.g. mining); negotiations between irrigators
and farmers concern increased groundwater
exploitation or compensation from drought
declaration to pay for constructing more
wells; political battle to amend the Water
Code was ideological, acrimonious and
lengthy for minor changes; general lack of
trust between water rights owners community
(including DOH) and DGA over Aconcagua
Project and well abstraction.

Canton provides financial support for remediation
when the communes cannot cover the costs
(e.g. 1993); Investment in irrigation infrastruc-
ture through both canton and federal subsidies
and technical assistance
(Landwirtschaftszentrum) and programmes
supported by charities at the national level,
with the aim of maintaining both built and
social infrastructure of the Suonen for social
cohesion and conflict resolution; Financial and
technical/training assistance provided to
communes for water course management and
implementation of cantonal provisions (hazard
mapping, zoning); collaborative adaptation
research projects (Regionprojekt, Verwerktung
Markt am Handel) between tourism and
agriculture; distrust of canton/ecological
sectors and agricultural lobby over land issues
in TRC.

Nature of support
structures :
Compensation,
remediation assistance,
advice and technical
support, fi nancial
assistance.

Participation Participation (not just

consultation) in the
political process,
providing a voice in
decision-making either
directly or through
legitimate intermediate
institutions that
represent their interests.

Water management is effectively in the hands of
water rights owners, providing for strength of
participation according to the amounts of
rights that are owned; civil society participa-
tion (as per the IWRM model) is weakly
provided for through consultation in the EIA
process (or in other basins the Mesa del
Agua).

Participative process in TRC implementation
(COREPIL) attempted to reconcile different
stakeholder positions, but is time and resource
intensive and reduces the innovative elements
of the project; participation in development and
building planning open to organisations
(Verbandbeschwerderecht; EIA) and individu-
als, though in reality may not be implemented.

(continued)