Operationalising Adaptive Capacity - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 246

Agency & Autonomy :
Subsidiarity of
government institu-
tions; role of private
solutions and self-
organisation.

Limits to public authorities' ability to actively
manage or regulate water resources; state has
a subsidiary role in water management, which
is in the hands of the private water rights
holders; water users have independence and
autonomy and the role of denouncing illegal
extraction or pollution to the DGA; centralist
bureaucracy is sidestepped in rights registra-
tion and bypassed by private actor negotia-
tions, agreements and adaptive actions to cope
with periods of drought; DGA unable to affect
property rights, therefore emphasis is on users
to self-organise to resolve drought induced
conflicts; in extreme drought periods,
government assistance and intervention is at
the request of the irrigators.

Federal and cantonal governments have a
subsidiary role in water management at the
commune level, limiting their authority (right
to redress) on water management across the
country and region; water decisions reside at
the commune public level, but are influenced
by canton level coordination and support,
particularly in communes where finances or
capacity is low; private user groups are
gradually morphing into public supported
institutions; Increasingly responsibility for
maintenance of irrigation infrastructure is
shifting to public hand from the private, while
canton is taking more oversight over energy
concessions; provisions for participation in
decision making at local, canton and federal
levels take time, but build consensus;
Constitutional Right to Petition allows for
citizens to self-organise and influence the
direction of water management at a federal
level.

a Klein ( 2008 ) and Valdes ( 1995 )