Water Governance

Question 1

Discuss the four pillars of water governance

Answer 1

1. Trust: Does it create an environment where stakeholder are able to interact, form alliances and seek required change?
2. Reciprocity: Does it permit different interests to promote their interests through competition, negotiation and conflict resolution
3. Accountability: Can governing authorities be held accountable or do they follow transparent processes
4. Legitimacy: Does it create or sustain a condition where public goods are promoted?

Question 2

Give and explain the definition of water governance

Answer 2

• Water governance refers to the range of political, social, economic and administrative systems that are in place to develop and manage water resources, and the delivery of water services, at different levels of society
• Water governance is synonymous with interventions aiming at changes in incentives, knowledge, institutions, decision making, and behaviours.

Question 3

Explain the principles of Participation, Transparency, Equity, Accountability, Coherence,
Responsiveness, Integration and Ethics in the context of water governance

Answer 3

Participation:
- allows for partnership, collaboration and ownership from the bottom up, all citizens should have a voice (either directly or through intermediate organizations representing their interests), inclusion
Transparency:
- It is key for effective participation and informed public
- Information should flow freely within a society; processes and decisions should be transparent and open for public scrutiny.
- Right to access this information should be clearly stated.

Equity:
- Water is a human need:
> Humans have a basic human right of access to water resources
> It is related to the public good characteristic
> Water is such a basic requirement for human life and survival that society must defend the uses of the water resources in the public interest
> All groups in society, both men and women, should have
equal opportunities to improve their wellbeing.

Accountability:
- Governments, the private sector and civil society organizations should be accountable to the public or the interests they are representing.

Coherence
- Because of the increasing complexity of water issues, policies and actions must be coherent, consistent and easily understood.

Responsiveness:
- Institutions and processes should serve all stakeholders and respond properly to preferences, changes in demand or other new circumstances

Integration:
- Water governance should enhance and promote integrated and holistic approaches.

Ethics:
- Water governance must be based on the ethical principles of the society where it functions—for example, by respecting traditional water rights.

Question 4

What are the 4 practical elements for water governance and explain these?

Answer 4

1. A strong enabling environment – policies, laws and plans.
2. Comprehensive institutional framework - basin as the basic unit for management with decentralized decision making.
3. Use of available management and technical instruments – use of assessments, data and instruments for water allocation and pollution control to help decision makers make better choices.
4. Investments in water infrastructure to meet water demand and needs for flood management, drought resilience, irrigation, energy and ecosystem services.

Question 5

Explain the difference between formal and informal water institutions in water governance and how they administer water

Answer 5

• Formal institutions: put in place by the state, laws and rules define how water is distributed and managed, openly codified and officially accepted
• Informal: norms and practices that evolve over time, socially accepted, may be self enforcing or enforced outside official channels e.g. social and cultural norms, often play an important role in water management at the local level

Question 6

Define the concept of water policy and explain the major components

Answer 6

• Water policies are intended to achieve some social, political or policy goal e.g. changing human behavior
• Project selection criteria, pricing and cost recovery, private sector participation, user participation, linkages with other economic policies, water allocation methods
• Public agenda -> policy agenda -> policy formulation -> implementation -> control and enforcement -> policy evaluation

Question 7

How do we achieve effective decentralized governance?

Answer 7

Three distinct justifications for decentralized governance:
- produce greater efficiencies because of competition among subnational units
- bring decision making closer to those affected by governance, promoting higher participation and accountability
- help decision makers take advantage of more precise time- and place-specific knowledge about natural resources

Depends on:
- How decision makers in lower-level units in the
hierarchy relate to those at higher levels
- The ways local decision makers relate to their
constituents
- Nature of relationships of people (actors) with each other and with the water resource

• Involvement of all stakeholders
• Acknowledge water is not just a natural but also a social resource - change in policy from infrastructure to management. Also, include active participation of private sector and civil society in water management - encompass all actors such as communities, NGOs, business
• Transparency, accountability, integrity

Question 8

Discuss efficiency and equity in water allocation

Answer 8

Equity
- Equity can be defined as affording everyone a fair and equal opportunity in the utilization of the resource according to one’s needs.
- Equity deals with the distribution of wealth or resources among sectors or individuals of society.

Efficiency
- Efficiency measures how much one can do with one unit of water. Economic efficiency measures the benefits derived from a unit of water.
- At a more abstract level, efficiency can also indicate to what extent the ensemble of technical, legal, institutional, economic and other measures induce efficient use of the scarce water.

Trade-offs
- The principle of economic efficiency is often translated into proper pricing of water services. This may jeopardise the equity principle, in that poorer households may not be able to afford such a service.
- The fact that poorer households are thus denied access to a basic amount of water may be extremely costly to society.
- From a societal perspective it may therefore be highly efficient to provide all households with a subsidised lifeline quantity of water, and to make up the financial shortfall through cross-subsidies.
- In this manner win-win combinations of efficiency and equity in water allocation systems may be achieved.

Question 9

Discuss the three modes of water governance

Answer 9

Refer to Notes

Question 10

Explain the importance of transparency in governance

Answer 10

• It is key for effective participation and informed public
• Information should flow freely within a society; processes and decisions should be transparent and open for public scrutiny.
• Right to access this information should be clearly stated
• Two aspects
  > Transparency of governance -relates to empowering society in observing “the actions either of regulators to whom they have delegated power or other
  powerful actors in society” (Mitchell, 2011)
  > Transparency for governance - disclosure of information by government to influence the behaviour of corporations or other organizations
• Access to information must be accompanied by:
  > Guarantee about the quality and reliability of the information provided
  > Opportunity of participating in the
  associated processes of decisionmaking
  > Access to justice when the right to
  information or participation is not
  granted (also for NGO’s and civilians)