Week 5: Water governance (Lecture + prereading)

Question 1

What are the six perceptions of water highlighted in water governance?

Answer 1

1. as a hydrological entity
2. as a social/economical/political good
3. sacred commodity
4. human right
5. heritage
6. ecosystem medium

Question 2

When and by whom was water declared as a human right?

Answer 2

In 2010, by the UN.

Question 3

Name three global water challenges, outlined during the 2nd world water forum (2000).

Answer 3

1: Meeting basic needs (acess to drinking water + sanitation for all)
2: Securing Food supply (efficicently managing water resources for agriculture)
3: Protecting Ecosystems (sustaining natural habitats, while balancing water use for human acitivites)
4: Sharing water resources (transboundary cooperation in shared water systems)
5: Managing risks (mitigating impacts of water-related disasters)
6: Valuing water
7: Governing water wisely with participation of all

Question 4

What distinguishes “old” governance from “new” governance?

Answer 4

Old governance is centralized and hierarchical; new governance is decentralized and participatory.

Question 5

What do Woodhouse & Muller say about the definiton of a single coherent policy for its governance ?

Answer 5

difficult to define a single coherent water governance policy bc:
- different ways it is used
- different ways it is found
- different defintion of water governance
-> they say: context-specific criteria for water governance is needed

Question 6

according to woodhouse and Allan 2017, there are different perspectives/ debates on water governance, what are they?

Answer 6

1: Scarcity
2: Participation
3: Scale
4: Markets
5: Networks and nested hierarchies

Question 7

1: when did the topic waster scarcity first came up
2: whats the difference between physical water scarcity and economic water scarcity ?
3: what is the difference between local and global water scarcity?
4: What does virtual water have to do with water scarcity?

Answer 7

1: In the dublin conference 1992, it became a serious issue.
2:physical= lack of actual water, economic = lack of infrastructure or investment
3: On a global level, there is not necessarily any water scarcity, but on a local level there is.
4: By importing water-intensive products, water-scarce regions are essentially importing virtual water

Question 8

What is a common belief about participation in environmental governance and what is the actual effect and challenge ?

Answer 8

Belief: Participation enhances environmental outcomes.
Actual outcome: sporadic evidence of that belief.
Challenge: overcoming power dynamics, time constraints and trust issues

Question 9

What do woodhouse and allan say about using the river basin as a scale?

Answer 9

Challenges reliance on river basins as the primary unit for governance (as they are done now)
> Advocates addressing issues at problem-sheds instead of geographic boundaries like watersheds.

Question 10

What does Woodhouse and allan say about using market mechanisms for water governance?

Answer 10

> Markets have a limited ability to effectively allocate water

Question 11

Networks and nested hierarchies: What does polycentric governance mean?

Answer 11

A system with multiple, overlapping decision-making centers, ostrom proposes that as natural resource management.