Water Governance: The Future of Growth with Food and Water

Irrigation and Drainage, 2006

Water-related issues impinge on human wellbeing in a variety of ways. Water sustains people's livelihood support system and features in food production, and is thus important for food security; it combines natural ecosystem, provides sink and dissolves waste material. In fact, preservation of water sources in their pristine and unpolluted state is essential for the development of a healthy society. No doubt then, Indian planners and policy makers consider the development of water resources as core to the overall economic development, and massive investments, both public and private, have gone in the development of water resources. These investments created a congenial environment for agricultural growth, leading to increase in production and productivity and a favourable food balance. Yet, presently, several problems are encountered in the way water resources are used and managed, some of which are discussed below.

Today, water scarcity is an urgent issue expected to impose severe constraints on the Mediterranean region for its development and food security. According to the World Water Assessment Program of the UNESCO (WWAP, 2015), without significant global policy change, the world will only have 60% of the water it needs by 2030. The Mediterranean region is one of the most water-scarce areas in the world. The region holds only 3% of the world's freshwater resources but hosts more than 50% of the world's " water poor " populations, or around 180 million of the region's 460 million inhabitants (Châtel et al., 2014). The entire region has a supply of renewable water resources of about 1,452 km 3 , which is distributed in an extremely inhomogeneous way between the North (74%), the East (21%) and the South (5%) (Ferragina, 2010). However, water scarcity is expected to intensify further in this region that has already been made fragile due to population and economic growths, desertification and the needs for environmental protection. In addition, the rise in temperatures will impose further stress on the Mediterranean's finite water resources as this region is identified as one of the most prominent climate response hot-spots. Water scarcity can involve not only a lack of water but also poor water delivery infrastructure and poor water management. Some consider water scarcity as an absolute shortage of physical supply while others argue that it is generated by poverty, inequality and bad water management policies. Water resource availability in the Mediterranean has already been negatively affected and this is seriously jeopardising food security and the environment. This chapter exposes the different components affecting the variability of water availability and therefore assesses the reasons behind wastages and losses of water and the possible solutions with the aim of ensuring a more sustainable food production

El presente informe es un documento ocasional de investigación como antecedente para el Informe de Desarrollo Humano 2006 publicado por el Programa de las Naciones Unidas, el cual aborda como tema principal: poder, pobreza y la crisis mundial del agua. En este caso proporciona un resumen de algunas de las cuestiones relacionadas con el agua y la gobernabilidad para la reducción de la pobreza. Pone de relieve una selección de los desafíos, relativo al poder político y los problemas económicos.

2015

Water resources are one of the most important issues of our time. Representatives of the world's countries and experts of the region invest all their time and skills in devising the proper way of managing the integration of the concept of sustainable development. Also, the goal of every state in the management of these resources is to find the right ratio of the public and the private sector in the management of water supply, most of the reasons are to avoid any kind of conflict because of water resources. The same conflicts are very divisive in terms of physical confrontations, protests and the spread of various diseases in the area with contaminated water. For these reasons, it is crucial to recognize and correct implementation of the process of water resources management, to adjust it with the concept of sustainable development in the future.

2006

2006

The report addresses the growing water challenges in developing countries, distinguishing between two different categories of water resources problematique. In the irrigated Green Revolution countries, an urban/rural blue water competition is emerging, driven by population growth, urban expansion, industrialization and new lifestyles. The problems are especially demanding in regions with depleted rivers and overexploited groundwater aquifers. For the billions of poor in the semiarid savanna regions, where rainfed smallholder farming dominates agriculture, a new type of agricultural revolution is called for, harvesting the potential of green water in the soil through conservation farming and rainwater harvesting. Due to this dichotomized problematique, water governance has to shift its focus from blue water and incorporate also green water linked to land use, and see rainfall as the manageable freshwater resource. To secure environmental sustainability, special efforts are called for...

2007

The theoretical background of a multidisciplinary water project, policy, program or plan is merely a basket full of appropriate approaches for problem solving and their theoretical explanation. One important group of theories used consists of various macroeconomic formulations that are commonly used in theoretical works as well as policy making in relation to development of societies. This section includes discussions on the trends and tendencies in freshwater management, on most important economic development theories, and their reflections and realizations to the complexity of water, food, poverty, and urbanization. This is done in order to provide a framework consisting of theoretical concepts and up-to-date mainstream views of the international water community, as background material for the various issues scrutinized in the later parts of this book. In chapter 3.1, the key points endorsed by the Rio Earth Summit and the Dublin Water Conference, both in 1992, as well as those by the Bonn Freshwater Conference of 2001 and the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development of 2002 are used as the starting point. They all reflect the contemporary thinking about ideal ways to solve water related problems. In addition, a selection of other trends and tendencies is provided, and the outlining philosophies of the Global Water Partnership and the CGIAR system are summarized. They offer more perspective and resolution to the issue. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are also included in the Chapter. Some of the topics introduced in Chapter 3.1 are discussed more thoroughly in Sections 7 to 10 on policy tools. As has been shown by, e.g., Frederiksen (1996), the complex character of the water issues does hardly allow such farreaching simplifications as those endorsed by e.g. the Rio and the Dublin Conferences. For instance, the increasing appreciation of the public opinion, even in many developing countries, has forced the World Bank to change its policy in the funding of large-scale water projects. The oppositions towards such large projects as the Sardar Sarovar in the Narmada River in India have been strong enough to set them aside. The question arises, how demand-oriented, public-participation based systems can handle the water and food availability problems that India will be facing in the coming few decades-in a sustainable manner? Economic development theories are summarized in Chapter 3.2. Starting from Adam Smith's classical economic theory, the summary evolves to neo-classical economy, perhaps the most accepted theoretical framework of today's development practitioners. The other theories include Malthusianism, Ricardo's classical theory of economic stagnation, Marxism, Keynesianism, Rostow's stages of economic growth, vicious circles theory, the balanced vs. unbalanced growth idea, structuralist theories, dependency theory, world-systems theory, the basic needs approach, neoclassical economy, new institutionalism, and UNDP's human development concept. After that the water sector is discussed in the light of the development theories. Clearly, the theories have been subjected to sharp shifts in popularity, even recently. The realizations and implications to the water sector practice have, as well, been very much variable, and often theory has shown to be very far from practice.

2015

Material complementari del cas estudi "Sustainable Development of Agriculture and Food systems with regard to Water", part component del llibre "Case studies for developing globally responsible engineers"