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For the past two decades, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been the dominant paradigm in water resources. This book explores how ideas of IWRM are being translated and adapted in Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Grounded in social science theory and research, it highlights the importance of politics, history and culture in shaping water management practices and reform, and demonstrates how Africa has clearly been a laboratory for IWRM. While a new cadre of professionals made IWRM their mission, we show that poor women and men may not have always benefitted. In some cases IWRM has also offered a distraction from more critical issues such as water and land grabs, privatisation, the negative impacts of water permits, and a range of institutional ambiguities that prevent water allocations to small and poor water users. By critically examining the interpretations and challenges of IWRM, the book contributes to improving water policies and practices and making them more locally appropriate in Africa and beyond.
As the governance of transboundary rivers becomes a subject of growing importance due to the increasing pressure on freshwater resources, this timely collection examines water scarcity and efforts to better manage rivers and river basins. Most specialists agree that states face many institutional inadequacies when dealing with shared resources and that new governance mechanisms are needed to improve water management. Using case studies of the Aral Sea basin and the Danube, Euphrates, and Mekong river basins, the contributors develop a new approach to water governance: the concept of multi-governance, an effort to collectively solve public problems by involving a series of relevant actors from the local to the global level, such as institutions, states, civil society, and business.
Setting the scene with a thorough introduction to water resource issues, Water Privatisation critically examines the new role played by Trans-National Corporations in managing and distributing water worldwide.Written from an organisational and institutional perspective, the authors propose new structures of water management at local, national and i
The world of development thinkers and practitioners is abuzz with a new lexicon: the idea of "the nexus" between water, food, and energy which is intuitively compelling. It promises better integration of multiple sectoral elements, a better transition to greener economies, and sustainable development. However, there appears to be little agreement on its precise meaning, whether it only complements existing environmental governance approaches or how it can be enhanced in national contexts. One current approach to the nexus treats it as a risk and security matter while another treats it within economic rationality addressing externalities across sector. A third perspective acknowledges it as a...
Examines the domestic constraints negotiators operate under when nations seek to cooperate.
Most of our most serious global challenges are complex, multi-faceted "wicked problems." But perhaps the first step in solving wicked problems as seemingly distinct as racism and disease epidemics is the same: reform our laws, policies, and priorities to achieve global water security. Each chapter of this book takes up one of these wicked problems, illustrates the role water plays in that problem, and proposes reforms to address the water aspect of that problem.
As a basic human need, the provision of safe water is among the highest priorities of government and humanitarian interventions during post-conflict recovery and peacebuilding. In the aftermath of war, water, sanitation, and infrastructure play a critical role in the recovery of livelihoods and economic development. Moreover, shared waters have great potential for interstate cooperation, assisting to rebuild trust following conflict and to prevent a return to conflict. This volume draws on studies from around the world to create a framework for understanding how water resources decisions and activities can facilitate or undermine peacebuilding in a post-conflict setting.
Why are some transnational public-private partnerships (PPPs) highly effective, while others are not? The contributors compare 21 transnational PPPs that seek to provide collective goods in the field of sustainable development.
'The environmentalist's bible,' Times Higher Education Supplement. 'Essential reading,' The Good Book Guide In this 24th edition of State of the World, long established as the most authoritative and accessible annual guide to our progress towards a sustainable future, continues to provide the studies that pay particular attention to cities. In 2007, world population will tip from mostly rural to mostly urban. Already, some 1 billion individuals, one in every three urbanites, live in 'slums', some 90% of which are found in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Published annually in 28 languages, State of the World is relied upon by national governments, UN agencies, development workers and law-mak...