Rethinking water policy reforms

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 967-970
Author(s):  
Ashwin B. Pandya ◽  
Shreshta Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Water Policy ◽  
Policy Reforms

Tanzanian water policy reforms—between principles and practical applications

Water Policy ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haakon Lein ◽  
Mattias Tagseth
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Management Problem ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Main River ◽  
Water Legislation ◽  
Set Up

The paper presents and discusses different approaches to water management, termed “state centred”, “market-based” and “community-based”. Each provides different answers to how and by whom limited water resources best could and should be managed. They are based on different development ideologies and advocated by different professions. The article elaborates on the strengths, limitations and compatibility of the three models. These models provide a basis for discussing national water policy and water management reforms in Tanzania as well as the more practical implications of this in one of the main river basins in the country: the Pangani River Basin. Central to the water management problem in this basin are conflicts between communities and the water bureaucracy over what constitutes “proper” management of water. The policy and the activities of the river basin authorities continue to reflect a traditional top-down bureaucratic approach to water management, with colonial roots. The water legislation and the formal water management system seem neither to be set up to facilitate the active participation of local communities in water management, nor to facilitate the development of a water market.

scholarly journals Implications of water policy reforms for virtual water trade between South Africa and its trade partners: economy-wide approach

Water Policy ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 649-663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rashid Hassan ◽  
Djiby Racine Thiam
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Water Use Efficiency ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Virtual Water Trade ◽  
Agricultural Exports ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Use Efficiency

This paper employs an economy-wide framework to evaluate impacts of water and trade policy reforms in South Africa (SA) on virtual water flows. To pursue this analysis, the study derives net virtual water trade flows between SA and its partners to assess implications of recent trade agreements within the South African Development Community compared to economic cooperation with other major trading blocks (e.g. European Union, Asia, and Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC)). Recent trends in actual trade confirm model predictions that liberalization of water allocation would switch water from field crops to horticulture and promote growth in non-agricultural exports. The results suggest that it is necessary to introduce policies that enhance likely outcomes of liberalization promoting higher water use efficiency within irrigation agriculture such as increased adoption of more efficient irrigation methods (sprinkler, drip, etc.) as water becomes more expensive under wider open competition. Moreover, investment in higher water use efficiency and improved competitiveness of dryland agriculture therefore represent the sound economic options for strengthening the capacity to achieve food security objectives as the country strives to lower net water exports. Finally, careful coordination of trade and water policy reforms is another necessary challenge for SA's strive to manage a water stressed economy.

Implementing integrated river basin management in the Red River Basin, Vietnam: a solution looking for a problem?

Water Policy ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 518-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Molle ◽  
Chu Thai Hoanh
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
River Basin Management ◽  
Red River ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Red River Basin

Several water policy principles considered to be modern and internationally sanctioned have recently been adopted by Vietnam. This article focuses on the establishment of the Red River Basin Organization but expands its analysis to the wider transformations of the water sector that impinge on the formation and effectiveness of this organization. It shows that the promotion of integrated water resource management icons such as river basin organizations (RBOs) by donors has been quite disconnected from existing institutional frameworks. If policy reforms promoted by donors and development banks have triggered changes, these changes may have come not as a result of the reforms themselves but, rather, due to the institutional confusion they have created when confronted with the emergence of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE). For the MoNRE, the river basin scale became crucial for grounding its legitimacy and asserting its role among the established layers of the administration, while for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, RBOs became a focal point where power over financial resources and political power might potentially be relocated at its expense. Institutional change is shown to result from the interaction between endogenous processes and external pressures, in ways that are hard to predict.

China's Agricultural Water Policy Reforms

2016 ◽  
pp. 53-76
Author(s):  
Jinxia Wang ◽  
Qiuqiong Huang ◽  
Jikun Huang ◽  
Scott Rozelle
Keyword(s):  
Water Policy ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Agricultural Water

scholarly journals Structure and agency: understanding water policy changes in West Africa

Water Policy ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Cherlet ◽  
Jean-Philippe Venot
Keyword(s):  
Water Policy ◽  
National Level ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Integrated Water Resources Management ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Paris Declaration ◽  
Qualitative Comparison ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Individual Agency

Ownership of development processes has been high on the international agenda since the Paris Declaration of 2005. There is, however, much discussion about whether highly aid-dependent governments can really ‘own’ policy reforms in their countries. In this paper, we argue that the ownership of policy reforms is the outcome of an interaction between individual agency and structural conditions. Taking the implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Burkina Faso (since 1996) and Mali (since 2004) as an entry point, the paper describes the interplay between national policy makers, international organizations and dominant development discourses in the shaping of water policy reforms in both countries over the past 15 years. Despite the apparent uniformity of the global IWRM paradigm, a qualitative comparison of water policy changes in the two countries shows that policy reforms, as well as the extent to which they are ‘owned’ by national policy makers, are significantly distinct. This can be explained by different forms of individual agency and diverse structural conditions at a national level.

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