The evolution and importance of 'rules-in-use' and low-level penalties in village-level collective action

Brian Joubert
University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada; joubert@ualberta.ca

Robert Summers
University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada; robert.summers@ualberta.ca

ABSTRACT: In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa community water points are provided through external support in the form of enhanced boreholes fitted with hand pumps. The external agency supplying the improved water source commonly provides maintenance training and assists in organising a governance plan for the water point. Despite its apparent virtues the Village-Level Operation and Maintenance model still experiences high levels of water point failures, even where the technical training and material conditions are adequate. There has been relatively little investigation of the institutional factors that may influence the cases where villages successfully maintain their shared water source infrastructure. This research investigated five villages in central Malawi where communities had maintained their water point hand pumps for periods exceeding 10 years. The results point to the importance of informal institutions giving primacy to ad-hoc 'rules-in-use' that suit the local context, and adapting forms of free-rider sanctions that are typically minor, low level and triangulated with local norms and behaviours. The findings highlight collective action that is successful through day-to-day adaption and that serves to institutionalise cooperative behaviour through appeals to norms.

KEYWORDS: Shared resources, water, institutions, collective action, rules, hand pump, Malawi

The power of pipes: Mapping urban water inequities through the material properties of networked water infrastructures - The case of Lilongwe, Malawi

Sachin Tiwale
Centre for Water Policy, Regulation and Governance, School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India; sachin.tiwale@gmail.com; sachin.tiwale@tiss.edu

Maria Rusca
Department of Geography, Kingʼs College London, London, UK; maria.rusca@kcl.ac.uk

Margreet Zwarteveen
Integrated Water Systems and Water Governance Department, IHE Delft, Delft, The Netherlands; and Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands; m.zwarteveen@un-ihe.org

ABSTRACT: Urban scholars have long proposed moving away from a conceptualisation of infrastructure as given and fixed material artefacts to replace it with one that makes it the very object of theorisation and explanation. Yet, very few studies have seriously investigated the role of infrastructure in co-shaping and mediating inequities. We use this paper to propose a way to engage with the technical intricacies of designing, operating and maintaining a water supply network, using these as an entry-point for describing, mapping and explaining differences and inequities in accessing water. The paper first proposes a methodological approach to systematically characterise and investigate material water flows in the water supply network. We then apply this approach to the case of water supply in Lilongwe, Malawi. Here, strategies for dealing with challenges of water shortage in the city have often entailed the construction of large water infrastructures to produce extra water. We show that the network’s material properties direct and divert most of the extra water to elite neighbourhoods rather than to those low-income areas where shortages are most acute. Our analysis shows how social and technical processes mutually constitute each other in the production and rationalisation of this highly uneven waterscape. We conclude that further theorisations of infrastructure as providing part of the explanation for how urban inequities are produced need to be anchored in the systematic and detailed empirical study of the network-in-use. Mapping the (changing) carrying capacities of pipes, storage capacities of service reservoirs and the strategic locations of new pipe extensions – to name a few important network descriptors – provides tangible entry-points for revealing and tracing how materials not only embody but also change social relations of power, thereby helping explain how inequities in access to water come about and endure.

KEYWORDS: Urban development, water supply, material power, pipes, Lilongwe, Malawi

Abstracting water to extract minerals in Mongolia’s South Gobi Province

Sara L. Jackson
Metropolitan State University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA; sjacks62@msudenver.edu

ABSTRACT: The Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine has become a symbol of the promise of mining to revive Mongolia’s struggling economy and to propel the nation into a new era of prosperity. Water resources are vital to the operation of Oyu Tolgoi, which is expected to be in operation for at least thirty years. However, local residents, particularly nomadic herders, have raised concerns about the redirection of water resources for mining. While the company claims that mining infrastructure has little to no impact on herders’ water resources, herders regularly report decreasing well water levels. With increased mining development throughout Mongolia’s Gobi Desert region, mining infrastructure and regulations are transforming local relationships to water and livelihoods. I argue that water infrastructure for mining symbolises the movement of water away from culturally embedded contexts towards water management practices that prioritise the needs of national development and corporate profits. This analysis contributes to the under-examined intersection of water and mining in the hydrosocial cycle literature and demonstrates the currency of 'modern water' in the context of global mining development. The research includes interviews and focus groups conducted with stakeholders, participant observation and document collection that took place in Mongolia from 2011 to 2012 with follow-up research conducted in 2015.

KEYWORDS: Water, nation, infrastructure, Oyu Tolgoi, Mongolia

Community management or coproduction? The role of state and citizens in rural water service delivery in India

Paul Hutchings
Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, UK; p.t.hutchings@cranfield.ac.uk

ABSTRACT: This paper makes the case for a realignment in the discourse and conceptualisation of community management of rural water supply. It draws on data from 20 case studies of reportedly successful community management programmes from India to argue that current discourse is remiss not to describe the substantial role of the state and other supporting agencies in financing and supporting service provision. In the context of such substantial levels of support, conceptually, it is argued that the tendency to treat the challenge of rural water supply as one of either a community participation or collective action problem that only the community can address further limits current thinking in this area. Recasting the primary challenge of rural water service delivery as improved cooperation and coordination between state and citizen, the paper proposes a more substantial focus on coproduction as a route to overcome sustainability problems in rural water supply. The paper ends by reflecting on the generalisability of this thinking noting the specific context of the Indian empirical data. It concludes by arguing that, although certain aspects of the study are specific to that empirical domain, the normative and conceptual reasons for shifting the discourse remain applicable in broader contexts.

KEYWORDS: Community management, coproduction, rural water supply, India

Grounding the nexus: Examining the integration of small-scale irrigators into a national food security programme in Burkina Faso

Brian Dowd-Uribe
International Studies Department, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; bdowduribe@usfca.edu

Moussa Sanon
Institut de l’Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles, Gestion des Ressources Naturelles, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; moussanonw@gmail.com

Carla Roncoli
Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; carla.roncoli@emory.edu

Ben Orlove
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; bso5@columbia.edu

ABSTRACT: The water-food nexus literature examines the synergies and trade-offs of resource use but is dominated by large-scale analyses that do not sufficiently engage the local dimensions of resource management. The research presented here addresses this gap with a local-scale analysis of integrated water and food management in Burkina Faso. Specifically, we analyse the implementation of a national food security campaign (Opération Bondofa) to boost maize production in a subbasin that exhibits two important trends in Africa: a large increase in small-scale irrigators and the decentralisation of water management. As surface water levels dropped in the region, entities at different scales asserted increased control over water allocation, exposing the contested nature of new decentralised institutions, and powerful actors’ preference for local control. These scalar power struggles intersected with a lack of knowledge of small-scale irrigators’ cultural practices to produce an implementation and water allocation schedule that did match small-scale irrigator needs, resulting in low initial enthusiasm for the project. Increased attention from national governments to strengthen decentralised water management committees and spur greater knowledge of, and engagement with, small-scale irrigators can result in improved programme design to better incorporate small-scale irrigators into national food security campaigns.

KEYWORDS: Water-food nexus, small-scale irrigators, food security, decentralisation, irrigation, Burkina Faso

The local and national politics of groundwater overexploitation

François Molle
UMR G-Eau, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Univ Montpellier, France; francois.molle@ird.fr

Elena López-Gunn
I-CATALIST, S.L., Madrid, Spain; and Visiting Fellow, University of Leeds, UK; elopezgunn@icatalist.eu

Frank van Steenbergen
MetaMeta Research, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands; fvansteenbergen@metameta.nl

ABSTRACT: Groundwater overexploitation is a worldwide phenomenon with important consequences and as yet few effective solutions. Work on groundwater governance often emphasises the roles of both formal state-centred policies and tools and self-governance and collective action. Yet, empirically grounded work is limited and scattered, making it difficult to identify and characterise key emerging trends. Groundwater policy-making is frequently premised on an overestimation of the power of the state, which is often seen as incapable or unwilling to act and constrained by a myriad of logistical, political and legal issues. Actors on the ground either find many ways to circumvent regulations or develop their own bricolage of patched, often uncoordinated, solutions; whereas in other cases corruption and capture occur, for example in water right trading rules, sometimes with the complicity – even bribing – of officials. Failed regulation has a continued impact on the environment and the crowding out of those lacking the financial means to continue the race to the bottom. Groundwater governance systems vary widely according to the situation, from state-centred governance to co-management and rare instances of community-centred management. The collection of papers in this issue illustrates the diversity of situations, the key role of the state, the political intricacies of achieving sustainability and establishing a mode of governance that can account for the externalities of groundwater overdraft, and the opportunities to establish cooperative arrangements.

KEYWORDS: Groundwater overexploitation, groundwater governance, water politics, water policy, wells, common-pool resources, co-management, permits, allocation

Differentiated access: Challenges of equitable and sustainable groundwater exploitation in Tanzania

Hans C. Komakech
WISE – Futures: Centre for Water Infrastructure and Sustainable Energy Futures, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Arusha, Tanzania; hans.komakech@nm-aist.ac.tz

Chris de Bont
Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; chris.de.bont@humangeo.su.se

ABSTRACT: Groundwater is an important resource for a large share of the global population and economies. Although groundwater dependence in most sub-Saharan African countries is relatively low at the national level, localized overexploitation is occurring, leading to a decline in groundwater levels and quality deterioration. Currently, the sustainable and equitable governance of groundwater, both through promotion and regulation, is turning out to be a key challenge in many sub-Saharan African countries. This paper uses case studies of urban groundwater governance in Arusha, and rural groundwater development in the Pangani basin, to analyse how the current policy and regulation inadvertently creates spaces for asymmetric access to (good quality) groundwater resources in Tanzania. It shows how the groundwater landscape is evolving into a situation where small users (farmers and households) rely on springs and shallow wells, while large users (commercial users and urban water authorities) are encouraged to sink deep boreholes. Amidst a lack of knowledge and enforcing capacity, exacerbated by different priorities among government actors, the water access rights of shallow well and spring users are being threatened by increased groundwater exploitation. Hence, the current groundwater policy and institutional setup do not only empower larger actors to gain disproportionate access to the groundwater resources, but presents this as a benefit for small users whose water security will supposedly increase.

KEYWORDS: Groundwater governance, access, equity, sub-Saharan Africa, Tanzania

Has Morocco’s groundwater policy changed? Lessons from the institutional approach

Kévin Del Vecchio
Sciences Po Lyon, UMR Triangle, Lyon; and UMR G-EAU, Montpellier, France; kevin.del-vecchio@sciencespo-lyon.fr

Sylvain Barone
Irstea, UMR G-Eau, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France; sylvain.barone@irstea.fr

ABSTRACT: Morocco’s Water Act of 1995 created River Basin Agencies (RBAs) designed to implement water policy according to the international standard of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). This institutional development was accompanied by new claims regarding the management and preservation of natural resources, including groundwater resources. Aquifer contracts were introduced for this purpose. This article aims to analyse their implementation and seeks to explain both the change and continuity in groundwater policy. Through a neo-institutional approach it highlights the historical and long-term processes and institutional factors behind groundwater policy outputs. It stresses the influence of bureaucratic interests and sectoral competition on the development and implementation of groundwater policy in Morocco. Finally, this article shows that, while the main policy objectives have changed very little as supply-side mechanisms remain dominant, the process of implementation is neither linear nor guided by a single, central rationale.

KEYWORDS: Groundwater, public policy, administration, neo-institutionalism, Morocco

Groundwater balance politics: Aquifer overexploitation in the Orontes River Basin

Saadé-Sbeih Myriam
NAVIER, École des Ponts ParisTech, Champs-sur-Marne, France; Laboratoire les Afriques dans le Monde, Bordeaux, France; myriam.saade@gmail.com

Haj Asaad Ahmed
University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; ahmed.hajasaad@unil.ch

Shamali Omar
Geo Expertise, Geneva, Switzerland; omaralshmaly@yahoo.com

Zwahlen François
Centre for Hydrogeology and Geothermics, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland; francois.zwahlen@unine.ch

Jaubert Ronald
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland; ronald.jaubert@graduateinstitute.ch

ABSTRACT: Aquifer overexploitation is widely used to describe negative effects on groundwater resources but has no agreed scientific definition. Usually viewed as a situation where average aquifer abstraction exceeds average recharge, a diagnosis of groundwater overdraft calls upon specific hydrogeological instruments, based on the groundwater balance approach. An analytical method for assessing changes in water flows and stocks through time and space, groundwater balance is also a tool for the investigation of knowledge construction and its embeddedness within power relations. We propose to discuss the politics of groundwater overexploitation diagnoses in Syria and more specifically the Orontes River Basin prior to the 2011 uprising and subsequent conflict. Groundwater overdraft at the national level became a matter of concern in official discourse in the late 1990s as diagnoses of groundwater overexploitation became commonplace in international reports. The steady increase in groundwater abstraction in relation to Syria’s centralised agricultural planning from the 1960s onward had undeniable consequences on the hydro-social system. However, the way diagnoses of groundwater overexploitation – in particular groundwater balances – were constructed and used to support water policies implemented from the mid-1990s onwards question the rationalities and interests lying behind technical arguments and actions.

KEYWORDS: Groundwater overexploitation, groundwater balance, politics, Orontes River Basin, Syria

Experiences with local water governance and outcomes for vulnerable communities in the Tihama Region of Yemen

Leslie Morris-Iveson
Environmental Recovery Consultants (ERC) Ltd., Oxford, UK; leslie@environmentalrecoveryconsult.com

Ahmed Alderwish
University of Sana’a, Sana’a, Yemen; prof.alderwish@wec.edu.ye

ABSTRACT: In communities that contend with low levels of human development in meeting basic needs, risks relating to groundwater overabstraction can enhance preexisting vulnerabilities. In Yemen, where per capita freshwater availability is amongst the lowest in the world, the most severe outcomes of water scarcity are felt at the local level, by the most marginalised. In addition to an analysis of available knowledge on norms and practices for community water management and the informal and formal networks that operate in rural Yemen, qualitative-based original research was undertaken in Hajjah and Al-Hodeidah governorates. The main objective of this research was to understand how improvements on management practices could lead to better outcomes for the poor.The research demonstrates that community members in areas that are typified by water insecurity have a high degree of awareness of the different factors, both hydrological and political, that lead to groundwater depletion. Community members have a collective interest to build on existing practices that respond to risks in order to safeguard resources – particularly in addressing the stemming of water overabstraction through deep well drilling to develop cash crops. The research also highlights the difficulties communities face in overcoming power structures which inhibit their efforts in implementing water-related decision- making.The paper argues that for improved water management practices to take place, the political nature of water management at the local level must be considered with a realistic identification of the stakeholders involved. Strengthening a formalised local government structure may have limited effectiveness if it is done without recognising the traditional and informal forms of leadership, and the existing patterns of power which drive local water governance. The paper concludes that there is an interest/demand for developing or further promoting allocation principles to promote equity amongst communities.

KEYWORDS: IWRM, water security, water scarcity, local water governance, groundwater management, Yemen

Failed policies, falling aquifers: Unpacking groundwater overabstraction in Iran

Ehsan Nabavi
School of Sociology, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University; ehsan.nabavi@anu.edu.au

ABSTRACT: The rapid depletion of aquifers around the world is a growing concern. This depletion raises important questions at national and local levels about different aspects of groundwater over-exploitation and related social and political implications. Iran is a country which has historically relied on groundwater resources for development purposes, but in recent decades it has experienced a progressive decline in water levels of aquifers across the country. Groundwater policies and measures to control overabstraction have largely failed to restore the groundwater balance.This paper explores some of the key aspects of Iran’s persistent groundwater overabstraction problem. It addresses the demographic, legal, infrastructural, economic, socio-institutional, bureaucratic, and knowledge and expertise challenges as they affect water distribution and water security.The paper illustrates how technocratic knowledge-making, myopic policymaking, and populist lawmaking related to groundwater use have caused mismanagement at the national level and overabstraction at the local level. It is therefore essential that policy reforms pertaining to groundwater be guided by transformative visions in different areas of governance. A consistent, transparent, and integrated legal and institutional framework for law enforcement must be developed; the social and political costs of enforcing regulations must be reduced; and local communities must be included in law- and policy-making as well as implementation.

KEYWORDS: Groundwater management, overabstraction, water policy, water law, water governance, Iran

Inaction of society on the drawdown of groundwater resources: A case study of Rafsanjan Plain in Iran

S. Jalal Mirnezami
Research Institute of Science, Technology and Industry Policy (RISTIP), Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran; Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran; j.mirnezami@outlook.com

Ali Bagheri
Department of Water Resources Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran; ali.bagheri@modares.ac.ir

Ali Maleki
Research Institute of Science, Technology and Industry Policy (RISTIP), Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran; a.maleki@sharif.edu

ABSTRACT: In this paper we will present a case study in Iran which explains the reasons for inaction by a society that is highly dependent on rapidly depleting groundwater resources. To obtain a better understanding of social inaction when faced with groundwater depletion, we investigated the changing role of society in groundwater systems and the movement away from collective action. A qualitative inquiry was used in this study, based mainly on an analysis of multiple interviews conducted with groundwater users, complemented by documentary analysis. Results are presented in different sections. First, a brief description of groundwater management in Rafsanjan is presented as typical of groundwater management in Iran. Then we present the chronology of the emergence of chaos in groundwater management in Rafsanjan. Finally, we provide the water users’ dominant frame of reference for the resolution of the critical water resource situation. Results indicate that the two main factors contributing to changes in groundwater drawdown are technological transitions and national policy reforms. However, findings suggest that the incorporation of factors related to political ecology – such as power relations, equity, and corruption – are important elements to consider in relation to the collective self-regulation of groundwater social-ecological systems. This paper does not provide a feasibility study for implementing a specific model of community-based management in Rafsanjan Plain, neither does it present an action plan towards self-regulation. It does, however, provide a more realistic viewpoint on the potential for pursuing a community-based management approach by helping to identify key challenges that would have to be considered.

KEYWORDS: Inaction, society, over-exploitation, groundwater, Rafsanjan, Iran

Managed aquifer recharge in India: Consensual policy but controversial implementation

Audrey Richard-Ferroudji
Independent Consultant, Associated researcher at UMR G-EAU, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France; richardferroudji@gmail.com

Raghunath T.P.
Centre for Ecology & Rural Development (CERD), Puducherry, India; tprmenon@gmail.com

Venkatasubramanian G.
French Institute of Pondicherry, Puducherry, India; venkat@ifpindia.com

ABSTRACT: In the Indian water policy, Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) is considered as one of the best supply side water management options to face groundwater depletion. It is expected to optimize the resource as well as attain environmental sustainability and meet water demands and social justice. It is also expected to be implemented with a paradigmatic shift in water management. From policy to practices, at the local level, numerous recharge structures exist, are built or planned and reveal controversial implementation. With a socio-historical approach, our paper analyses the trajectory of MAR implementation in the Pondicherry Region (South India). Through interviews and observations, the trajectories of two local projects are scrutinized, The Tank Rehabilitation Programs in Pondicherry district and a recharge shaft in Kiliyanur. Stakeholders' strategies and values regarding MAR are analysed and how local appropriation leads to adaptation and diversion. Finally, there is no paradigmatic shift going with MAR implementation. Instead, MAR is shown as a consensual policy because it is a possible compromise between groundwater conservation, optimization of the resource, satisfaction of the users and social justice, but controversial positions and oppositions should be acknowledged within implementation. The paper discusses opposed conceptions of MAR: participatory vs. expert driven, demand vs. supply driven and traditional vs. modern.

KEYWORDS: Participation, paradigm, local appropriation, artificial recharge, India

Socio-environmental dynamics and emerging groundwater dependencies in peri-urban Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Anushiya Shrestha
Sociology of Development and Change Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands; anushiya.shrestha@wur.nl

Dik Roth
Sociology of Development and Change Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands; dik.roth@wur.nl

Deepa Joshi
Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR), Coventry University, Coventry, England; ac3771@coventry.ac.uk

ABSTRACT: Groundwater is an increasingly important source of water supply in Kathmandu Valley, one of the fastest-growing South-Asian urban agglomerations. A groundwater policy drafted in 2012 was partly an outcome of an institutional restructuring of water management in Kathmandu Valley. Our findings in this article show that this policy lacks attention to peri-urban dynamics of change and growth and does little to address the unplanned and unregulated groundwater use in peri-urban locations in the valley, which urbanises at a faster rate than the main city. This article discusses the growing use of, and dependence on, groundwater in these rapidly evolving peri-urban spaces. Groundwater use continues to increase, despite growing protests and worries about its consequences. Our findings show that the polarised views and local conflicts around groundwater exploitation are the outcome of multiple entanglements: sectoral divides and overlapping responsibilities in water institutions, governance and management; social and economic transformations in peri-urban spaces; the invisibility of groundwater; and ambiguity in the hydrological dynamics of conjunctive water use. While we see no easy solutions to these problems, the policy-relevant recommendations we derive from our analysis of the drivers and the dynamics of using, governing and managing groundwater draw attention to the complex on-the-ground realities that need to be better understood for addressing macro-micro gaps in (ground)water management.

KEYWORDS: Groundwater, institutions, peri-urbanisation, policy, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Emerging scarcity and emerging commons: Water management groups and groundwater governance in Aotearoa New Zealand

Sarah Boone
Ministry for the Environment, Wellington, New Zealand; sarah.boone@mfe.govt.nz

Stephen Fragaszy
Ministry for the Environment, Wellington, New Zealand; stephen.fragaszy@mfe.govt.nz

ABSTRACT: In New Zealand, intensifying agricultural production, particularly in the Canterbury and Heretaunga Plains, has led to groundwater overabstraction. Aquifer connectivity to lowland streams results in decreased streamflow with concomitant impacts on nutrient concentrations and other relevant factors for indigenous flora and fauna. Recent legislative reforms including the 2017 amendments to the National Policy Statement – Freshwater Management have increased local government responsibility and authority to address cumulative effects of diffuse resource use and have increased pressure on agricultural communities to farm within environmental constraints. Numerous water management groups (WMGs) have emerged across New Zealand in the past decade to deal with these reforms and ensure reliability of irrigation water supply. Regional governments view WMGs as helpful in dealing with water allocation challenges and integrated environmental management approaches. This paper uses two case study WMGs from Hawke’s Bay and Canterbury to illustrate aspects of common property management and explore the viability of this type of localised resource governance. The study highlights how these WMGs have navigated groundwater, local government, and environmental management issues and how their local context and constraints shaped their development. It also illustrates how WMGs can engage with water quality and broader environmental challenges while ensuring members’ economic viability.

KEYWORDS: Water user groups, common property resource institutions, surface water–groundwater interactions, local governance, groundwater quality, New Zealand

Groundwater governance in the Rio Grande: Co-evolution of local and intergovernmental management

Lucia De Stefano
Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain; and Water Observatory, Botin Foundation, Madrid, Spain; luciads@geo.ucm.es

Christina Welch
Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA; christina.n.welch@gmail.com

Julia Urquijo
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain; jurquijo@ucm.es

Dustin Garrick
Smith School Water Programme, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; dustin.garrick@ouce.ox.ac.uk

ABSTRACT: The physical interconnection of ground and surface waters is rarely acknowledged in inter-state and international agreements over surface water. This is especially true in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo basin, where groundwater pumping is at the heart of several disputes and legal cases related to compliance with intergovernmental water agreements. This research considers the Upper and Middle Rio Grande basin to explore how groundwater use and management interact with interstate (i.e. intranational within the US) and international relations (US-Mexico). We consider three distinct geographic regions to address the following questions: how have intergovernmental surface water agreements affected local groundwater management and policies? And, how does groundwater management at local scale influence intergovernmental relations over water? We combine documentary data and interview data collected through extensive fieldwork during 2016 and 2017. The analysis reveals the emergence of both state-driven and community-based groundwater initiatives aimed at reconciling needs and obligations stemming from different geographical and institutional levels. The analysis uncovers strong institutional interplay across water management levels and suggests that compliance with intergovernmental agreements in federal and international contexts both affects and is affected by local groundwater management. Moreover, we observed that while local water managers are sometimes prevented from solving problems locally due to interstate rules, opportunities for innovation in local groundwater governance can also be triggered by compliance obligations at other levels.

KEYWORDS: Groundwater, transboundary water management, federal, interstate, institutional interplay, Rio Grande/Rio Bravo

Establishment of agencies for local groundwater governance under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

Anita Milman
Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts, US; amilman@eco.umass.edu

Luisa Galindo
Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts, US; lgalindo@eco.umass.edu

William Blomquist
Department of Political Science, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, US; blomquis@iupui.edu

Esther Conrad
Community Engaged Learning for Environmental Sustainability, Haas Center for Public Service, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, US; esther@stanford.edu

ABSTRACT: With the passage of its 'Sustainable Groundwater Management Act' (SGMA), California devolved both authority and responsibility for achieving sustainable groundwater management to the local level, with state-level oversight. The passage of SGMA created a new political situation within each groundwater basin covered by the law, as public agencies were tasked with self-organizing to establish local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs). This research examines GSA formation decisions to determine where GSAs formed, whether they were formed by a single agency or a partnership, and whether agencies chose to pursue sustainable groundwater management by way of a single basin-wide organization or by coordinating across multiple organizational structures. The research then tests hypotheses regarding the relative influence of control over the resource, control over decision-making, transaction costs, heterogeneity and institutional bricolage on GSA formation decisions. Results indicate mixed preferences for GSA structure, though a majority of public water agencies preferred to independently form a GSA rather than to partner in forming a GSA. Results also suggest GSA formation decisions are the result of overlapping and interacting concerns about control, heterogeneity, and transaction costs. Future research should examine how GSA formation choices serve to influence achievement of groundwater sustainability at the basin scale.

KEYWORDS: Groundwater, governance, politics, mandate implementation, California

Diversification or loading order? Divergent water-energy politics and the contradictions of desalination in southern California

Joe Williams
Durham University, Department of Geography, Durham, UK; joseph.g.williams@durham.ac.uk

ABSTRACT: This paper explores the contradictory and sometimes incompatible imperatives towards enhancing water supply reliability and addressing the water-energy nexus. Using the highly contested development of seawater desalination for municipal water supply in the San Diego metropolitan region as an analytical entry point, the paper excavates divergent water-energy politics emerging in California. Two underlying paradigm shifts of water governance are identified. First, supply diversification represents an attempt to increase reliability through the development of multiple decentralised water sources. Second, the notion of a loading order is being promoted by certain groups as a way of prioritising different water source options according to sustainability criteria, including energy footprint. Drawing on the concept of the socio-ecological fix, the paper argues that seawater desalination – as a technological adaptation to water stress – occupies a paradoxical position, being consistent with diversification, but representing a water-energy trade-off inconsistent with the loading order. This has resulted, the paper suggests, in a polarised debate between desalination and wastewater recycling as alternative climate-independent sources of freshwater. As such, the disputes over desalination in San Diego are understood to be a crucible for broader politics of resource governance transitions.

KEYWORDS: Water-energy nexus, desalination, political ecology, diversification, loading order, California

'In these complicated times': An environmental history of irrigated agriculture in post-communist Ukraine

Brian Kuns
Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; brian.kuns@humangeo.su.se

ABSTRACT: This paper examines irrigation in post-communist Southern Ukraine, mapping the continuity of late Soviet investments in centre pivot irrigation technology in the post-Soviet period, but also situating this large-scale irrigation in a regional context where there are significant, but uneven, changes in water access. Framing irrigation change within long-term environmental history, this paper argues that post-Soviet developments are the consequence of a collapsing modernisation project. An Actor Network approach is used to explore the ontological politics surrounding possible alternative uses of irrigated farm fields, as well as the 'agency' of centre pivot irrigation technology, which 'acts' to undermine landowners’ rights. This is noted as ironic, because the technology was originally imported from the United States during the Cold War, while post-communist land reform was influenced by the Washington Consensus. Uneven water access near the area with centre pivot irrigation is explored. Understanding this uneven geography puts post-Soviet agrarian change in Ukraine in perspective, identifying the disappearance of collective farms as a factor driving changing water access. The paper concludes that 20th century Soviet investments in irrigation are potentially more sustainable than comparable investments in other countries – as in the American West – complicating the conventionally negative view of Soviet environmental management.

KEYWORDS: Irrigation, agrarian change, environmental history, Ukraine, USSR

The continuous quest for control by African irrigation planners in the face of farmer-led irrigation development: The case of the Lower Moshi Area, Tanzania (1935-2017)

Chris de Bont
Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; chris.de.bont@humangeo.su.se

ABSTRACT: Although much has been written about the indigenous irrigation systems of Tanzania, there has been no comprehensive historical study of state irrigation planning. This article fills this gap by analysing irrigation development policy in Tanzania between 1935 and 2017. Based on archival research, and using the Lower Moshi area in Kilimanjaro Region as a case study, it contains an analysis of 80 years of irrigation policy and state intervention. It distinguishes between four periods, based on changes in the perceived role of irrigation and the different actors that were considered important. It notes that the belief in the necessity of state intervention and formal engineering for proper irrigation development ran through all the time periods, and that these were the key factors defining the state’s attitude towards irrigation development planning, regardless of the political situation. This article argues that, ultimately, the development narrative of 'modern' irrigation as a driver for agricultural transformation has been successful in depoliticising irrigation interventions and has succeeded in closing the debate on whether state-controlled irrigation development is really the best way to reduce poverty and stimulate economic growth. To provide space for reflection on the possible role of governments in promoting, supporting, and regulating farmer-led irrigation development, future debates on African irrigation should start by recognising the unique contributions that can be made by farmers in realising the continent’s development targets.

KEYWORDS: Irrigation history, rendering technical, farmer-led irrigation development, Africa, Tanzania