Understanding inter-municipal conflict and cooperation on flood risk policies for the metropolitan city of Milan

Corinne Vitale
Institute for Management Research (IMR), Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; c.vitale@fm.ru.nl

Sander Meijerink
Institute for Management Research (IMR), Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; s.meijerink@fm.ru.nl

ABSTRACT: Due to hydrological dependencies within catchment areas, the development and implementation of urban flood risk policies require cooperation between upstream and downstream municipalities. Such cooperation may be difficult to realise in practice due to the diverging interests of these municipalities, which might result in upstream-downstream conflicts. In this paper, we aim to gain a better understanding of inter-municipal conflict and cooperation on flood risk policies for the Seveso River Basin in the Metropolitan City of Milan. The Transboundary Waters Interaction NexuS (TWINS) model is used to describe the evolution of conflict and cooperation, and the shift towards the securitisation of flood risk management in the basin. The politicised Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework is used to gain a better understanding of decision-making on Seveso flood risk policies. It is concluded that the ever-increasing frequency, and damage caused by flood events, together with an institutional setting which is characterised by power asymmetry between the Metropolitan City of Milan and upstream municipalities, and a dominant engineering resilience discourse have resulted in the securitisation of the Seveso’s issues. The securitisation is characterised by a closed decision-making process, which may explain the resistance by actors not involved in decision-making and thus, the emergence of new conflicts.

KEYWORDS: Flood risk management, urban flood resilience, upstream-downstream relationships, nature-based solutions, institutional analysis, Transboundary Waters Interaction NexuS (TWINS), Milan, Italy

Irrigation management in East Asia: Institutions, socio-economic transformation and adaptations

Raymond Yu Wang
Center for Social Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China; wangy63@sustech.edu.cn

Wai-Fung Lam
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; dwflam@hkucc.hku.hk

Jinxia Wang
China Centre for Agricultural Policy, School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China; jxwang.ccap@pku.edu.cn

ABSTRACT: Irrigation management encapsulates human capacity for building and sustaining collective cooperation, which is directed at the allocation and utilisation of water as a common-pool resource. Although rooted in rural communities, irrigation management is also subject to macro socio-economic and ecological settings that mediate micro human-nature relations. In East Asia, the long-established tradition of irrigation management has been confronting a series of new challenges such as an ageing and decreasing rural populations, increasing regional and sectoral competition for water, the growing influence of neoliberalism, and shifting public policies that reshape state-society-market interactions. This Special Issue aims at revisiting irrigation management in East Asia against the backdrop of rapid socio-economic transformation. In this introductory article, we set the scene by illustrating why the understanding of irrigation management should be situated in a broader socio-economic and political context. We then briefly summarise the key findings of the collection of papers in this Special Issue. It is shown that external challenges do not necessarily lead to the failure of irrigation management. New features of irrigation practices (for example, institutional reinvention and restructuring) may emerge as public, communal and private actors who co-manage irrigation systems respond and adapt to societal and environmental changes.

KEYWORDS: Irrigation, institutions, socio-economic transformation, adaptation, East Asia

The decline of canal irrigation in China: Causes, impacts and implications

Yahua Wang
School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; wangyahua@tsinghua.edu.cn

Mengdi Cao
School of Government, Peking University, Beijing, China; caomengdi868@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Irrigation is key for agricultural production and public affairs in China. Canal irrigation has been the dominant form of irrigation in China for over two thousand years, but this is changing dramatically in contemporary China. Official government data and observational studies prove that canal irrigation has sharply declined in China in the past several decades. This paper explores the causes and influences associated with this decline. We use the social-ecological systems (SES) framework to diagnose the causes of the decline of canal irrigation and identify the significant influences on it. The broader contextual variables of industrialisation, urbanisation, policy, marketisation and technological progress influence resource systems, farmers and governance systems, which, in turn, have jointly led to the decline of canal irrigation. This study also considers the economic, social and ecological consequences of such a shift in irrigation pattern. The decline of canal irrigation may be inevitable in the transformation from a rural to a modern society. However, we must be aware of its costs and risks. To maintain the effectiveness of rural irrigation during the transformation to a modern society, we propose three implications of the decline of canal irrigation.

KEYWORDS: Irrigation transformation, commons, social-ecological systems (SES) framework, rural governance, public systems, China

Worldviews and the everyday politics of community water management

Frances Cleaver
Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK; f.cleaver@lancaster.ac.uk

Luke Whaley
Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK; l.whaley@sheffield.ac.uk

Evance Mwathunga
Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, Zomba, Malawi; emwathunga@cc.ac.mw

ABSTRACT: This article highlights one important reason why attempts to achieve sustainable development through community management often fail – the neglect of worldviews. It addresses a gap in existing research on institutional bricolage by focussing on the core role that beliefs and rationales play in resource governance. Our research into rural water supply in Malawi and Uganda was conducted through a variety of ethnographic methods including year-long community diaries. Drawing on this, we demonstrate how worldviews shape local water management arrangements and their outcomes. We unpick three dimensions of the work that worldviews do In (1) making sense of socio-natural events and processes, (2) maintaining unequal social orders, and (3) serving as resources for institutional arrangements. The article concludes with a reflection on how our approach meaningfully furthers critical water studies, and on the challenges faced by development initiatives in operationalising such insights.

KEYWORDS: Worldviews, critical institutionalism, institutional bricolage, community management, Malawi, Uganda

Number narratives of water shortages: Delinking water resources development from water distribution in Mumbai, India

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

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the numbers associated with the water demand estimation process followed for the city of Mumbai, particularly focusing on the per capita water supply standard. The per capita standard is a critical figure for the planning, design, and operation of the entire urban water supply system from dam to household level tap. Historically, high per capita standards were consistently prescribed for Mumbai to overestimate water demand and construct number narratives of water shortages. These narratives were successfully used to appropriate a larger share of water by justifying a series of dams and keeping other urban centres and villages within the region water deprived. In colonial and post-colonial times Mumbai always received enough water, brought using higher per capita standards. However, these supply standards were never measured and monitored during actual service delivery within the city. The water demand of poor slum residents was overcounted by following universal per capita standards when bringing water to the city. However, the same slum residents were subtracted or underserved during actual service delivery. Analysing colonial and post-colonial practices of water resources development, this paper illustrates the limitations of the existing approach of water demand estimation using the prescribed per capita standard, which delinks the process of water resources development from water distribution within the city. The prescribed per capita standard does not reflect the conditions of access and status of supply provisioning and underplays the issues pertaining to the poor performance of the distribution network, which further marginalises the urban poor.

KEYWORDS: water demand estimation, water supply, standard, narratives, Mumbai, India

Stormwater politics: Flooding, infrastructure, and urban political ecology in São Paulo, Brazil

Nate Millington
Department of Geography; and Manchester Urban Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; nate.millington@manchester.ac.uk

ABSTRACT: This paper analyses an ongoing paradigm shift in how engineers have responded to the persistent problem of flooding in São Paulo, Brazil. Until recently, civil engineers largely attempted to expel water from the landscape as fast as possible. Over the past three decades, however, engineers have begun to articulate new mechanisms for responding to flooding that store stormwater in the urban landscape. In this paper, I analyse the construction of what are commonly referred to as piscinões, large-scale detention ponds that pool stormwater in the event of heavy rain events. Drawing from literature in urban political ecology, I argue that piscinões attempt to correct for a complex and unequal landscape, but that they do so in a way that mainly prioritises large-scale engineering solutions to the problem of flooding. As such, in spite of being hailed as indicative of a paradigm shift in flood management, piscinões are instead a continuation of the city’s broader hydraulic and urban paradigms. In response, I consider alternative approaches to the development of multifunctional piscinões that could serve both social and ecological aims. Ultimately, however, I draw from urban political ecology to argue that flooding is fundamentally a political problem that requires a political solution.

KEYWORDS: Water, infrastructure, flooding, climate change, urban political ecology, São Paulo, Brazil

Citizen science water projects in Nepal: Participant motivations and the impacts of involvement

David W. Walker
JSPS International Research Fellow, Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan; and Water Resources Management Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands; david.walker@wur.nl

Masakazu Tani
Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan; tani@design.kyushu-u.ac.jp

Narayan Gyawali
Lutheran World Relief (LWR) Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal; ngyawali@lwr.org

Prem Sagar Chapagain
Central Department of Geography, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal; ps.chapagain@gmail.com

Jeffrey C. Davids
California State University, Chico; and SmartPhones4Water (S4W), Chico, California, USA; jcdavids@csuchico.edu

Alisha Ghimire
Community Resilience and Humanitarian practitioner, Kathmandu, Nepal; ghimire.ali@gmail.com

Makhan Maharjan
Urban Environment Management Society (UEMS), Lalitpur, Nepal; maharjan.makhan@gmail.com

binod.parajuli@adpc.net
Binod Prasad Parajuli Practical Action, Kathmandu, Nepal;

Rajaram Prajapati
Smartphones For Water Nepal (S4W-Nepal), Lalitpur, Nepal; rajaram@smartphones4water.org

Santosh Regmi
Nepal Hydrological and Meteorological Research Center, Kathmandu, Nepal; sregmi11@yahoo.com

Rakesh Kumar Shah
Lutheran World Relief (LWR) Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal; rshah@lwr.org

Puja Shakya
Practical Action, Kathmandu, Nepal; puja.shakya@practicalaction.org.np

Surabhi Upadhyay
Smartphones For Water Nepal (S4W-Nepal), Lalitpur, Nepal; surabhi@smartphones4water.org

ABSTRACT: Citizen science is blossoming in the water sciences and benefits to the scientific community are well reported. The experiences of involved citizens are less well researched, however, particularly in the Global South. To address this knowledge gap, we investigated the participant motivations of citizen science water projects in Nepal and the benefits and negative impacts of involvement. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were utilised with 74 participants and 15 project organisers, mainly from 5 projects. Participant responses yielded evidence of most of the commonly reported potential benefits of involvement in citizen science, including knowledge gain, increased scientific literacy, and empowerment. Not all benefits were experienced by all participants, however, and there was evidence – albeit minimal – of negative impacts, with some participants reporting the net effect of involvement as being burdensome or disappointing. Participant motivations matched those typically observed among Global North citizen scientists; most commonly, contributing to scientific research, having the opportunity to learn, and helping the community. While this study indicated that involvement in the investigated projects was mostly beneficial, further Global South citizen scientist assessments are needed to enable benefits to be maximised, negative impacts to be avoided, and motivations to be understood for improved participant targeting and retention.

KEYWORDS: Citizen science, Global South, water resources, water quality, disaster risk reduction, participant assessment, Nepal

Engaging and learning with water infrastructure: Rufaro Irrigation Scheme, Zimbabwe

Tavengwa Chitata
The University of Sheffield, Department of Geography, Sheffield, United Kingdom; tchitata1@sheffield.ac.uk

Jeltsje Sanne Kemerink-Seyoum
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Delft, The Netherlands; and IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands; j.kemerink@un-ihe.org

Frances Cleaver
Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK; f.cleaver@lancaster.ac.uk

ABSTRACT: In this paper, we focus on changes made in the form and materiality of water infrastructure in a smallholder irrigation scheme in Zimbabwe. We use this focus on sociotechnical tinkering as a practical entry point to exploring how these changes matter in shaping knowledges and relationships in irrigated agriculture. Drawing on data collected through ethnographic methods, we show how history and politics matter in shaping the possibilities of rearranging infrastructure. Equally important are the knowledge-laden, embodied and discursive practices of the farmers, operators and engineers who engage with infrastructure. We argue that through the knowledges, creativity and agency of people interacting with irrigation infrastructure, water as well as power are (re)defined and (re)distributed in subtle and often unexpected, yet significant, ways.

KEYWORDS: Groundwater, irrigation infrastructure, smallholder farming, knowledge, Zimbabwe

The need for co-evolution of groundwater law and community practices for groundwater justice and sustainability: Insights from Maharashtra, India

Gabriela Cuadrado-Quesada
IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education, Delft, the Netherlands; g.quesada@un-ihe.org

K.J. Joy
Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM), Pune, India; joykjjoy2@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: With groundwater becoming the mainstay for meeting water requirements for life and livelihoods, countries around the world are experimenting with law reforms in order to establish some guiding rules for its use, distribution and protection. A fundamental question about law reforms is the degree to which they incorporate justice and sustainability. This article, in responding to this question, focuses on Maharashtra, India. We base our response on a content analysis of the 2009 Maharashtra Groundwater (Development and Management) Act; the 2018 Maharashtra Groundwater (Development and Management Draft Groundwater Rules; and a village case study. Primary data was collected in Pune, Mumbai, and Hivre Bazar village; this included an empirical analysis of 47 in-depth interviews, participation in a number of village meetings and open-ended discussions, and direct observations of groundwater practices. Our analysis led to three conclusions. First, the 2009 Groundwater Act and the 2018 Draft Groundwater Rules are primarily driven by concern for sustainability of the resource, especially in areas where the water table is steadily declining, but when it comes to groundwater justice, no proactive measures are suggested in either the 2009 Groundwater Act or the 2018 Draft Groundwater Rules. Second, there are certain core factors identified at the local level that we believe to be fundamental in facilitating sustainability and – to a lesser extent – groundwater justice. These factors include a community’s ability to: (1) acknowledge that there is a crisis and display a willingness to engage with it; (2) create a rule-bound community groundwater resource; (3) demonstrate leadership and the feeling of community; and (4) utilise awareness, information and knowledge. Our third conclusion is that there is a need for the co-evolution of community practices and state-led groundwater law; such a co-evolution has the potential to put in place arrangements around groundwater that can support both groundwater justice and sustainability.

KEYWORDS: Groundwater justice, sustainability, groundwater law, practices, India

Diagnosing watersheds in India: Integrating power and politics in the analysis of commons governance

Shashank Deora
Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India; deora.shashank@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: The experience of watershed development and management in countries of the Global South highlights significant challenges to governance. Establishing the overlap between watershed and commons, this paper identifies some of the most critical challenges to watershed governance in India, which follow from the uneven power relations and politics among diverse watershed actors. Common issues are faced in the implementation of the adaptive, polycentric governance regimes that are recommended for governing complex social-ecological systems like watersheds. Popular approaches in the commons literature that are focused on institutional analysis, however, do not adequately engage with the power and politics in natural resource governance; indeed, power relations and politics around a watershed can be better analysed using a social constructionist approach to natural resource governance. As has been attempted in some recent commons scholarship, this should include perspectives from political ecology, feminist political ecology, and critical human geography. Such an approach can help explain the historical emergence of the watershed through multiple socially constructed processes. It can also facilitate investigation into the relationship between watershed governing institutions and the changing human subjectivities of watershed actors that underlie dynamic scalar commoning. This paper discusses the potential, challenges and limitations of a social constructionist approach to the comprehensive diagnosis of watersheds; it also highlights some key questions that can be addressed through future research.

KEYWORDS: Watershed governance, watershed and commons, scalar dynamics, power and politics, socially constructed commons, human subjectivities, India

A critical reflexive audit of qualitative water governance research in the lower Hudson Valley, New York

Michael H. Finewood
Pace University Department of Environmental Studies and Science, Pleasantville, New York, USA; mfinewood@pace.edu

Gretchen Sneegas
Texas A&M University Department of Geography, College Station, Texas, USA; gsneegas@tamu.edu

Chana Friedenberg
Pace University Department of Environmental Studies and Science, Pleasantville, New York, USA; cf06945w@pace.edu

Loraine Guevarez
Pace University Department of Environmental Studies and Science, Pleasantville, New York, USA; lguevarez@pace.edu

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a critically reflexive audit of research we conducted to explore perceptions of water resource governance and conditions. In 2018/19, we administered stakeholder perception surveys to people who were working in, or had contributed to, watershed governance in the Lower Hudson Valley, New York. Through an initial analysis we determined that participation was not representative of regional diversity. As a result, we took steps to address this disparity in participation by developing a mid-course correction and instituting a series of focused interviews with people from communities 'missed' in the surveys. We also conducted an audit of our methods to better understand where we went wrong. Here we discuss our research methods and experiences as well as how our positionalities and a 'colourblind' methodology introduced and maintained barriers to participation. We draw specifically on literature from watershed governance, participation, intersectionality, and critical race theory. We also draw on the responses of interview participants, which identified racialised barriers and lack of representation as key reasons for broader disengagement within the water governance community that we surveyed. We argue that our methods reproduced existing institutional modes of networking and reinforced existing barriers to participation, particularly for under-represented communities.

KEYWORDS: Watershed governance, methods, barriers to participation, critical reflexive audit, Hudson Valley, USA

The contested politics of drought, water security and climate adaptation in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin

Jason Alexandra
Alexandra and Associates, Melbourne, VIC 3095, Australia & RMIT University, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia; jason@alexandra-consulting.com

Lauren Rickards
Centre for Urban Research, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia; lauren.rickards@rmit.edu.au

ABSTRACT: Droughts are intensifying in many mid-latitude river basins due to climate change; therefore understanding the influence of droughts on water policy is crucial. This study of the politics of water reforms in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) analyses contrasting discourses of water security during the Millennium Drought (1996-2010). The paper traces the historical evolution, mobilisation and effects of three discourses defined as 'drought-proofing', 'higher value use' and 'river restoration'. These are broadly aligned with engineering, economics and ecological perspectives, and while all discourses were integrated into government responses to the drought, the resurgence of drought-proofing significantly altered policy settings intended to shift MDB water management onto a more sustainable path. The paper illustrates the political and physical conditioning of water policy, placing drought responses in their historical context. The analysis demonstrates how policy actors used discourses of water security to define normative goals and legitimise policies, particularly when climatic extremes provide opportunities to influence policy outcomes. The paper provides three key insights for water governance and climate adaptation: first, drought responses can have far-reaching effects for water governance and policy trajectories; second, droughts pose challenges to positive climate adaptation when they revitalise heroic drought-proofing initiatives; and third, understanding the historical roots of contemporary drought responses is vital for effective climate adaptation.

KEYWORDS: Water security, water politics, drought, climate change adaptation, discourse, Murray-Darling Basin, Australia

The political economy of corruption and unequal gains and losses in water and sanitation services: Experiences from Bangkok

Danny Marks
School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland; danny.marks@dcu.ie

Michael Breen
Anti-Corruption Research Centre, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland; michael.breen@dcu.ie

ABSTRACT: This article presents empirical information on experiences of corruption in the wastewater sector. Previous studies have examined the types and magnitude of corrupt behaviour that have been documented in water supply and sanitation services and have found that corruption in the sector is sophisticated and pervasive. Drawing on interviews with key stakeholders, we document a range of corrupt behaviours at the citizen–institution interface and in public financial management. Our findings underline the importance of contextual factors, including the rapid industrialisation and urbanisation taking place in the Extended Bangkok Metropolitan Region, as well as the existing institutional and regulatory weaknesses. Our findings also point to the environmental impact of corruption in the wastewater sector, a hitherto neglected factor which our respondents perceived as an immediate and direct threat to their communities and livelihoods.

KEYWORDS: Political economy of corruption, wastewater and sanitation sector, Khlong Dan wastewater plant, integrity failures, Extended Bangkok Metropolitan Region, Thailand

The path to the new urban water paradigm – From modernity to metamodernism

Manuel Franco-Torres
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway; m.franco.torres@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: The urban water sector in industrialised countries is transitioning towards a new paradigm, usually characterised by participatory approaches to governance, integrated modes of management, circular economies, partnership with nature, and green and distributed infrastructure. However, change in a prevailing paradigm is rarely seen in connection with shifts in the underlying societal beliefs, assumptions, and values of an epoch (that is, the cultural framework). In this paper, I review the alterations that the dominant urban water paradigm has experienced over the past 150 years, analysing them in relation to evolving cultural frameworks. I start with industrial modernity (mid-19th century to mid-20th century), followed by descriptions of postmodernism and reflexive modernisation (late 20th century). Finally, I provide an innovative analysis of the new urban water paradigm as a reflection of metamodernism, an emergent cultural framework recently described in the field of cultural studies. I show that metamodernism can be used to explain coherently how urban water systems in industrialised countries are responding to growing complexity and uncertainty. They do so by oscillating between principles associated with modernity, such as order, technological optimism and utopian development, and postmodern principles, such as eclecticism, partial views of reality and participation.

KEYWORDS: Urban water management, new paradigm, modernity, reflexive modernisation, metamodernism

Viewpoint: An intersectional approach to water equity in the US

Andrea K. Gerlak
School of Geography, Development & Environment, Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA; agerlak@email.arizona.edu

Elena Louder
School of Geography, Development & Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA; elouder@email.arizona.edu

Helen Ingram
Urban Planning and Public Policy, School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, California, USA; hingram@uci.edu

ABSTRACT: In the United States today, there is growing concern over what is being referred to as a 'water crisis', but which is, in fact, a crisis of equity in water access. This concern has been exacerbated and illuminated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper draws on reports from leading NGOs, activist groups and media sources, on commentary from high-profile water actors, and on emerging academic literature. In the process of these investigations, it uncovers a tendency to frame the water crisis primarily in terms of affordability; it also notes widespread concern over access and water quality issues. All of these are fundamentally related to equity principles. We argue here that seeing America’s water crisis as being about equity of access provides an opportunity to foreground the historic inequities revealed by the pandemic and by the subsequent economic downturn. A broader, intersectional approach can open-up the problem framing of water equity in the US to include histories of racism and colonialism. An intersectional approach allows for a more integrated and holistic analysis of the ways in which social difference shapes access, quality and affordability of water. Underlying power structures can be revealed through a better understanding of how water inequities result from broader patterns of systemic racism and colonial relations. Ultimately, this improved understanding can result in interventions that disrupt familiar patterns of inequality. As the idea of a water crisis in the US comes into the mainstream, the paper offers a point from which academics can begin to frame their research and a base from which practitioners can consider how to better achieve equity in water governance.

KEYWORDS: Equity, water crisis, intersectionality, race, power, US

Mutual water systems and the formation of racial inequality in Los Angeles County

Justin McBride
University of California Los Angeles Department of Urban Planning, Los Angeles, United States of America, jgmcbride1@ucla.edu

ABSTRACT: Environmental justice scholarship has indicated that a deeper contextualisation of histories and institutions is key to moving beyond simple perpetrator–victim paradigms of environmental injustice. Such contextualisation calls for recentring the state and the firm in analysis. This study answers that call by exploring five small private non-profit drinking water systems in the Los Angeles County communities of Maywood and Cudahy. Using data from Internal Revenue Service tax returns and various publicly available documents, I argue that the five firms are deeply implicated in the ongoing production of racial difference. The internal dynamics of the firms exhibit corruption and the stifling of community concerns, even while at times the firms provided unclean water. The state has supported these conditions both tacitly and actively at several scales. Even though the firms are not typical large for-profit investor-owned utilities, under the processes of racial capitalism their unique structure has enabled them to participate in the formation of environmental injustice and has made them an important part of the mosaic of forces contributing to overall environmental racism in the region.

KEYWORDS: Mutual water company, racial capitalism, corruption, social movements, Los Angeles, USA

Native American Tribes and dam removal: Restoring the Ottaway, Penobscot and Elwha rivers

Coleen A. Fox
Dartmouth College, Geography and Environmental Studies, Hanover, NH, USA; coleen.a.fox@dartmouth.edu

Nicholas J. Reo
Dartmouth College, Native American Studies and Environmental Studies, Hanover, NH, USA; nicholas.j.reo@dartmouth.edu

Brett Fessell
Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Peshawbestown, MI, USA; brett.fessell@gtbindians.com

Frank Dituri
City of Traverse City Department of Public Services, Traverse City, MI, USA; fdituri@traversecitymi.gov

ABSTRACT: Since the early 1900s, more than 1700 dams have been removed from rivers in the United States. Native American Tribes have played a key role in many significant removals, bringing cultural, economic, and legal resources to bear on the process. Their involvement contrasts with the displacement and marginalisation that have historically characterised the relationship between Native Americans and the dams built by settler – colonial governments on their rivers. Our research investigates Tribal involvement in dam removals, with examples from the Ottaway, Penobscot, and Elwha rivers. We ask the following: what roles have Tribes played in successful removals? How do dam removals affect and reflect shifting relations between Tribal governments and non-Tribal actors? Our research finds that Tribal involvement provides opportunities for inserting underacknowledged values and resource claims into dam removal efforts, and that it facilitates new collaborations and alliances. We also find evidence of Tribal involvement affecting the nature and practice of river restoration through dam removal. We conclude that the involvement of Tribes in dam removal contributes to important shifts in environmental politics in the US, and that it also creates opportunities for restorative environmental justice for Native Americans and their rivers.

KEYWORDS: Native American Tribes, dam removal, Indigeneity, restorative environmental justice, political ecology

The work that goes into policy transfer: Making the Dutch delta approach travel

Shahnoor Hasan
Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Water Governance Department, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, the Netherlands; s.hasan@un-ihe.org

Jaap Evers
Water Governance Department, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, the Netherlands; j.evers@un-ihe.org

Margreet Zwarteveen
Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Water Governance Department, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, the Netherlands; m.zwarteveen@un-ihe.org

ABSTRACT: The government of the Netherlands actively frames the country’s delta planning expertise as a must-have solution for sustainable delta management in other countries. Texts that explain or promote the transfer of delta planning expertise tend to portray it as something that happens because of the intrinsic qualities of this expertise. The starting point of this paper is discomfort with this portrayal. This discomfort importantly stems from the hierarchy it assumes between the country of origin and the country of destination, with the former ranking higher in terms of degree of development and technological advancement. We mobilise insights from the sociology of translation and from the anthropology of development cooperation and scholarship on policy entrepreneurship to explore how the story of policy transfer can be told in ways that are more symmetrical and which recognise the contributions of all involved. Empirical material about the travels of the Dutch Delta Programme to Vietnam and Bangladesh reveals that policy transfer in these cases mainly consisted of two types of work: maintaining or developing alliances and creating political buy-in. The effectiveness of the actors involved in the work does not so much depend on the technical planning or water expertise for which many of them are hired; rather, it depends on their salespersonship, diplomacy, and skills in negotiation and dialoguing. Recognising that this is so provides a good basis for rethinking how capacities for effective transfer can be developed and nurtured, and how these are and should be distributed. It also supports more dialogical ways of writing and talking about transfer, ways that foreground the mutual learning that occurs between 'initiators' and 'receivers'.

KEYWORDS: Dutch Delta Programme, policy transfer, policy translation, policy entrepreneurship, Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, Mekong Delta Plan

Hydro-hegemony, water governance, and water security: Palestinians under Israeli occupation in the Jordan Valley, West Bank

Michelle Rudolph
International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, The Netherlands; michelle-rudolph@outlook.com

Rachel Kurian
International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, The Netherlands; kurian@iss.nl

ABSTRACT: 'Hydro-hegemony' typically refers to the power-related tactics and strategies used by stronger states in transboundary water disputes that prioritise their access to water and compel weaker entities to submit to these conditions. Such asymmetrical power relations also have a bearing on the nature of water governance, and thereby, the water and human security of vulnerable water users, as detailed in the conceptual framework of this article. Our analysis of the case of the West Bank, and more specifically the Jordan Valley, shows how Israeli control over the region – most visibly manifested in superior weaponry along with greater economic and technological capacities – influences the institutions of water governance as well as decision-making and implementation processes in favour of Israel while deliberately generating water and human insecurity for Palestinians. During fieldwork in 2019, we interviewed Palestinian water users in the Jordan Valley as well as representatives of water governance and other related institutions in the West Bank. Their 'voices' highlight the different dimensions that lead to water insecurity being structural, systemic, and pervasive in the daily lives of Palestinians. Their water insecurity in the context of military occupation is linked to their overall human insecurity. As a result, Palestinians are denied not only their right to water but potentially also their right to life.

KEYWORDS: Hydro-hegemony, water governance, water security, human security, Palestinians, Jordan Valley, West Bank

Exploring 100 Years of Finnish transboundary water interactions with Russia: An historical analysis of diplomacy and cooperation

Juho Haapala
Aalto University, Espoo, Finland; juho.haapala@aalto.fi

Marko Keskinen
Aalto University, Espoo, Finland; marko.keskinen@aalto.fi

ABSTRACT: This study combines the strengths of historical studies and analytical approaches on transboundary water interactions to establish an historical process perspective on transboundary waters. The study analytically separates transboundary water cooperation, water diplomacy, and their broader political setting, and analyses their interplay over a long period of time. The paper presents a detailed case study on the development and transformation of Finnish-Russian transboundary water interactions over the last 100 years, with an emphasis on Finland and its relationship with the Soviet Union/Russia after World War II. The setting remains relatively understudied despite its intriguing characteristics and its importance to the pioneering of water cooperation arrangements such as reciprocal compensation mechanisms. Using four distinct time periods, the study scrutinises how water diplomacy actors, institutional developments, broader political environs, and historical occurrences have ultimately led to the current cooperative setting. The findings emphasise the role played by societal trends in steering politics and water diplomacy as well as in the crafting of transboundary water cooperation. They also indicate how establishing an institutional basis for cooperation requires both political commitment and technical expertise, often over a very long period of time. The findings demonstrate how the institutions of cooperation, once they emerged, resulted in a rather self-governing operating body for everyday transboundary interaction, replacing water diplomacy as the dominant means of interaction in the studied context. Analysing historical trajectories helps to critically investigate our current discourses and practices and to understand the impact that broader societal trends have on transboundary water interactions.

KEYWORDS: Historical analysis, water diplomacy, transboundary water cooperation, international waters, water history, historical institutionalism, Finland, Russia, the Soviet Union