Shrimp economies and hydrosocial lives in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Yu-Kai Liao
International Degree Program in Climate Change and Sustainable Development, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; liaoyk@ntu.edu.tw

ABSTRACT: Shrimp economies in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta are a form of economic, political, and infrastructural project undertaken to address saline water intrusion and increase access to international markets. This paper examines shrimp farming in this region using the concept of hydrosocial life to analyse how water is entangled with life forms and forms of life in bioeconomies from two angles: (1) the ecological conditions of production and (2) agrarian, technical, and environmental changes in the delta. It does so using delta methods, comparing four kinds of shrimp farming: integrated mangrove-shrimp farming, alternating rice-shrimp farming, intensive shrimp farming, and super-intensive shrimp farming. All are conducted by various stakeholders in the rainy and dry seasons and in different parts of the Mekong Delta. This paper argues that shrimp farming organises hydrosocial lives by constructing ecological conditions of production, which are both supported and constrained by the delta as a turbulent environment and an infrastructuralised object. Each kind of shrimp farming requires a distinctive hydrosocial life, imposing uneven impacts on the everyday lives of farmers, workers, and entrepreneurs and producing agrarian transformations, technical development, and environmental changes. Shrimp breeders shift between these four types of shrimp farming in response to household income needs, biosecurity concerns, and policy measures. This paper extends water research and delta studies by exploring relationships between water, life, and economies in a deltaic environment.

KEYWORDS: Shrimp, disease, hydrosocial life, ecological conditions of production, Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Citizen intercession towards safeguarding the Vishwamitri River, India

Neha Sarwate
The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, India; neha.v.sarwate@gmail.com

Shishir R. Raval
Formerly with the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, India; inmsuarchsrr@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: As rivers in the urban areas of developing economies are subjected to various policies that result in environmental pressures, it is prudent to examine the administrative attitudes and decision-making processes to learn how concerned community members and experts can shape and guide such policies and plans. This paper provides a description and summative evaluation of the intercession process by the Concerned Citizens of Vadodara (CCV) in the case of the Vishwamitri Riverfront Development Project (VRDP) and post-VRDP phase. This inductive approach records the entire interplay of stakeholders’ decisions and actions through interviews with key decision-makers and analysis of events and communications amongst the stakeholders. Emerging patterns are correlated through content and frequency analyses and are discussed in terms of values, structure, and processes. The case of the VRDP is significant, as the multipronged, persistent intercession by the CCV not only resulted in the withdrawal of the project but set a precedent in the judicial realm towards the scientific understanding of rivers in India. It provides lessons for making course corrections in similar cases and demonstrates that diligent involvement of local citizens and experts along with application of legal tools is crucial for shaping socio-ecological interventions concerning rivers in urban areas.

KEYWORDS: Citizen Action, Riverfront Development, Urban Governance, Socio-ecological Interventions, Environmental Litigation, India

In pursuit of water policy nirvana: Examining the role of catchment groups in Aotearoa New Zealand

Edward Challies
Waterways Centre, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; edward.challies@canterbury.ac.nz

Marc Tadaki
Cawthron Institute, Nelson, New Zealand; Lincoln University, Lincoln, New Zealand; marc.tadaki@lincoln.ac.nz

Jim Sinner
Cawthron Institute, Nelson, New Zealand; jim.sinner548@gmail.com

Margaret Kilvington
Independent Social Research, Evaluation and Facilitation, Christchurch, New Zealand; margaret.kilvington@gmail.com

Paratene Tane
Takarangi Research, Dunedin, New Zealand; hirini@takarangi.co.nz

Christina Robb
Happen Consulting, Christchurch, New Zealand; christina.robb@happen.co.nz

David Diprose
Pourakino Catchment Group, Farmer, Riverton, New Zealand

Phillip Fluerty
Te Runaka O Ōraka Aparima, Kai Tahu. Colac Bay, New Zealand

Rio Greening
Parawhenua marae, Northland Ohaeawai, New Zealand

Lee Mason
Ngāti Kuia, Te Hoiere, New Zealand

Brent Paterson
Mangaone Catchment Group, Patoka, New Zealand

Marty Robinson
Waitangi River Catchment Group, Northland Regional Councillor, Keri Keri, New Zealand

Michael Shearer
Hebron Farming Ltd., Reefton, New Zealand

ABSTRACT: Water quality decline has proven to be an intractable policy problem worldwide due to the complexity of multiple interests in land and water use. In Aotearoa New Zealand, a proliferation of local catchment groups, including collectives of farmers and other land users and stakeholders, raises important questions about the scope for government to direct collective management towards water policy implementation, and the opportunities and pitfalls of doing so. This paper draws on evidence from a collaborative research project in Aotearoa New Zealand to consider how an emerging catchment-group–led approach might address water policy goals. We examine the emergent policy narrative around catchment groups as a water management solution, and the investment in this approach by government agencies, industry bodies and non-governmental organisations. We then explore a diversity of experiences across four case study catchments. Our focus is on group membership, purpose, relationships, structure and resourcing, with the aim of illustrating how these characteristics of catchment groups influence their ability to carry out policy-relevant actions. We argue that efforts to enlist catchment groups in policy implementation have uneven consequences and that agencies and catchment groups alike should pay attention to the alignment between policy goals and group purpose, to the value of diversity and difference among groups, and to the fine line between supporting and instrumentalising groups towards implementing freshwater policy.

KEYWORDS: Watershed groups, collective management, action research, Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, policy implementation, Aotearoa

Assembling, channelling, and orienting watershed management: The performative roles of computer models in environmental management institutions

Jeremy Trombley
Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; jtrombl@uwo.ca

ABSTRACT: Large-scale watershed management increasingly depends on the use of computational models to inform decision-making and track management goals; however, the roles that models play in environmental management institutions far exceed their informational content. Science studies scholars have approached modelling as also a performative practice that shapes the relational context of watershed management. Drawing on an ethnographic approach, this article examines a single computer model as it is developed and deployed in an environmental management organisation. The study shows that a single model can serve multiple roles within a watershed management institution depending on specific conditions and contexts; further, by serving these multiple roles rather than a single informational one, models are uniquely useful for organising environmental science and management practices and institutions across a heterogeneous set of agents. Examining these multiple roles can help us to understand not only the process of computational modelling, but also the process of management and how different organisations can coordinate with one another through the use of modelling.

KEYWORDS: Computational models, watershed management, performative research, participatory modelling, Chesapeake Bay

A politics of global datasets and models in flood risk management

Joshua Cohen
School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom; j.b.cohen@leeds.ac.uk

Anna Mdee
School of Politics and International Studies. University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom; a.l.mdee@leeds.ac.uk

Mark A. Trigg
School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom; m.trigg@leeds.ac.uk

Shivani Singhal
School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom; s.singhal@leeds.ac.uk

Sarah Cooper
University of Liverpool, United Kingdom, Liverpool, United Kingdom; s.j.cooper2@liverpool.ac.uk

Abel Negussie Alemu
Water Technology Institute, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia; nugussie2127@gmail.com

Eden Seifu
Addis Ababa university, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; eden.seifu@aau.edu.et

Cindy Lee Ik Sing
Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle, United Kingdom; and Newcastle University Medicine, Iskandar Puteri, Malaysia; cindy.lee@ncl.ac.uk

Mark V. Bernhofen
Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom; mark.bernhofen@eci.ox.ac.uk

Ajay Bhave
School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom; a.g.bhave@leeds.ac.uk

Andrew Carr
Water Consultancy Division, Mott Macdonald, Glasgow, UK; andrew.b.carr@googlemail.com

C.T. Dhanya
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, India; dhanya@civil.iitd.ac.in

Alemseged Tamiru Haile
International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Ethiopia; a.t.haile@cgiar.org

Leonairo Pencue-Fierro
GOL/GEA, Universidad del Cauca, Popayán, Colombia; leonairo@unicauca.edu.co

Zulfaqar Sa’adi
Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Water Security, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia; zulfaqar19863@gmail.com

Prabhakar Shukla
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, India; prabhakar.gcrf@gmail.com

Yady Tatiana Solano-Correa
Faculty of Engineering and Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Cali, Colombia; tatiana.solano@javerianacali.edu.co

Jaime Amezaga
Faculty of Engineering and Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Cali, Colombia; jaime.amezaga@newcastle.ac.uk

Shambhavi Gupta
School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle, United Kingdom; guptashambhavi5@gmail.com

Ashok Kumar
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York, USA; a.kumar@spa.ac.in

Adey Nigatu Mersha
School of Planning and Architecture; New Delhi, India; adey.n@wlrc-eth.org

Zainura Zainon Noor
Water and Land Resource Centre (WLRC), Ethiopia; zainurazn@utm.my

Alesia Ofori
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia; alesia.ofori@cranfield.ac.uk

Tilaye Worku Bekele
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cranfield University, UK; tworkcon@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Momentum and interest have gathered around global flood risk datasets and models (GFMs). Such tools are often argued to be particularly useful in contexts where relevant data – such as stream flow and human settlement location – is sparse, inconsistent, or non-existent. As a relatively new technology, the technical limitations of GFMs – as specifically technical methodological challenges – have been quite well explored in existing literature. However, through engagement with literature, government policy documents and plans, and interviews with academic and commercial experts in Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Malaysia, and the UK, we show that their relevance and utility in reality cross-cut the technical, the political, and the social.

We argue that GFMs risk becoming another means through which states and other powerful actors re-imagine floods as technical challenges, while they are at root political-economic dilemmas (cf. Ferguson, 1994). This is linked to the ways that such technologies advance, becoming increasingly computationally powerful and accurate, and to the mutually reinforcing roles they play in relation to various 'fantasy plans' produced by governmental and other agencies (Weinstein et al., 2019). By focussing on an extended case study in the Akaki Catchment, Ethiopia, we argue that such fantasy plans – like those blueprinting urban development – serve to buttress state power through the performance of stability and reliability, while they avoid effectively tackling, or may even exacerbate, the political-economic realities which drive unequitable and unsustainable development. Such forms of development are directly linked to increasing flood risk both locally and globally.

KEYWORDS: Global datasets, global models, flood risk management, politics, fantasy plans

Working-class water justice: Salvadoran sindicalistas and the fight for a “just and dignified life”

Claudia Díaz-Combs
SUNY Old Westbury, Old Westbury, Long Island, New York, USA; diazcombsc@oldwestbury.edu

ABSTRACT: El Salvador is one of the rainiest countries in Latin America, but it is also one of the most water stressed. State negligence and lack of effective regulation of industrial, agricultural and domestic discharge has meant that, for decades, effluent has flowed unchecked into El Salvador’s freshwater bodies. Today, around 90% of the country’s surface water is contaminated. Various important Salvadoran social movements have rallied around socio-ecological concerns that include protecting public goods, services, land and water from contamination and from the encroachments of privatisation. Among them, the environmental movement is the most prominent. While not centred on water justice struggles, Salvadoran unions continue to play a major role in campaigns against austerity. This article focuses on the Salvadoran labour movement. It observes the ways in which unions have folded water-related concerns into the broader economic and workplace demands. Water justice is complex, diverse and multifaceted and must be approached from different perspectives. In this article, I argue for a working-class water justice framework that uses strategies such as strikes, work stoppages and collective bargaining to secure demands for improved infrastructure, higher wages, and to protect public services like the water network.

KEYWORDS: Water justice, labour unions, political ecology, infrastructure, El Salvador

Exploring the diverse motivations of volunteer water management committees in rural Malawi

Ian Cunningham
Small is Beautiful Consulting; and Honorary Fellow, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney; ian.cunningham@smallis.au

Juliet Willetts
Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney; Juliet.willetts@uts.edu.au

Tim Foster
Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney; Tim.foster@uts.edu.au

Keren Winterford
Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney; keren.winterford@uts.edu.au

ABSTRACT: Motivated volunteer water committees are central to the effectiveness of community-based management (CBM) approaches to rural drinking water supply. CBM is the predominant approach to managing rural drinking water supplies, particularly in low-income countries. In CBM, it is assumed that a community’s interest in a sustained water supply will motivate them to take on water supply management responsibilities. However, in practice and in the academic literature, Water Point Committee (WPC) members’ motivations have been oversimplified and are poorly understood. This paper uses Self-Determination Theory (SDT), a theory of motivation, to analyse the types and quality of WPC members’ motivations across six rural locations in Malawi. We found a wider range and quality of motives than has been documented in the literature. WPC members’ autonomous, higher-quality motives included personal benefits from an improved water supply service, the pro-social nature of the committee role, an interest in learning and working with others, and positive changes in self-esteem. Lower-quality motives were experienced as feelings of being pressured and included continued committee participation to avoid shame or to avoid disappointing others. Our study findings show the relevance of SDT in providing a more nuanced understanding of what drives WPC members’ commitment to water management responsibilities. This understanding of, and support for, members’ motivations is critical for sustaining community-based rural water supply services.

KEYWORDS: Motivations, rural water supply, volunteers, community-based, Self-Determination Theory, behaviour change, Malawi

Mekong River dry season changes due to hydropower dams and extractive processes: Making sense of contradictory community observations in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia

Ian G. Baird
Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA; ibaird@wisc.edu

Michael A. S. Thorne
British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK; mast3@cam.ac.uk

Sirasak Gaja-Svasti
Ubon Ratchathani University, Warin Chamrap, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand; gajasvasti@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: The Mekong is amongst the most important rivers in the world with regard to biodiversity and livelihood. Over the last few decades, however, the river has experienced dramatic hydrological changes, mainly due to the construction of large hydropower dams on the mainstream Mekong and its tributaries. Other potentially crucial factors include sand mining, erosion, embankment construction, and water extraction. In March and early April of 2024, we organised focus group interviews to discuss the changes that have occurred during the dry season with local people living in different communities along the mainstream Mekong River: 32 villages in eight provinces in northern and northeastern Thailand, 9 villages in Champassak Province, southern Laos, and 3 villages in Stung Treng Province, northeastern Cambodia. In this paper, we present some of the results of this research, particularly focusing on water level and turbidity changes, as local people along the Mekong River have varied understandings regarding whether there is more or less water in the Mekong River during the dry season. We argue that riverbed incision resulting largely from hydropower dam development and sand mining have, in particular, led many people living along the Mekong between northeastern Thailand and central Laos to incorrectly believe that there is less water in the Mekong River during the dry season compared to the past, while dry season water releases from upriver hydropower dams have led those in northern Thailand, lower northeastern Thailand, southern Laos, and northeastern Cambodia to assess that there is now more water in the Mekong River.

KEYWORDS: Hydrology, sediment, local knowledge, water level, Mekong River, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia

User acceptance of digital groundwater technologies: A data governance perspective

Tanya Baycheva-Merger
Chair of Forest and Environmental Policy, University of Freiburg, Germany, tanya.baycheva@ifp.uni-freiburg.de

Jakob Kramer
Chair of Forest and Environmental Policy, University of Freiburg, Germany, jakob.kramer@ifp.uni-freiburg.de

Kerstin Stahl
Hydrological Chairs, University of Freiburg, Germany, kerstin.stahl@hydrology.uni-freiburg.de

Sylvia Kruse
Chair of Forest and Environmental Policy, University of Freiburg, Germany, sylvia.kruse@ifp.uni-freiburg.de

ABSTRACT: This study explores the user acceptance of Internet of Things (IoT) real-time monitoring systems for groundwater management from the perspective of data governance. While user acceptance is widely acknowledged as key to the adoption of digital technologies, existing research often overlooks how data governance structures shape users’ willingness to adopt and use such systems. Following a case study approach and drawing on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with representatives of public and private organisations in the region of Freiburg, Germany, the study examines how issues of openness, accountability, and power influence user acceptance. The findings reveal that, while openness in data sharing can foster transparency, trust, and collaboration, unresolved concerns related to data privacy, security, quality, and ownership function as barriers to adoption. Smaller organisations in particular face challenges in accessing or benefiting from real-time data, raising questions about equity and inclusion in digital water governance. The study contributes to the emerging debate on digitalisation and data governance in the water sector, showing that user acceptance depends not only on perceived usefulness but also on the institutional, legal, and political context in which digital technologies are embedded. A more critical, inclusive, and context-sensitive approach to digital water governance is therefore needed.

KEYWORDS: Digitalisation, groundwater management, user acceptance, data governance, Germany

Water infrastructures and local power in peripheral urbanisation: New insights from urban political ecology in São Paulo

Tade Rücker
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Geographisches Institut, Kiel, Germany; ruecker@geographie.uni-kiel.de

Rainer Wehrhahn
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Geographisches Institut, Kiel, Germany; wehrhahn@geographie.uni-kiel.de

ABSTRACT: This paper explores how access to water in peripheral urban settlements is shaped by micro-scale power relations, material infrastructures, and collective organisation. Engaging with debates on infrastructure and peripheral urbanisation in the Global South, the paper conceptualises access to water infrastructures through the lens of Access Theory. The study examines two recent land occupations in São Paulo, Brazil, which differ significantly in their organisational structures. The comparison reveals that seemingly similar contexts of peripheral urbanisation generate profoundly divergent hydrosocial metabolisms through residents’ differentiated approaches to self-built infrastructure development. It contributes to situated Urban Political Ecology debates by demonstrating how peripheral urbanisation produces heterogeneous socionatural configurations rather than uniform patterns of exclusion. This points to the need for nuanced approaches to 'informal settlements' and highlights residents as active producers of urban infrastructure and distinct territorial subjectivities.

KEYWORDS: Peripheral urbanisation, infrastructure, Urban Political Ecology, water, São Paulo, Brazil

Unravelling sociomaterial complexities in river connectivity restoration: Understanding fishways as heterogeneous networks

Panos Panagiotopoulos
Aquaculture biology and Fisheries ecology Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands; panos.panagiotopoulos@wur.nl

Anthonie D. Buijse
Aquaculture biology and Fisheries ecology Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands; and Department of Freshwater Ecology and Water Quality, Deltares, Wageningen, the Netherlands; tom.buijse@deltares.nl

Luc Roozendaal
Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands; lucroozendaal@hotmail.com

Hendrik V. Winter
Aquaculture biology and Fisheries ecology Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands; and Wageningen Marine Research, Ijmuiden, the Netherlands; erwin.winter@wur.nl

Leopold A.J. Nagelkerke
Aquaculture biology and Fisheries ecology Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands; leo.nagelkerke@wur.nl

Annet P. Pauwelussen
Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands; annet.pauwelussen@wur.nl

ABSTRACT: In the context of river connectivity restoration, fishways play a crucial role in facilitating the migration of fish past barriers, but their form and functionality are often determined by various sociomaterial complexities. This study uses the case of fishway development in the Waterschap Brabantse Delta management area of the Netherlands to explore such complexities. Taking a network approach, we investigated the implementation and management of fishways as a process of assembling heterogeneous networks that involve both human and non-human actors. Using data from interviews, field observations and document analysis, the research revealed fishways to be networks of actors that included fish, engineers and maintenance personnel. We further demonstrate that fishways are embedded as actors, or 'nodes', within broader networks that exert a reciprocal influence on their functioning. By following fishways across different phases of their development trajectory and tracing the participation or withdrawal of actors, we explore changes in the networks and their subsequent impact on fishway design and performance.

KEYWORDS: Fish migration, fishways, river restoration, sociomaterial networks, the Netherlands

How representatives of community-based water organisations navigate gaps in Colombia’s national drinking water co-production strategy

Katharina Lindt
Brandenburgische Technische Universitaet, Cottbus, Germany; katharina.lindt@b-tu.de

Bibiana Royero Benavides
Universidad de Cundinamarca, Fusagasugá, Colombia; pilarbenavides1979@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Community-based water provision in Colombia’s rural areas represents a form of collective resource supply that has historically developed as a countermovement to state fragility and remains the countryside’s only alternative to organised water supply. The Colombian state has legally recognised these water communities to meet constitutional and international commitments to universal drinking water access. However, integration occurs through a control-oriented approach, and is accompanied by administrative demands that most community-based providers cannot meet, which leaves them in a persistent informal status. Findings show that co-production practices reproduce governance fragilities and undermine the very social values the water communities are assumed to embody, even as state institutions depend on their work. The implemented co-production model not only requires constant informal negotiation but also fosters clientelism, corruption, socially harmful practices, and conflicts that cannot be resolved within existing structures. Based on qualitative case studies of seven community-based water providers, this article examines how volunteer representatives of these water communities navigate these contradictions, applying improvised strategies to individually sustain functionality. Meanwhile, these community-based water providers form wider networks and try to shape the public discourse around water co-production in order to achieve inclusion in the policy design process and improve collective support structures.

KEYWORDS: Community-based water supply, rural water supply, drinking water co-production, Colombia

Framing water through oil: How hydrocarbons shape water governance in Algeria

Selma Benyovszky
Human Geography, School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Reading, UK; s.benyovszky@pgr.reading.ac.uk

ABSTRACT: This study advances social science research on water by providing insights into the interplay between water and energy politics in Algeria, contributing to broader discussions on water governance in fossil-fuel-dependent nations. Using frame analysis, this research examines how water politics is positioned in relation to Algeria’s dependence on fossil fuels. The findings reveal that, despite policy rhetoric emphasising water as a national priority, hydrocarbons remain central to the state’s political strategies. Water issues, such as access and pollution, are often viewed primarily as risks to social stability rather than as ecological challenges. Consequently, water management is dominated by short-term, reactive strategies, often aimed at mitigating social discontent rather than achieving sustainable solutions. This dynamic is evident in municipalities like El Harrach, where promises of improved water quality and access are undermined by the prevailing prioritisation of hydrocarbon interests. By examining energy-water interdependencies not only as technical linkages but as key elements of statecraft and territorial control, the article shows how water governance is shaped also through lived experiences, contested meanings, and power-laden relations embedded in its hydrosocial territory.

KEYWORDS: Water governance, hydrosocial territories, hydrocarbon sector, frame analysis, Algeria

OECD’s methods of legitimation and self-authorisation in water governance

Farhad Mukhtarov
Assistant Professor of Governance and Public Policy, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, Netherlands; mukhtarov@iss.nl

Des Gasper
Professor Emeritus, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, Netherlands; gasper@iss.nl

Michael Farrelly  
Independent researcher, Sheffield, United Kingdom; michaelfarrelly@discourseacademy.org

Malte Lüken
Research Software Engineer, Netherlands e-Science Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; m.luken@esciencecenter.nl

Kody Moodley
Senior Research Software Engineer, Netherlands e-Science Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; k.moodley@esciencecenter.nl

ABSTRACT: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has established itself since 2009 as an authority in water governance. This paper examines the strategies behind that emergence, applying quantitative and qualitative text analysis techniques to a corpus of 55 OECD documents produced between 2009 and 2022. We discern five legitimating strategies. First, the OECD followed a formula from its earlier engagement in other fields that had three components: 1) reframing existing knowledge and manufacturing a declared consensus in contentious areas, 2) formulating and disseminating blueprints for good governance, and 3) formulating and disseminating corresponding frameworks with which to evaluate performance. Its second strategy has been to stress topics and themes where it already had an established reputation, that is, 'good governance' and 'new public management'. The third strategy involved referencing a limited pool of external sources that were mostly from other international organisations and consultancy groups, and underutilising the academic literature on the subject. Fourth, it referenced itself extensively in both formal citations and frequent in-text references. Fifth and finally, it orchestrated temporary networks of actors to endorse its efforts and tools. Taken together, these strategies point to the self-referential nature of the OECD’s authority in this new field. We call attention to these legitimating strategies with the goal of challenging the OECD and other international organisations to adopt more adequate and inclusive knowledge bases.

KEYWORDS: OECD, water governance, authorisation, soft power, critical discourse analysis, Structural Topic Modelling

Is collaborative groundwater governance really unfit for purpose in low- and middle-income countries? Evidence from Morocco

Nicolas Faysse
Cirad, UMR G-EAU, National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia (INAT), Tunis, Tunisia; G-EAU, Univ Montpellier, AgroParisTech, BRGM, CIRAD, INRAE, Institut Agro, IRD, Montpellier, France; faysse@cirad.fr

Zhour Bouzidi
Moulay Ismail University, Meknes, Morocco; z.bouzidi@umi.ac.ma

Jean-Daniel Rinaudo
BRGM, Montpellier, France; G-EAU, Univ Montpellier, AgroParisTech, BRGM, CIRAD, INRAE, Institut Agro, IRD, Montpellier, France; jd.rinaudo@brgm.fr

Zakia Kchikech
Moulay Ismail University, Meknes, Morocco; zakia0105@gmail.com

Yvan Caballero
BRGM, Montpellier, France; G-EAU, Univ Montpellier, AgroParisTech, BRGM, CIRAD, INRAE, Institut Agro, IRD, Montpellier, France; y.caballero@brgm.fr

Fatima Zahrae Boubekri
Agroparistech, Paris, France; fatimazahraeboubekri@gmail.com

Abdelouahab Nejjari
Moulay Ismail University, Meknes, Morocco; a.nejjari@umi.ac.ma

ABSTRACT: Attempts to establish collaborative groundwater governance (CGG) have so far generally produced limited results in low- and middle-income countries. These shortcomings have been attributed to the high transaction costs associated with such approaches, making them impractical in informal water economies. This paper examines the obstacles to designing and implementing such an approach, through the analysis of a multistakeholder process conducted in a groundwater-depleted area in Northern Morocco. The process brought together farmers, staff members of public organisations, and other stakeholders to explore options for CGG. During the process, farmers created groundwater users associations and together the participants drafted an aquifer contract. The participatory process helped overcome several obstacles to CGG, particularly those related to farmers’ engagement. The finalisation of the aquifer contract was put on hold, however, due to the limited follow-up by state actors, the insufficient coordination among the numerous public actors involved, and weak political support. The study shows that CGG may not be inherently unfit for purpose in at least some low- and middle-income countries. Moreover, the participatory design of CGG can be an opportunity for horizontal dialogue between farmers operating in informal water economies and state administrations.

KEYWORDS: Aquifer contract, collaborative groundwater governance, groundwater depletion, Morocco

"With water we will wash away the past" – The elusive promise of redressing water inequalities in post-Apartheid South Africa

Magalie Bourblanc
CIRAD, UMR G-EAU, Université de Montpellier, France; and Extraordinary Lecturer, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria (South Africa); magalie.bourblanc@cirad.fr

ABSTRACT: Water issues in South Africa have been a subject of fascination for numerous scholars around the world. Its ground-breaking National Water Act 36 of 1998 (NWA), promulgated during the democratic political transition, was meant to introduce a complete overhaul of the water sector and ensure access to water for all. In a society haunted by a long legacy of racial discrimination and exploitation, water was deemed to bring about a process of reconciliation. The NWA quickly became one of the cardinal policy reforms of the newly elected African National Congress (ANC). Twenty-five years after its adoption, however, the results are disappointing. While access to drinking water for previously discriminated-against populations was dramatically improved (especially in urban areas), the same cannot be said of access to water for productive use. Indeed, regarding the water allocation reform in rural South Africa, 'water apartheid' is still alive and well. In their accounts of the failure of the reform, scholars often blame politicians and political elites for their supposed lack of willingness to follow up on the intentions of the progressive Act. In the tradition of public policy analysis, I concentrate on the policy side rather than on the politics to explain the failed promise of the water allocation reform. Reviewing the law implementation process, I analyse how policy objectives have been filtered through state departments’ organisational culture and professional routines and operationalised on the ground through technical policy instruments. Ultimately, I shed light on how, despite new political principles and dispensations that claim the contrary, it has been possible to reproduce racial inequality and to further entrench inequalities inherited from the past. I show that this has been done by concealing water grabs from political attention through resorting to discreet policy instruments and practices that obscure the critical question of water sharing.

KEYWORDS: South African National Water Act, implementation, policy review, policy instruments, water allocation redistribution, South Africa

"What will happen to the commons?" Contesting discourses and the future of the wetlands in urbanising Guwahati, India

Hilde Nijland
Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands; hilde_nijland99@hotmail.com

Sumit Vij
Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands; sumit.vij@wur.nl

Jeroen Warner
Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands; jeroen.warner@wur.nl

ABSTRACT: Urban wetlands are essential for sustaining biodiversity, mitigating floods and supporting livelihoods, yet they are among the planet’s most threatened ecosystems. In Guwahati, a rapidly urbanising capital city in Northeast India, wetlands are a critical urban commons. They are shared spaces managed and used by urban communities, and are vital to collective wellbeing. They currently face threats from urban agglomeration, and there remains a significant gap in the understanding of how different and often contesting discourses shape perceptions, uses and governance of these wetlands. This research, therefore, addresses the key question: How are the discourses surrounding Guwahati’s wetlands contested? Employing critical discourse analysis, data collection methods included semi-structured interviews with residents across Guwahati and field observations in the two wetland areas of Deepor Beel and Silsako Beel. Findings suggest that the state (municipal and other line agencies) primarily frames wetlands as a resource for driving urban development – a discourse that is reinforced by the state’s practices. This reflects a growing detachment from these ecosystems and a clear progression towards state control and commodification, where wetlands are transformed from urban commons and meaningful 'places’ into abstract, commercialised 'spaces'. These discourses are used by both the state and several residents, but are challenged by environmentally conscious residents and civil society groups advocating for wetland preservation. These contestations illustrate the complex and conflicting values attributed to urban wetlands. Currently, the state’s modernity agenda seems to take precedence, resulting in their increasing commodification.

KEYWORDS: Urban commons, contested discourses, wetlands, Guwahati, India

Who should pay for water services and why? A typology of justifications for non-payment in eThekwini Municipal Area

Catherine Sutherland
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa; Sutherlandc@ukzn.ac.za

Bahle Mazeka
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa; elmazeka@gmail.com

Anthony Odili
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa; odilia@ukzn.ac.za

Fanele Magwaza
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa; fanelem93@gmail.com

Hayley Leck
ICLEI Africa, Durban, South Africa; hayley.leck@iclei.org

Mary Lawhon
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; mary.lawhon@ed.ac.uk

ABSTRACT: Water is widely considered to be a basic need, a human right, a resource and a gift from nature, yet there are costs associated with providing it. As states seek to ensure access, controversies remain over water service type, ownership and funding. This paper traces debates over equity, access and costs, and points to a gap between justice-oriented debates and more quantitative studies of non-payment. We respond to this gap by considering the ethical, political and social dimensions of payment, as well as framing it as a relational practice connected to reliable provision. Drawing on surveys, focus groups and interviews from eThekwini Municipal Area – where the legacy of colonialism and apartheid continues to shape material inequality and political positions – we develop a typology for understanding beliefs and practices about payment for water services. Our mixed methods approach enables us to highlight that payment is relational, social and political, and is constructed through conflicting narratives. We consider both the value of a heuristic set of categories and the difficulties of drawing sharp distinctions between the reasons for non-payment. We conclude by reflecting on the difficulty and importance of integrating diverse economic, political economic, and ethical arguments around payment for services.

KEYWORDS: Water, payments for services, infrastructure, water economics, water justice, urban political ecology, eThekwini Municipal Area, South Africa

The people behind the machine: Street-level bureaucrats in the Bắc Hưng Hải Irrigation System, Vietnam

Léo Biré
UMR G-EAU, PhD candidate, IRD, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France; ACROSS IJL, IRD, Thuy Loi University, Vietnam; leo.bire@ird.fr

Jean-Philippe Venot
UMR G-EAU, Senior Researcher, IRD, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France; jean-philippe.venot@ird.fr

Lý Ngọc Thùy Dương
Faculty of Anthropology, University of Social Sciences of Hanoi, Hanoi, Vietnam; lyduowng@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: This paper explores the everyday practices of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) in Vietnam’s Bắc Hưng Hải (BHH) irrigation system, a vast hydrosocial machine in the Red River Delta. Drawing on interviews and detailed ethnographic fieldwork, we document how SLBs (hydraulic cluster managers, station workers and water guides) navigate multiple sociomaterial interfaces, in the course of which they deal with a diversity of day-to-day sociomaterial constraints to make irrigation and drainage work. Far from being faceless agents of a rigid hydrocracy, SLBs care for the infrastructure they manage and engage in continuous sociotechnical tinkering and ethical improvisation to balance competing demands that include farmers’ needs, infrastructure decay, electricity costs, and bureaucratic oversight. We stress how SLBs engage in processes of intermediation, negotiation and bricolage, thereby shaping a particular form of everyday politics that combines formal rules with practical fixes and is epitomised in specific locales, the pumping stations where professional and social lives intertwine. As the Red River Delta faces mounting socio-environmental changes, understanding the hard work, gendered dynamics and situated ethics that characterise SLBs’ daily realities is crucial to anticipating the future of water governance in Vietnam.

KEYWORDS: Street-level bureaucrats, daily practices, irrigation, sociohydrological systems, Red River Delta, Vietnam

Assemblage insights into groundwater governance and narratives of groundwater 'crisis' in Bandung Basin, Indonesia

Safira Salsabila
Center for Environmental Studies, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia; sfiraabila@gmail.com

Elizabeth MacAfee
Faculty of Spatial Sciences, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands; e.a.mac.afee@rug.nl

Arief D. Sutadian
Innovation and Technology, Regional Research and Development Agency (BP2D) of West Java Province, Indonesia; ariefdhany@jabarprov.go.id

Anindrya Nastiti
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia; anindrya@itb.ac.id

ABSTRACT: Dwindling groundwater levels and compromised water quality have led to concerns about the potential for near- and longer-term groundwater crises in the Bandung Metropolitan Area (BMA), located in the Bandung Groundwater Basin of Indonesia. The BMA is a rapidly urbanising region where much of the population relies on groundwater to meet its household needs and and where challenges are being encountered in accessing a reliable groundwater supply. There are multiple perspectives on what aspects of the crisis are most critical and many ideas as to what can and should be done, and with what urgency. Assemblage thinking can help to understand this complex field by highlighting the sociomaterial construction of environmental problems in ways that are always contingent, heterogeneous and influenced by the agency of multiple actors. In this case study, we use media analysis, semi-structured qualitative interviews, document analysis, and participant observation to examine how problematisations of groundwater emerge and coexist. Findings reveal that media narratives, the behaviour of local institutions, and the everyday practices of groundwater users influence water-crisis–related interactions with government and even shape the crisis itself. These dynamics contribute to fragmented groundwater governance where community-led practices coexist with formal institutional arrangements. The study highlights the potential of hybrid governance models to support adaptive and context-sensitive management, particularly in the BMA and in similar urbanising regions.

KEYWORDS: Groundwater, assemblage thinking, urban water management, hybrid governance, Bandung Metropolitan Area, Indonesia