Beyond the river: Elite perceptions and regional cooperation in the Eastern Nile Basin

Rawia Tawfik
Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt; and German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungs Politik, Bonn, Germany; rawia.tawfik@feps.edu.eg

ABSTRACT: This paper argues that benefit-sharing literature has assumed, rather than examined, the conditions under which cooperation over shared water resources from transboundary rivers can lead to regional cooperation in other economic sectors – cooperation 'beyond the river'. Using the case of the Eastern Nile Basin, the paper illustrates how economic cooperation between Ethiopia and Sudan has progressed in the last decade despite the lack of significant improvement in their water cooperation. Egypt and Sudan, on the other hand, have largely failed to translate their downstream hydropolitical alliance into stronger interdependencies in other economic sectors. In explaining this nonlinear relationship between water cooperation and cooperation 'beyond the river', the article explores the perceptions of political elites in Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on the benefits and terms of cooperation, their assumptions as to who should set these terms and lead the cooperation process, and their ideas on the meaning of cooperation itself. It also underlines how incumbent regimes in each of the three Eastern Nile Basin countries view the possibility of collaborating with their counterparts in the Basin to reap the benefits of cooperation, and assess the impact of regional and international variables on this cooperation. In addition to secondary sources and official documents, the article is based on original and up-to-date interviews conducted with government officials and experts in Cairo, Addis Ababa, and Khartoum between September and November 2017.

KEYWORDS: Benefit sharing, hydropolitics, regional cooperation, Eastern Nile Basin, Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia

Nebraska’s Natural Resource District system: Collaborative approaches to adaptive groundwater quality governance

Gregory N. Sixt
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab; and (at the time of research) Tufts University, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy – Agriculture, Food and Environment Program, Boston, MA, USA; gnsixt@gmail.com

Laurens Klerkx
Wageningen University, Knowledge Technology and Innovation Group, Wageningen, The Netherlands; laurens.klerkx@wur.nl

J. David Aiken
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Agricultural Economics, Lincoln, NE, USA; daiken@unl.edu

Timothy S. Griffin
Tufts University, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy – Agriculture, Food and Environment Program, Boston, MA, USA; timothy.griffin@tufts.edu

ABSTRACT: Nonpoint source pollution of groundwater by nitrates from agricultural activity is a persistent problem for which developing effective policy approaches has proven difficult. There is little empirical information on forms of governance or regime attributes that effectively and sustainably address agricultural nonpoint source pollution of groundwater. Nebraska’s Natural Resource District (NRD) system is a rare example of a groundwater governance regime that is putting programmes in place that are likely to generate sustainable groundwater quality outcomes. We focus on three groundwater nitrate management programmes in the state that collectively represent the broader NRD system. The research shows that four elements of Nebraska’s groundwater governance regime are fundamental to its success in addressing groundwater nitrates: 1) the local nature of governance, which builds trust among stakeholders; 2) the significant authority granted to the local districts by the state, allowing for the development of locally tailored solutions; 3) the collaborative governance approach, which allows potential scale imbalances to be overcome; and 4) the taxing authority granted to NRDs, which enables them to fund locally tailored management solutions. We find that these aspects of the NRD system have created conditions that enable adaptive, collaborative governance that positions the state well to address emerging groundwater quality challenges. We present aspects of the governance regime that are generalisable to other American states as efforts to address nitrate pollution in groundwater increase.

KEYWORDS: Groundwater quality, local governance, nested regimes, nonpoint source pollution, polycentric governance, Nebraska, USA

Re-conceptualising water conservation: Rainwater harvesting in the desert of the southwestern United States

Lucero Radonic
Department of Anthropology and Environmental Science & Policy Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA; radonicl@msu.edu

ABSTRACT: Water conservation technologies and programmes are increasingly important features of water governance in urban areas. By examining people’s situated understandings and relationships with water, this article expands research on the human dimensions of water conservation beyond its traditional focus on uptake of technologies, incentives, and single metrics for evaluation. In the American Southwest prolonged drought conditions are boosting the popularity of small-scale rainwater collection systems, which are becoming formalised primarily through water conservation programmes. In Tucson, Arizona, one such programme was a success in terms of user uptake and public support; however, paradoxically, rainwater harvesting did not always result in reduced potable water consumption. To understand why this was the case, I draw on qualitative and semi-quantitative data describing how people manage their rainwater harvesting systems and how they understand and value their diverse benefits. This study contributes to ongoing policy debates over water conservation and in particular emphasizes the need to broaden our working definition of conservation beyond volumetric reduction in potable water use. Based on the observed motivations, values and practices of water users and experts, I suggest water conservation could be understood to include factors such as the reduction of waste across all water sources and the repurposing of captured water for diverse beneficial uses in urban environments.

KEYWORDS: Water conservation, urban water governance, green infrastructure, rainwater harvesting, US Southwest, Arizona

Linking water services and human well-being through the fundamental human needs framework: The case of India

Francesco M. Gimelli
School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Australia; francesco.gimelli@gmail.com

Briony C. Rogers
School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Australia; briony.rogers@monash.edu

Joannette J. Bos
Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University, Australia; annette.bos@monash.edu

ABSTRACT: Although the focus of water development in urban informal settlements has traditionally been on improving public health, development scholarship increasingly emphasises the relationship between water services and multiple dimensions of human well-being. Nevertheless, how well-being is defined in the literature remains unclear, leaving questions about what dimensions of it are to be fostered through water service development. In this paper, we argue that prominent interpretations of well-being in the water sector do not adequately represent the range of impacts of water services on the ability of informal settlers to meet their needs beyond survival. To address this gap, we make the case for the adoption of Max-Neef’s (1992) Fundamental Human Needs (FHN) framework in the water sector, which we show to present a clear, holistic and dynamic understanding of well-being. Through a case study of water service arrangements across six informal settlements in the Indian cities of Faridabad, Delhi and Mumbai, we illustrate how using the FHN framework uncovers potential pathways by which water service development can satisfy a broad range of fundamental human needs. Applying the FHN framework to these settings leads us to argue that: 1) water services should be linked to people’s aspirations as well as to their basic physical needs; 2) cultivating well-being has both intrinsic and instrumental benefits that enable individuals to become more resilient; 3) water services should be better linked with other development sectors; and 4) non-traditional water service arrangements should be re-evaluated according to their capacity to contribute to people’s well-being.

KEYWORDS: Urban informal settlements, water services, well-being, fundamental human needs, India

India’s development cooperation in Bhutan’s hydropower sector: Concerns and public perceptions

Udisha Saklani
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; us267@cam.ac.uk

Cecilia Tortajada
Institute of Water Policy, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore; cecilia.tortajada@nus.edu.sg

ABSTRACT: The global landscape of international development is undergoing a rapid transition, with emerging actors playing a significant role in meeting the developmental needs of developing-country partners. Over the past six decades, India has emerged as a major donor and development partner, directing a significant share of its assistance and investments to countries in South Asia. This paper provides an overview of Indiaʼs development cooperation with Bhutan, the largest and one of the oldest beneficiaries of Indian assistance, with special attention to the hydropower sector. In recent years, the scale of Indiaʼs disbursement and development cooperation activities in Bhutan has come under scrutiny. In this paper, we document the official views, and those of the international organisations and the media in India and Bhutan, on the possible repercussions of these activities in the near, medium and long term and how the different concerns are being addressed. We argue that in future India will have to work harder to alleviate the key concerns of stakeholders in Bhutan regarding Indiaʼs growing investments there.

KEYWORDS: Hydropower, energy development, public perception, development assistance, India, Bhutan

Liquid violence: The politics of water responsibilisation and dispossession in South Africa

Michela Marcatelli
Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa; mmarcatelli@sun.ac.za

Bram Büscher
Wageningen University, The Netherlands; Visiting Professor Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies University of Johannesburg; Research Associate Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology Stellenbosch University; bram.buscher@wur.nl

ABSTRACT: This article introduces the notion of liquid violence to explain structural and racialised water inequality in contemporary South Africa. Investigating the Waterberg region in Limpopo Province from a water perspective reveals a growing surplus population composed of (ex-)farm workers and their families. Following their relocation – often coerced – from the farms to the town of Vaalwater, these people have been forced to rely on a precarious water supply, while white landowners maintain control over abundant water resources. And yet, as we show, this form of structural violence is perceived as ordinary, even natural. Our biopolitical concept of liquid violence emphasises how this works out and is legitimised in empirical practice. The argument starts from the neoliberal idea that water access depends upon the individual responsibilisation of citizens. For the black working poor, this means accepting to pay for water services or to provide labour on farms. For white landowners, it implies tightening their exclusive control over water and resisting any improvement to the urban supply involving the redistribution of resources. Supported and enabled by the state, liquid violence operates by reworking the boundaries between the public and private spheres. On the one hand, it blurs them by transforming the provision of public water services into a market exchange. On the other hand, and paradoxically, it hardens those same boundaries by legitimising and strengthening the power of those who have property rights in water.

KEYWORDS: Individual responsibilisation, property rights, violence, water, South Africa