Paradiplomacy and the Governors’ Forum: Rethinking transboundary water governance in the Lake Chad Basin

Ifeanyichukwu Azuka Aniyie
Faculty of Business, University of New Brunswick, Canada; Ifeanyichukwu.aniyie@unb.ca

Ohiocheoya Omiunu
Kent Law School, University of Kent, United Kingdom; o.omiunu@kent.ac.uk

ABSTRACT: The paper investigates the Lake Chad Basin’s complex multilevel water governance framework. It highlights the involvement of subnational governments in this framework as a notable deviation from traditional international relations practices. While arguing that the involvement of subnational governments, facilitated by the Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum, can enhance regional cooperation and sustainable water resource utilisation, the paper suggests that the resulting change in thinking has significant implications for the theoretical foundations of international relations. Although exploratory, the paper offers a few recommendations that could help combat the possible negative consequences of this development on statehood and the interaction within the water governance framework in the Chad Basin area.

KEYWORDS: Lake Chad Basin governance, paradiplomacy, transboundary resource management, regional cooperation, sovereignty, Lake Chad Basin

The Deep-Sea Discharge Project and the failure of environmental conservation in the Ergene Basin, Turkey

Semra Ocak
Boğaziçi University, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey; semra.ocak@std.bogazici.edu.tr

Ali Kerem Saysel
University of Bergen, Department of Geography, System Dynamics Group, Norway; & Boğaziçi University, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey; ali.saysel@bogazici.edu.tr

ABSTRACT: The success of environmental conservation programmes depends partly on governance mechanisms. Top-down governance can hinder participation and thus increase the likelihood that programmes will fail. In this paper, we argue that there is a strong link between the failure of environmental conservation in the Ergene Basin and Turkey’s centralised, top-down environmental governance. Focusing on environmental planning processes, we discuss the conservation efforts aimed at remedying intense pollution, the reactions to ongoing environmental degradation, and the programmes that were designed to control pollution. To understand the main causes of the environmental conservation failure, we investigated the pollution control efforts of both local professionals and the central authorities. We analysed the environmental planning process, which emphasised regional sustainable development, and we examined the action plan for pollution control that was designed by the central authority and included the partial implementation of a flagship Deep-Sea Discharge project. We found that – in neoliberal Turkey where environmental issues are deprioritised – there had been a deliberate shift in power from local to central authorities. We suggest that this shift had hindered comprehensive participation in planning and thus had played a crucial role in the failure of environmental conservation in the Ergene Basin.

KEYWORDS: Water governance, environmental conservation failure, democratic participation, environmental planning, Ergene River, Turkey

Karen Bakker: Honouring a sharp mind, fierce intellect, thought pioneer, heart-led scientist and friend

Michelle Kooy
PhD student of Karen Bakker from 2002-2008 at the University of British Columbia; IHE-Institute of Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands; m.kooy@un-ihe.org

Leila M. Harris
Co-Director with Karen of the Program on Water Governance, 2010-2023; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; lharris@ires.ubc.ca

Rutgerd Boelens
Colleague of Karen in the Water Justice Alliance / Alianza Justicia Hídrica; University of Amsterdam & Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands; rutgerd.boelens@wur.nl

Tom Perreault
Colleague of Karen’s on Geoforum editorial board and general admirer of her work; Syracuse University, Syracuse, United States; taperrea@syr.edu

Erik Swyngedouw
Former PhD supervisor of Karen’s doctoral dissertation at Oxford University; University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom; erik.swyngedouw@manchester.ac.uk

Rational and relational paradigms: A case study of the Indus Basin

Medha Bisht
Associate Professor, Department of International Relations, South Asian University, New Delhi, India; medhabisht@sau.ac.in

ABSTRACT: Much has been written about the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty and the role played by the World Bank. This article, however, seeks to revisit the absence, limits and challenges of social learning in state-based interventions on water diplomacy. Terming the Indus Waters Treaty a case of thin mediation, the paper questions water diplomacy interactions at two levels. By juxtaposing the case of the Indus Waters Treaty with the Indus Basin Initiative (launched in 2013 and supported by the Upper Indus Basin Network), the paper (1) highlights intersections around negotiation models and social learning, and (2) draws attention to two policy paradigms – rational and relational – that become significant frames for deliberation and for defining water diplomacy. Using the example of the Indus Waters Treaty, I also emphasise that any reliance on distributive tactics – which block social learning only perpetuates trust deficits and, in the long term, invoke water nationalism and water securitisation. The paper contributes to the investigation of social learning mechanisms, which can help further our understanding of the relational paradigms associated with water policy and diplomacy.

KEYWORDS: Negotiation analysis, water diplomacy, social learning, Upper Indus Basin Network, Upper Indus Basin Initiative, Indus Waters Treaty

From cooling water war to cooling towers: Transnational water diplomacy around the allocation of nuclear cooling on the Aare and Rhine Rivers, 1965-1972

Alicia Gutting
Department of History, School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; and Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden; alicia.gutting@ntu.edu.sg

ABSTRACT: This article explores the efforts of Germany and Switzerland, from 1965 to 1972, to mitigate thermal pollution caused by nuclear power plants along the Aare and Rhine Rivers. Despite the initial promise of nuclear energy, concerns about its environmental impact, specifically on water quality, led both countries to collaboratively set temperature limits for cooling water discharge from nuclear power plants. In contrast to the predominant focus on anti-nuclear protests in the existing literature, this article highlights the cooperative aspects of cross-border management, revealing a concerted effort to balance the utilisation of river cooling capacities while safeguarding water quality. The article contributes to the evolving field of water diplomacy, challenging the notion of inevitable conflicts by showcasing a joint approach to addressing shared environmental challenges.

KEYWORDS: Nuclear energy, Rhine River, thermal pollution, water diplomacy, cooling water

Fluid authority: Exploring hydraulic social contracts in Nairobi’s water provision

Maja Dahl Jeppesen
Department of Anthropology, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; majakdjeppesen@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: This paper aims to expand our understanding of the diverse relationships in water provision in cities such as Nairobi, where urban water is provided through heterogeneous actors and through piped and non-piped systems. The paper contributes to the study of authority and urban infrastructure by examining how interactions between urban water systems, their providers, and the people who depend on them shape forms of authority emerging around urban water. The paper draws on insights from an ethnographic study conducted in an informal settlement named Kibera and in Langata, another residential area of Nairobi, Kenya. It examines the forms of authority that are created around water service providers and whether the concept of “hydraulic social contracts” adds to our understanding of relations of authority in service provision. The fluid materiality of water, fragile material infrastructures, and their social embeddedness tie into fluid relations of authority where water service providers embody seemingly contradictory roles defined by exploitation and solidarity. The paper concludes that hydraulic social contracts are particularly precarious and that relations of authority based on water are difficult to fix into static conceptualisations.

KEYWORDS: Authority, water provision, social contracts, infrastructures, Nairobi, Kenya

The new Tower of Babel: Divergent water quantification in the southwestern United States

Juan Camilo Perdomo Marin
Independent Scholar; juancamilo.perdomo@utah.edu

ABSTRACT: This research contributes to the academic discussions on the politics of water quantification by analysing the factors that generate divergent water figures in the southwestern United States. The controversies surrounding the construction of the Lake Powell Pipeline (LPP) are the case of study as its proponents and opponents use conflicting water data. This analysis associates four kinds of contradictory data related to the LPP with epistemological questions (value, ranking, perspective and delimitation) to explain why having more data does not solve conflicts. Since having adequate data is essential to making informed decisions, this study concludes by calling for a critical review of water figures that considers the logical limits of quantification and the political factors influencing its production and use.

KEYWORDS: Quantification, metrics, comparison, perspective, delimitation, standardisation, Lake Powell Pipeline, United States

Consequences for Maasai pastoralists of changing water access regimes in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem, Kenya

Arthur Bostvironnois
Department of Geography, CNRS 5600 EVS, University Lumière Lyon 2, Bron, France; arthur.bostvironnois@univ-lyon2.fr

François Mialhe
Department of Geography, CNRS 5600 EVS, University Lumière Lyon 2, Bron, France; francois.mialhe@univ-lyon2.fr

Yanni Gunnell
Department of Geography, CNRS 5600 EVS, University Lumière Lyon 2, Bron, France; yanni.gunnell@univ-lyon2.fr

Oldrich Navratil
Department of Geography, CNRS 5600 EVS, University Lumière Lyon 2, Bron, France; oldrich.navratil@univ-lyon2.fr

ABSTRACT: Among the Maasai group ranches surrounding Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya, perennial springwater from the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro generates an oasis effect in an otherwise water-scarce landscape; it underpins pastoral livelihoods, agricultural productivity, and wildlife conservation economics. This resource, however, is increasingly under pressure from these competing interests. Based on semi-structured interviews, waterscape mapping workshops with Maasai pastoralists, field observations, and visual interpretations of high-resolution satellite images, we map, describe and analyse how 70 years of uncoordinated proliferation of water extraction, conveyance, and storage features across the semi-arid savanna rangelands has altered the local water cycle and changed power dynamics around water resources. A succession of externally driven rural development, land reform and conservation policies has contributed to the reshaping of patterns and regimes of access to water by modifying land ownership and attracting new activities such as crop irrigation and safari tourism. As a result, the status of water is shifting from a common-property resource with a tradition of sharing, to a commodified resource that is controlled privately and redistributed according to individualistic strategies. Our focus on three hydrosocial territories from a Maasai perspective examines how high densities of private structures such as wells and small runoff- and pipeline-fed storage reservoirs are pushing the livestock-based, semi-nomadic economy towards intensive, sedentary agriculture. Inequalities in access to water have deepened, with water users associations and other water management organisations also experiencing or generating new forms of conflict between resident communities.

KEYWORDS: Political ecology, resource ownership, commons, privatisation, water management, water use, pastoralism, conflict

Viewpoint - From shallow to transformative water justice

Benji Reade-Malagueño
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; benjirm@berkeley.edu

Kieren Rudge
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; kieren.rudge@berkeley.edu

Sydney Moss
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; snmoss@berkeley.edu

Paolo D’Odorico
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; paolododo@berkeley.edu

ABSTRACT: Water systems across the world are being disrupted, and marginalised communities face compounding harms. In recognising inequities, policy-makers and prominent intergovernmental institutions increasingly draw on environmental justice frameworks to guide their priorities and decision-making. However, much of the discourse, planning and policy-making that targets inequitable relationships to water fails to address the underlying processes and structures that reproduce injustice; rather, they solely target inequitable conditions using status quo mechanisms. We introduce the concept of 'shallow water justice' to explain and critique such phenomena, which are not only insufficient for achieving water justice but also reinforce the power of marginalising structures. We demonstrate how shallow water justice has been furthered through multiple processes in international water policy spheres and we propose that, instead, transformative water justice be prioritised by challenging dominant structures, primarily legal and economic systems. Transitioning from shallow to transformative water justice enables policy-makers, researchers and communities to foster more equitable, diverse and sustainable relationships with water.

KEYWORDS: Shallow water justice, transformative justice, colonialism, market economies, water access