THEMES

The management of water bodies (lakes, rivers, springs, aquifers)  and the purposes for which water is used, entail mutliple choices and decisions which are intertwined with cultural norms and values. Unravelling the cultural dimensions of water behavior and policies is an essential task for designing better, more sustainable water practices.  With the steadily increasing stress on water ecosystems from population growth, economic development, and climate change, we need to make every effort to improve our stewardship of water. Understanding the cultural context of our interaction with water is fundamental to finding sustainable solutions to the challenge of water security.

The Water-Culture Institute explores the multiple interactions between cultural values and water policies through four main themes:

1.  Rights of Rivers.    Rivers have long provided benefits of water for drinking, fish for eating, and transportation opportunities.  With a bit of human manipulation, rivers can provide still more services such as power generation (water mills or hydroelectric dams), water storage (dams and diversions), improved transport (through dredging, staightening, or building canals), and water supply for cities and farms.   But does a river also have a right to exist for its own sake?   Recent advances in riparian ecology suggest the value of natural river processes, such as floods, are critical to the health of the surrounding lands as well as to aquatic wildlife.  Treating rivers as if they had intrinsic value may be the most rationale approach to sustainable river management.    

2.  Ethics of Water Use.  What is "responsible" use of water?   How much is it ethical to use and for what purposes?   Food produced by industrial methods of agriculture has a much higher total water "footprint" than food produced by small-farms and marketed locally.  Coal that is mined through "mountain-top removal" or gold that is mined and processed with water-polluting methods, or electricity produced by dams that have severely altered water ecosystems are examples of indirect consumption of water.  When we use the products produced with water, we are using water.

3.  Water Governance.  The values expressed in water management depend on who is making the decisions, and what interests they are representing.  When business interests are in control of water decisions, the values expressed will be aligned to the interests of the businesses, which are normally profits for the shareholders.  Finding governance arrangements that include "checks and balances" of competing interests can save water ecosystems from environmental destruction by short-term interests.  Effective integration of multiple stakeholders can also result in weakening environmental protections, as when local communities fight for access to resources within adjacent national parks.  Conscious design and negotiation about the options for governing water offer opportunities for debating and mediating among conflicting values. 

4.  Indigenous Water.  This theme focues on the experience and perspectives of Indi
genous Peoples on water-related issues, including water rights, agriculture, environmental health (related to water), religion and spirituality related to water, and sustainability of water resources.  The distinctive cultures maintained by Indigenous Peoples plays out in unique ways of conceptualizing water ecosystems and
Indigenous Peoples face multiple challenges in gaining control over their customary water resources.  Indigenous cultural and spiritual understandings about water are misunderstood or simply ignored by the dominant Western societies.  Indigenous communities are rarely included  in water policy and planning processes.  Customary access and rights to water is seldom recognized by the state authorities that now control indigenous areas.  Waterbodies that are critical to cultural and physical wellbeing are being degraded or destroyed by outside forces beyond their control.