Why Governance Matters. The values expressed in water management depend on who is making the decisions, and what interests they are representing. Broad representation of water stakeholders is critical to ensuring that governance decisions will reflect the values and interests of the stakeholders. But democratic institutions alone cannot ensure that minority interests will be served. Access to drinking water and sanitation has become accepted as a fundamental human right endorsed in 2010 as a United Nations Resolution. The right to water takes its place alongside the right to food as an internationally recognized aspect of the fundamental human right to the water needed to sustain life.
Water governance refers to the management of water in a way that supports the values of local stakeholders and also complies with international standards. 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. In this way, the process of selecting among governance options fits naturally with the process of examining and prioritizing values about water and its many uses.
The Water-Culture Institute addresses the cultural values embedded in three domains of water governance:
1. Water supply and sanitation. Drinking water and sanitation services are more than basic services; they are fundamental necessities for life itself (drinking water) and for maintaining basic health (sanitation). The Millenium Development Goals have drawn international attention to the targets of halving the number of people who lack basic water and sanitation by 2015. Major investments are being made to meet these targets, but what values are being promoted, and undermined, in the process?
2. Irrigation. Expanding irrigation networks and building new irrigation schemes remains the strategy of choice for meeting the ever growing global demand for food. Climate change is adding to the urgency of reliable irrigation services. What kinds of technologies and governance arrangements are promoted to meet the demand for more irrigation hinges on values about water, agriculture, society, culture, and the environment. Should the policies favor industrial modes of production or local agro-ecological approaches? Should irrigation management be in the hands of private corporations, government agencies, or local stakeholders? Should financial profits or local food security take precedence?
3. Watersheds and River Basins. Integrated management of water resources at the level of watersheds and river basins is a global trend fueled by ecological science as well as resource economics. But what should be the goals of integrated management? Who and what forms of institutions will be in charge? How will minority interests be represented?
Resources on Water Governance