United Nations world water development report 4

World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) and UN-Water, 2012. United Nations world water development report 4 : managing water under uncertainty and risk. (World Water Development Report / United Nations; no. 4). [online] Paris, France: UNESCO. 3 vol. (xii, 867 p.; ill.; tab.; fig.; boxes; maps). ISBN 978-92-3-104235-5
Available at: <http://washurl.net/7e1itc>

The fourth edition of the World Water Development Report (WWDR4) is a comprehensive review of the world’s freshwater resources and seeks to demonstrate, among other messages, that water underpins all aspects of development, and that a coordinated approach to managing and allocating water is critical. The Report underlines that in order to meet multiple goals water needs to be an intrinsic element in decision-making across the whole development spectrum.

Meeting the water reform challenge

Despite progress on many fronts, governments around the world are still confronted with the need to reform their existing water policies in order to meet current objectives and future challenges identified by the OECD Environment Outlook to 2050. Population growth, urbanisation, and changing lifestyles as a result of economic growth are key drivers of these challenges, while increasing spatial and temporal water variability resulting from climate change will exacerbate these pressures.

Building on these water challenges, this report examines three fundamental areas that need to be addressed whatever reform agendas are pursued by governments: financing of the water sector; the governance and institutional arrangements that are in place; and coherence between water policies and policies in place in other sectors of the economy. The report provides governments in both OECD and non-OECD countries with practical advice and policy tools to pursue urgent reform in their water sectors.

After framing the water reform challenge, the book examines the policy challenges surrounding the financing of water supply and sanitation and presents a policy toolkit that can underpin policy dialogues to stimulate much needed reform. The chapter also addresses the growing problem of financing the broader water resources management functions of government.

The next chapter highlights the key governance challenges confronting water policy reform, focusing on the issues arising from the multi-level governance structure that generally characterises water resources management.

The final chapter examines the coherence issues raised by the linkages between water, energy and agriculture and presents a number of steps that governments need to take to address the water coherence challenge.

OECD (2012). Meeting the water reform challenge. (OECD studies on water). Paris, France: OECD Publishing. 172 p.: 17 boxes, 25 fig., 16 tab. ISBN: 9789264169999. Available at: <doi: 10.1787/9789264170001-en> [Accessed 18 May 2012]

Watch a video on the global water challenge and OECD’s response.

Privatizing water: governance failure and the world’s urban water crisis

Bakker, K. J. (2010). Privatizing water: governance failure and the world’s urban water crisis. Ithaca, N.Y., USA, Cornell University Press. xvi, 303 p. : 13 tab., 6 charts/graphs, 3 maps, 3 line drawings
ISBN 978-0-8014-4723-5
Price: US$ 24.95 paper, US$ 65.00 cloth
Order online

Water supply privatization was emblematic of the neoliberal turn in development policy in the 1990s. Proponents argued that the private sector could provide better services at lower costs than governments; opponents questioned the risks involved in delegating control over a life-sustaining resource to for-profit companies. Private-sector activity was most concentrated—and contested—in large cities in developing countries, where the widespread lack of access to networked water supplies was characterized as a global crisis.

In Privatizing Water, Karen Bakker focuses on three questions: Why did privatization emerge as a preferred alternative for managing urban water supply? Can privatization fulfill its proponents’ expectations, particularly with respect to water supply to the urban poor? And, given the apparent shortcomings of both privatization and conventional approaches to government provision, what are the alternatives?

In answering these questions, Bakker engages with broader debates over the role of the private sector in development, the role of urban communities in the provision of “public” services, and the governance of public goods. She introduces the concept of “governance failure” as a means of exploring the limitations facing both private companies and governments. Critically examining a range of issues—including the transnational struggle over the human right to water, the “commons” as a water-supply-management strategy, and the environmental dimensions of water privatization—Privatizing Water is a balanced exploration of a critical issue that affects billions of people around the world. [publisher's text]

The author Dr. Karen Bakker is the Director of the Program on Water Governance, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia, Canada

Toolkit for Public Private Partnership in Urban Water Supply for the State of Maharashtra

CRISIL (2009). Toolkit for public private partnership in urban water supply for the state of Maharashtra. (Knowledge series / GOI-ADB PPP Initiative. Water). Manila, Philippines, GOI-ADB PPP Initiative Mainstreaming PPPs in India, Asian Development Bank. 213 p. : 11 fig., 11 tab.
Download full document [PDF file]

Public Private Partnership (PPP) solutions for Maharashtra’s urban water supply sector are being developed under the Mainstreaming PPPs in India Initiative. This toolkit is expected to assist the relevant public entities in the state of Maharashtra for developing PPP-based projects in the water supply and sanitation sector.

Related web site: Mainstreaming PPPs in India

Template for assessing the governance of public water supply and sanitation service providers

Locussol, A.; Ginneken, M. van (2010). Template for assessing the governance of public water supply and sanitation service providers. (Water working notes; no. 23). Washington, DC, USA, World Bank. iv, 31 p. : fig., tab.
Download full document

This note proposes a template for assessing the governance of urban water supply and sanitation (WSS) service providers and its impact of the quality of service and performance of operations. The template can be used for decentralized autonomous public corporations responsible for providing the WSS service to customers as well as other institutional arrangements ranging from government departments to autonomous public WSS asset holding companies subcontracting operations to professional operators. It can be used as terms of reference (TOR) for a consultant or a team of consultants assessing various WSS service providers.

This template complements the extensive work done on performance indicators through the International Benchmarking Network for Water and Sanitation Utilities (IBNET). While IBNET provides an excellent framework to measure the performance of a WSS service provider, no standard appraisal methodology exists
for the governance of the WSS service provider and its environment. This template sets out to fill this gap.

The note has two main parts. Part B describes the actual template. It includes a set of questions and simple instructions on how to provide the answers. It focuses on two main governance aspects:

• Part B1 maps WSS service providers and their environment. It focuses on: (i) the accountability framework
within which WSS service providers operate; (ii) the overall policy environment; and (iii) their internal functioning.
• Part B2 reviews how the key functions of: (i) development of the WSS infrastructure; (ii) provision of the WSS service; (iii) financing of the WSS service and development of the WSS infrastructure; and (iv) economic regulation of the WSS service are performed.

The actual template is followed by a format for presenting the findings of the assessment (part C). The format includes: (i) a snapshot of the current situation; (ii) a graphic representation of the accountability framework; and (iii) a diagnosis of the apparent performance gaps to be addressed.

A list of recent papers on governance of WSS utilities is given in Annex 1, and a list of IBNET and other metric indicators in Annex 2. There are also examples of accountability frameworks, a summary assessment per topic, and a summary governance assessment in respectively annexes 3-5 respectively.

Every drop counts: learning from good practices in eight Asian cities

Asian Development Bank and Institute of Water Policy, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (2010). Every drop counts: learning from good practices in eight Asian cities. Mandaluyong City, Philippines, Asian Development Bank. x, 66 p. : 4 tab., 12 fig.
ISBN 978-92-9092-030-4
Download full report

This report summarizes the good practices that were culled from a case study series on successful Asian water utilities. The case studies presented analyses of urban water management practices in eight Asian cities over a 10-year period: Bangkok, Thailand; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Jamshedpur, India; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Manila, Philippines; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China; and Singapore.

The report presents the SUCCESS framework as a way to conceptualize seven universal themes for possible replication by water utilities in Asia and in the developing world [click on image to increase size].

Water governance in motion – towards socially and environmentally sustainable water law

Cullet, P., Gowlland-Gualtieri, A., Madhav, R. and Ramanathan, U. (eds.) (2010). Water governance in motion : towards socially and environmentally sustainable water laws. (Foundation Books). Cambridge University Press India. 570 p. ISBN: 9788175966345
Hardback. Price: Rs.875 | $36.50
Order online
Full details

This book focuses on the work undertaken by International Environmental Law Research Centre IELRC on water law reforms in India. It is divided into two parts. The first part critically analyses the context of international law for water reforms and the second part discusses the multifaceted aspects of water sector reforms in India. The contributions address a wide range of issues including water distribution to households, irrigation, industrial use and wastewater treatment. These questions are dealt with from a range of perspectives including human rights, environment, agriculture, development and trade.

Target group: academia, researchers, NGOs and policy-makers.

Contents

I: Water Law, Policy and Institutional Reforms in India
1. Water and Questions of Law: An Overview
2. Water law–Evolving Regulatory Framework
3. Discourses in Water and Water Reform in Western India
4. The Slow Road to the Private–A Case Study of Neoliberal Water Reforms in Chennai

II: Ongoing Irrigation and Ground Water Reforms in India
5. Canal Irrigation, Water User Associations and Law in India–Emerging Trends in Rights Based Perspective
6. Customary Rights and their Relevance in Modern Tank Management: Select Cases in Tamil Nadu
7. Ground Water–Legal Aspects of the Plachimada Dispute

III: Perspectives on Privatisation
8. Tirupur Water Supply and Sanitation Project–A Revolution in Water Resource Management?
9. The World Bank’s Influence on Water Privatisation in Argentina: The Experience of the city of Buenos Aires
10. Linkages between Access to Water and Water Scarcity with International Investment Law and the WTO Regime
11. More Drops for Hyderabad City, Less Crops for Farmers: Water Institutions and Reallocation in Andhra Pradesh

IV: Environment and Human Rights
12. Balancing Development and Environmental Conservation and Protection of the Water Resource Base: The ‘Greening’ of Water Laws
13. The Right to Water as a Human Right or a Bird’s Right–Does Co-Operative Governance Offer a Way Out of a Conflict of Interests and Legal Complexity?
14. South Africa’s Water Law and Policy Framework: Implications for the Right to Water
15. Respect, Protect, Fulfill: The Implementation of the Human Right to Water in South Africa

V: Comparative Perspectives on Reforms
16. Learning from Water Law Reforms in Australia
17. Law and ‘Development’ Discourses about Water: Understanding Agency in Regime Changes
18. Marginal Remarks Regarding Water Policy Regimes
Governance, Rights, Justice and Development: An Epilogue

More IELRC publications on water

Water policy entrepreneurs: a research companion to water transitions around the globe

Huitema, D. and Meijerink. S. (eds) (2010). Water policy entrepreneurs : a research companion to water transitions around the globe. London, UK, IWA Publishing. 480 p. ISBN: 9781843393153

Price: £ 120.00 / US$ 216.00 / € 162.00
IWA members price: £ 90.00 / US$ 162.00 / € 121.50

Order details

This volume focuses on the role of policy entrepreneurs in revolutionizing water management worldwide. Adopting an international comparative perspective, the authors explore the changes taking place in water policy across fifteen countries (table 1), at both the global level and within the European Union. Their analysis highlights the importance of groups and individuals in stimulating progress and reveals the crucial part played by policy entrepreneurs.

Successful entrepreneurs use various strategies to initiate and implement change, including the framing and reframing of issues, the assembly of coalitions, venue shopping and the exploitation of windows of opportunity. This book showcases the role of entrepreneurs in achieving transitions and explains their approach.

The book targets students and scholars of water resources and environmental management and governance, as well as practitioners in the fields of water and climate policy.

Table 1. Case studies analyzed in “Water policy entrepreneurs”.

Country	Transition
China	River restoration Ecosystem-based water river management
India	Decentralization, participatory governance (water user associations)
Indonesia	Decentralization, participatory governance (water user associations)
Thailand	Wet to dry (all year around irrigation) Farm to city (secure supplies to urban users) Good to service (manage multiple services)
Australia	Environmental water allocation, sustainable groundwater management
United States	Integrated water management
Mexico	Marketization (water markets, water pricing), decentralization, participatory governance (water user associations)
South Africa	Sustainable management of mining water
Tanzania	Privatization, decentralization, participatory governance (water user associations)
Germany	Space for the river Flood risk management
Hungary	River restoration Ecosystem-based water management
Spain	Sustainable alternatives to supply- based management
Turkey	Privatization of water services Decentralization, participatory water governance (water user associations)
Sweden	Adaptive management, introduction of the European Water Framework Directive
The Netherlands	Greening of water policies, river restoration, space for the river
European Union	Marketization (full cost recovery, water pricing), public and stakeholder participation

Contributors include: S. Alp, A. Baskan, G. Becker, A. Bhat, D. te Boekhorst, Z. Chen, Z. Flachner, N. Font, V. Galaz, P. Garden, J. Goldin, J. Gupta, S. Hughes, H. Ingram, A. Kibaroglu, D. Kibassa, L. Lebel, G. Lei, R. Lejano, L. Li, P. Matczak, J. McKay, P. Mollinga, S. Na Nan, V. Narain, P. Olsson, L. Partzsch, T. Smits, J. Subirats, N. Subsin, A. Turton, S. Werners, M. Wilder, X. Yu

For more information about the findings of the book read an article by the author Dr. Dave Huitema in the June 2010 newsletter of the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), VU University, The Netherlands.

Contact information: Dr. D. Huitema

Urban catastrophes: the WatSan dimension

Hudson-Edwards, K. and Raford, N. (2009). Urban catastrophes : the WatSan dimension. (Humanitarian crisis drivers of the future). London, UK, Humanitarian Futures Programme, King’s College. 30 p. : 6 fig., 9 tab. 81 ref.
Download here

This study looks at the future of water and sanitation stress (Wat/San) in urban slums and how such stress is likely to exacerbate other humanitarian crises over time. It is intended to explore the interlinkages between different crisis variables from a futures perspective, ie how current trends may evolve to produce surprising new outcomes. The study maps the relationship between Wat/San stress and other causal factors including conflict, political violence, corruption and epidemic disease. It also extrapolates these relationships into the future using two case studies (Dhaka and Sao Paulo) to explore scenarios of complex humanitarian crisis driven by Wat/San stress. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of such future conditions for the present-day humanitarian sector.

Peri-urban water and sanitation services : policy, planning and method

Kurian, M. and McCarney, P. (eds.) (2010). Peri-urban water and sanitation services : policy, planning and method. Heidelberg, Germany, Springer. ii, 311 p. : 42 ill. ISBN: 978-90-481-9424-7
Due for publication: Aug 2010
Price: € 129.95
Order online

Peri-urban Water and Sanitation Services, a collection of papers initially developed to support a distance-learning course at UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands, challenges professionals to pursue water services dilemmas within a broader developmental framework that addresses issues of autonomy and accountability intrinsic to intergovernmental relations.

This book draws on literature at the interface of common pool resources, co-production, new public management and political ecology to discuss important policy concerns that relate to rural-urban transformation, budget support, wastewater reuse and performance benchmarking.

‘This collection of work by some of the most important researchers on socio-ecological aspects of water and sanitation is timely. By highlighting the importance of behaviour, society and ecology on the management of water and sanitation, the editors are highlighting an area of work that has largely been neglected. For instance, why is it that so many technical fixes exist, and yet in practice, few successful projects are ever brought to scale?’ Mark Redwood, Program Leader, Urban Poverty and Environment Program, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada.

‘With global urban population now larger than rural, opening of public-private relationships and opportunities, and the globalisation of technology and capital, can needs of citizens for clean and affordable water and sanitation services be met? This book argues that the terrain is rapidly changing and provides an evidence-based approach not only to technology but also to governance systems that mediate access to public services.’ Gita Sen, Professor, Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India.