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.

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
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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