Category: News

Workshop video: What is healthy water?

The Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at The University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, recently hosted an international Exploratory Workshop on water and innovation, led by principal investigators Dr. Karen Bakker and Dr. Leila Harris from UBC’s Program on Water Governance.

Watch the short video to learn more about what UBC’s experts are saying about the world’s most pressing water issues: Water and innovation: Peter Wall exploratory workshop

Further information on the outcomes of the workshop can be found in the final report on the workshop website.

Interdisciplinary workshop on water and innovation

Bakker EW group 1An interdisciplinary workshop on ‘water and innovation’ was held at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Research on January 29th-30th. It was attended by scholars from the humanities and social sciences, natural sciences and medicine from UBC and other North American universities. In addition, representatives of global, national and regional organizations attended, including the OECD Water Governance Program, the UN’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation and the BC Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services.

The workshop sought to explore concerns for water security from an interdisciplinary perspective, identifying potential innovative strategies and solutions. Its three key objectives were to (1) foster interdisciplinary dialogue on innovative solutions to some of our most pressing water problems; (2) identify key areas for cutting-edge interdisciplinary research on water issues; and (3) support the development of major research grant applications.

The workshop was comprised of seven closed sessions held over two days, together with a public talk, which focused on interdisciplinary perspectives on water health. The closed sessions involved presentations from key scholars on contemporary water issues, global water governance, innovations in sustainability and water research, water values and innovation in the public sector. In each session, panelist presentations were followed by an open floor discussion of the ideas and questions raised by the presenters. The workshop sessions concluded with a small group strategizing session, in which groups were challenged to present proposals for innovative interdisciplinary research projects on water.

For more information, please see http://www.pwias.ubc.ca/videos/water-and-innovation-peter-wall-exploratory-workshop

Themed issue on water security

untitledWe are delighted to announce the publication of a themed issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, Water Security, Risk and Society.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences Theme Issue ‘Water security, risk and society’ compiled and edited by Jim Hall, David Grey, Dustin Garrick, Simon Dadson and Rob Hope November 13, 2013; Vol. 371, No. 2002

Recognising the need for interdisciplinary science to respond to unprecedented water security challenges, the University of Oxford organised the international conference on Water Security, Risk and Society in April 2012. The conference convened 200 leading thinkers from science, policy and enterprise in 30 countries to take stock of the scientific evidence on water security risk and prioritise future interdisciplinary research.

This agenda-setting themed issue includes eight papers from Oxford University authors and engages multiple dimensions of water security, ranging from drinking water, food production and energy to climate risks, transboundary rivers and economic growth. Risk provides the basis for a unifying framework to bridge across multiple disciplines and science-policy divides.

Fifteen papers are organised in three sections to: frame the policy challenges and scientific responses to water security from a risk perspective; assess the evidence about the forces driving water insecurity; and examine responses to water insecurity at multiple scales. This includes an article by Dr. Karen Bakker:

Karen Bakker and Cynthia Morinville (2013). The governance dimensions of water security: a review Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A November 13, 2013 371 20130116; doi:10.1098/rsta.2013.0116

The papers demonstrate the growing scale of water security risks. For example, over 45% of the global population is projected to be exposed to water shortages for food production by 2050 (Falkenmark), and South American cities have experienced a doubling of risks associated with extreme rainfall from 1960-2000 (Vorosmarty). Modelling demonstrates that climate hazards are an impediment to economic growth (Brown). Taken together, these papers provide strong justification and strategic priorities for policy-driven science in the lead up to new development goals in 2015 and beyond.

For more information on the themed issue click here.

 

New book: Contemporary Water Governance in the Global South

Contemporary Water Governance in the Global South

Scarcity, Marketization and Participation

Edited by Leila M. Harris, Jacqueline A. Goldin, Christopher Sneddon

Published May 15th 2013 by Routledge – 264 pages

The litany of alarming observations about water use and misuse is now familiar—over a billion people without access to safe drinking water; almost every major river dammed and diverted; increasing conflicts over the delivery of water in urban areas; continuing threats to water quality from agricultural inputs and industrial wastes; and the increasing variability of climate, including threats of severe droughts and flooding across locales and regions. These issues present tremendous challenges for water governance.

This book focuses on three major concepts and approaches that have gained currency in policy and governance circles, both globally and regionally—scarcity and crisis, marketization and privatization, and participation. It provides a historical and contextual overview of each of these ideas as they have emerged in global and regional policy and governance circles and pairs these with in-depth case studies that examine manifestations and contestations of water governance internationally.

The book interrogates ideas of water crisis and scarcity in the context of bio-physical, political, social and environmental landscapes to better understand how ideas and practices linked to scarcity and crisis take hold, and become entrenched in policy and practice. The book also investigates ideas of marketization and privatization, increasingly prominent features of water governance throughout the global South, with particular attention to the varied implementation and effects of these governance practices. The final section of the volume analyzes participatory water governance, querying the disconnects between global discourses and local realities, particularly as they intersect with the other themes of interest to the volume.

Promoting a view of changing water governance that links across these themes and in relation to contemporary realities, the book is invaluable for students, researchers, advocates, and policy makers interested in water governance challenges facing the developing world.

 

Policy Brief: Accra, Ghana

The city of Accra faces challenges in providing its citizens with potable water due to rapid population growth, poverty and governance challenges. This policy brief highlights the positive uses of local water boards (LWBs) and “water dialogues” to spark discussion and change in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area.

The international community has outlined the need for participatory environmental governance for decades and drawing upon this discourse, the authors, Leila M. Harris and Cynthia Morinville, discuss whether this governance is feasible in Accra. They note that dialogue must be sensitive to local concerns and designed to ensure that citizens’ voices are heard. The authors recommend that LWBs are instituted in additional communities in Accra, that effort is put into improving the function of the boards, that participatory mechanisms are strengthened to ensure citizen representation, and that best practices are shared with other urban areas with similar challenges.

New book: Down the Drain

Down the Drain: How we are failing to protect our water resources scrutinizes the history of water management in Canada, comparing it to approaches in Europe and the US. The book provides an authoritative review of decades of legislation, research, and independent critiques, accompanied by riveting stories of water management failures in Canada. The authors, Ralph Pentland and Chris Wood explore how governments have failed to protect waters that support every aspect of our national economy, and that we continue to drink, fish, and swim in. They also propose measures to improve our performance, including a new charter that will hold governments to account. Down the Drain is written with years of research and compelling clarity about an increasingly crucial topic.

Down the Drain

 

Publication date: May 18, 2013
Hardback – $32.95 CAD
ISBN: 978-1-926812-77-9 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-926812-78-6

For further information contact: Zoe Grams +1 604 500 3822 zoe.grams@greystonebooks.com

Land & Water Session at AAG

Alice Cohen (WWB editor and SSHRC postdoctoral fellow) and Christina Cook (postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) co-organized a session at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers.  The session was called “Connecting Land Governance and Water Governance“, and brought together leading experts on the topic from around the world.