New article in Environment focuses on Global Water Initiatives

Strengthening Global Water Initiatives, by Robert G. Varady, Katharine Meehan, John Rodda, Emily McGovern, and Matthew Iles-Shih (2008, Environment, 50(2):19-31).  

The journal Environment recently featured an article – authored by water scholars Robert Varady of the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, John Rodda from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in the UK, and their colleagues at the University of Arizona – aimed at strengthening global water governance. The authors describe the evolution of a set of global-level water institutions and events – which they gather under the heading of “global water initiatives” (GWIs) – and the major paradigm shifts in water management with which they have interacted. Although GWIs have existed for more than a century, especially in the form of the professional society, their numbers and influence have increased palpably since the Second World War.

The article illustrates the history of this growing network with reference to major examples of GWIs such as the International Hydrological Decade, the International Hydrological Programme (IHP), the triennial World Water Forums, the Global Water Partnership, the International Association of Hydrological Sciences, and the International Water Resources Association. The authors then analyze the collective impact and significance of GWIs, using criteria drawn from a survey of international water experts conducted by Varady in 2003-2004. This allows them to posit a series of policy strategies to improve global water governance by addressing three major challenges to the sustainability of GWI networks – the problems of overlap, proliferation and imprecision. The strategies offered include ways to transform overlap into a resource through non-traditional communication settings; strengthen networks through new collaboration strategies, like involving potential GWI competitors on joint projects; and develop assessment tools that go beyond the individual organization.

Heldref Publications

5^th World Water Forum launches Istanbul Urban Water Consensus process

Around the World Water Day 2008 celebrations, the Mayor of Istanbul hosted the “Political Process for Local Authorities Kick-off Meeting” in Istanbul, Turkey in order to launch the Local Authorities Process of the 5^th World Water Forum. As part of the festivities, dozens of mayors were brought together for speeches and panels on the topics that will be touched upon during the Thematic Programme of the 5^th Forum. The highlight of World Water Day at the Local Authorities Kick-off Meeting was the launch of the Istanbul Urban Water Consensus, which invites mayors and local government leaders to make a united commitment for urban water resource management in the face of global changes. The first part of the Consensus is a declaration and the second part is a specific commitment designed to be tailored to the circumstances of the individual city or local authority. From now until late summer, comments, discussion and review of the Consensus are welcome in order to draft a final document at which time there will be a call for signatures from mayors around the world in fall 2008.

Comment, discuss and review the Consensus
More about the 5^th World Water Forum

New e-journal on water resources to start in June 2008

Water Alternatives is a new interdisciplinary scientific e-journal on Water, Politics and Development. The e-journal welcomes contributions that address any dimension of water resources development, management and use, and their relations with society and the environment. Its ambition is to provide space for alternative and critical thinking and to associate high scholarly quality with accessibility to a wide readership. The first issue of Water Alternatives will be published on the 1^st of June 2008. Access to articles in the journal will be free. Potential subscribers may already register in order to receive alerts and to submit your contributions.

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Verviers film festival links with 5^th World Water Forum

The film festival “Verviers au film de l’eau” (Belgium) supported by IHP, ended on 16 March 2008. It led to the projection of 23 documentaries on the theme of water, which an international jury chose to award the first prize ex aequo to The Dyke by Frédéric Touchard, a documentary shot in the Nord-Pas de Calais region in France which delivers a contemplative and poetic approach to water-related issues, and to the movie Dead in the Water by Neil Docherty, which describes in detail the water related issues in the world. The poetic and artistic vein of Village of Dust, City of Water by the director Sanjay Barnela was awarded a special mention by the jury. These films will be part of the selection of the International meeting “Water and Cinema" to be held in March 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey during the 5^th World Water Forum, through a partnership established between the two events.

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Last call for abstracts due 20 April: World Congress of Environmental History 2009 - Local Livelihoods and Global Challenges: Understanding Human Interactions with the Environment

The First World Congress of Environmental History is hosted by the International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations and Roskilde University and will take place on 4-8 August 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Submissions from any area of environmental history are welcome, especially papers that foster comparative studies across time, geographies, disciplines, and cultures. Sub themes include but are not limited to:

• Methods and Approaches in Environmental History
• Environmental perceptions, ideas and sciences
• Cross geographical and transnational boundaries
• Water and watersheds
• Agriculture, land-use and landscape histories
• Energy
• Atmospheric Sciences and Global Climate
• Environmental History and Education

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Access a complete list of water events around the world

Water Engineering in Ancient Civilizations: 5,000 Years of History

Pierre-Louis Viollet. IAHR Monograph Series (June 2007)

Water professionals, engineers, scientists, and students will find this book fascinating and invaluable to their understanding of the fundamental role of water engineering in the development of civilization. The book abounds with descriptions of hydraulic techniques in the civilizations of the classical era and the Middle Ages, including illustrations ands translated descriptions of ancient observers and authors.

The work is unique in offering an engineer perspective not only on the history of water technology, but also demonstration of the genesis of ideas and the transmissions of ideas and technology from one age and civilization to the next. The book is especially noteworthy for its efforts to situate hydraulic developments in their historical and intellectual context.

More information

What is your role as Chairperson of the Intergovernmental Council of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP)?
The Intergovernmental Council of IHP is formed by a group of 36 countries from the UNESCO family. This Council is managed by an Executive Board (“the Bureau”) formed by representatives of 6 countries from UNESCO’s groups: North America and Western Europe, Latin America, Eastern and Central Europe, Asia and the Pacific, Africa and the Arab States. I am the representative of Brazil (Latin American group) in the Bureau and due to the resignation of our Nigerian colleague, Mr. Alhaji Muhktari Shagari, I became the Chairperson of the Bureau and Council. Hence, I am in a transitory position doing my best to serve the UN system. My role as Chairperson is basically to direct the discussion of the Bureau in such way to ensure that decisions made by the Council are implemented.

What influence does the Intergovernmental Council have on what the IHP Secretariat does on the ground?
In theory, the Secretariat is the executive branch of the Council. The Council is a political body that discusses and approves the general strategy of the IHP. When the Council approved the IHP-VII on “Systems Under Stress and Societal Responses” it gave indication to the Secretariat that actions on the ground should try look for a combination of Science and Policy. The Bureau of IHP is the intermediary between the Secretariat and Council. The Bureau should work in very close collaboration with the Secretariat in order to produce actions on the ground that match the expectations of the member countries at the Council. I think the scientific community at large plays a definite role in helping the Secretariat to produce these actions on the ground. But, of course, these actions should comply with the general objectives established by the IHP Council.

How did your career path lead you to be on the Intergovernmental Council?
This is a difficult question to answer. All my life I have been teaching, researching and providing advice to public and private institutions. I have been involved with IHP for a long time and I was in the scientific advisory group that produced the IHP-V (a very successful one…). When I was invited to be part of Board of Directors of the National Water Agency of Brazil - ANA in 2001, my life completely changed. This was the first time I was directing a public institution of the Brazilian Government. In the few years of existence of ANA a great deal of water resources management implementation took place in Brazil. I think the success of ANA and the acquaintance I had with the Programme in the past contributed for my participation in the IHP Council.

What do you see as the most important thematic areas that IHP should be addressing in the next decade?
The success of IHP is due to the vision of András Szöllösi-Nagy whom realized that the Programme could not develop based solely on scientific grounds. Hydrologic knowledge is extremely important and IHP has contributed immensely in this area, especially back in the early 70’s. However, I think we should deepen our knowledge of the interfaces between science and policy. The issue of adaptation in the face of global changes (climate change included) is extremely important. Water resources professionals have dealt with this issue all their life. However, the rate of change of the natural environment, either by land use or climate, in the last decades has been significant. IHP cannot stay away from this subject. Transboundary water resources management is another thematic area that should be focused on by IHP. It has the interest of many countries. According to Aaron Wolf, from Oregon State University, there are 263 transboundary river basins covering 45.3% of the world’s lands. These are significant numbers, which require the attention of the international community.

• The Ruhuna Basins cover 8% of Sri Lanka’s landmass and are made of up four hydrologic basins: Walawe Ganga, Kirindi Oya, Menik Ganga and Malala Oya.
• The Ruhuna basins are mountainous and relatively wet. Several catchment areas are poorly developed, but there are downstream flat areas with developed water resources. These lowlands consist of rolling plains dotted with a few isolated hills. The rivers originate from the southern slopes of the central highland massif at elevations of up to 2,000 metres.
• Monsoonal rains, which fall from November through March and May through September, contribute a major part of the annual rainfall, which is supplemented by inter-monsoonal rains. The mean annual rainfall for the basin is 1,574 mm, the depth of which decreases from the upper to lower reaches and from west to east.
• Based on the hydrologic characteristics of basins the annual supply of surface water per capita is estimated at 2,291 m³. Available information indicates that 7 to 10% of rainfall contributes to groundwater recharge in the hard rock terrain, and 40% in the sandy alluvial aquifers
• Groundwater accounts for 3% of total water withdrawals and there is a high vulnerability to declining groundwater levels and saltwater intrusion in the lower reaches of the basins.
• Water resources in the basins are highly regulated to support hydropower generation and irrigation. There are twenty large reservoirs (three of which have a capacity exceeding 100 Mm³) and about 280 smaller reservoirs, giving a total storage capacity of about 900 Mm³. There are numerous river diversion systems, mainly for irrigation supplies, including eleven large and about 610 small crossriver structures. Storage volume in the three main basins ranges from 57% of annual (surface) water resources for the Kirindi Oya basin, to 40% in the Walawe basin and almost zero in the Menik Ganga basin.

The section “Did You Know…?” is taken from the 1^st United Nations World Water Development Report: “Water for People, Water for Life" (WWDR1, 2003) and from the Ruhuna Basins case study [PDF format – 1.8 MB].

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