This paper explores through case studies the quality of water service delivery in four different water utilities in Kenya and Ghana. The research confirms that the utilities' current performance indicators by themselves are insufficient to assess the access of users to good-quality water service delivery. The case studies show that low-income populations receive a poor quality of water service delivery. The paper concludes that benchmarking needs to be complemented with a more in-depth analysis of the water service delivery by water providers.
Groundwater management is a major challenge in natural resources governance because of the uncertainty of the nature of the resource in estimating the reserve, the complexity of water dynamics and evolution and the irreversibility of exploitation, including possible contamination. Furthermore, from a political ecology point of view, discourses of power between involved social actors shape institutional frameworks, economic incentives and access to technology, which determine who gets water in practice and define the groundwater management as a common pool resource in terms of excludability and rivalry. Underlying cultural values in groundwater management are usually dismissed whilst they sustain traditional ways of living related to territorial identities and values that, in turn, may play a role in groundwater management and protection. Considering La Galera aquifer (Ebro River Basin, Spain) as a case study, the paper presents a geoethical dilemma as a method to explore the underlying conflicting values that may explain current management practices and a way forward to reverse current trends.
This paper introduces a geoethical dilemma in the coastal zone of the Tordera Delta as a case study with the objective of showing the contribution of geoethics to the governance of coastal social-ecological systems. The Tordera Delta, located in Costa Brava, Catalonia, constitutes a social-ecological system that suffers from intense anthropization mainly due to tourist pressures causing a cascade of different environmental problems impacting the Delta functions. The massive sun and beach tourism brought human well-being and economic development to the region, but has caused an intense urbanization of the coastline that altered the coastal dynamics, eroded its beaches, and degraded many ecosystem services, a process that is being worsened today by the climate change events such as the rising sea level or the magnitude of the storms (“llevantades”), typical of the Western Mediterranean coast. Posing the problem of governance in terms of a geoethical dilemma enables discerning among the values connected to the intrinsic meaning of coastal landscapes and the instrumental values that see beaches as goods (commodities) for tourism uses. Finally, the paper reflects on options to overcome this dichotomy of values by considering meaning values as elements that forge cultural identities, contributing to highlighting this societal challenge in the Tordera Delta area, as a case study that can be useful for similar ecosystems.
Surrounded by mountains and forests, Lake Turgoyak in the Southern Urals (Russia) is a popular tourist destination. However, the many resorts and camps as well as the high number of visitors have had a negative environmental impact on the lake. Taking Lake Turgoyak as a case study, the research examines the values in the human-geosphere relationship, framed as a geoethical dilemma revisiting the concept of the noosphere. The formulation of geoethical dilemmas, as a way to explore the values that underpin the technocratic artifacts on which humans relate to the geosphere, reveals a spiritual dimension that shapes cultural identities that, in turn, unfold in eco-ideologies of resistance in hope.
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