Dynamic political contexts and power asymmetries: the cases of the Blue Nile and the Yarmouk Rivers

Hussein, Hussam; Grandi, Mattia

doi:10.1007/s10784-017-9364-y

Cited by 61 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…An alternative to the mainstream discourse on water governance is the Framework on Hydro-Hegemony (FHH) introduced by Zeitoun and Warner [32] and developed to analyze trans-boundary water conflicts. It has been widely employed at a river basin level [33] and provides an understanding of how three forms of power ("hard" or structural power; covert or bargaining power to shape agendas; and "ideational" power to shape perceptions and discourses) are used [34] and the nature of power asymmetries. While the FHH is not a governance framework per se, it does provide an effective means to better understand socio-political-economic relations in relation to water, and how these relations determine water outcomes.…”

Section: Existing Water Governance Principles and Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Water Governance Reform Framework: Overview and Applications to Australia, Mexico, Tanzania, U.S.A and Vietnam

Grafton

Garrick

Manero

et al. 2019

Water

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The world faces critical water risks in relation to water availability, yet water demand is increasing in most countries. To respond to these risks, some governments and water authorities are reforming their governance frameworks to achieve convergence between water supply and demand and ensure freshwater ecosystem services are sustained. To assist in this reform process, the Water Governance Reform Framework (WGRF) is proposed, which includes seven key strategic considerations: (1) well-defined and publicly available reform objectives; (2) transparency in decision-making and public access to available data; (3) water valuation of uses and non-uses to assess trade-offs and winners and losers; (4) compensation for the marginalized or mitigation for persons who are disadvantaged by reform; (5) reform oversight and "champions"; (6) capacity to deliver; and (7) resilient decision-making. Using these reform criteria, we assess current and possible water reforms in five countries: Murray-Darling Basin (Australia); Rufiji Basin (Tanzania); Colorado Basin (USA and Mexico); and Vietnam. We contend that the WGRF provides a valuable approach to both evaluate and to improve water governance reform and, if employed within a broader water policy cycle, will help deliver both improved water outcomes and more effective water reforms. will need to lower its projected 2050 total water demand by almost 40% (292 Billion Cubic Meters, BCM), the rest of South Asia by 43% (100 BCM), the Middle East by 42% (168 BCM) and North Africa by 17% (30 BCM), if water extractions are not to exceed the current total renewable water resources of these regions.Aeschbach-Hertig and Gleeson [6] argue that current food production in key farming regions of India, China and the USA cannot be maintained unless groundwater levels are stabilized. Another concern is that Wada et al. [7] estimate that, in 2000, non-renewable groundwater extraction contributed to 20% of global irrigation water extraction. This has important implications for food production because, globally, irrigation accounts for about 70% of global freshwater extractions and provides 40% of total human food calories. This tension between water for food production and other purposes is likely to be exacerbated into the future. For instance, by 2050: (1) the current water supply is projected to be less than the projected water applied for irrigation in major food-producing countries with production methods, and (2) a plateau is projected in terms of crop food production from water extractions if there are no further increases in the global irrigated agriculture area [8]. The key point is that in the absence of reform that includes: (1) better water governance and (2) how water is currently extracted and consumed, there are large, and with climate change, increasing risks to future food security [9].Government responses to the global water crises have, typically, been to adopt a "hard" infrastructure or engineering solutions to increase water supply that has sometimes been part of "water natio...

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Section: Existing Water Governance Principles and Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Water Governance Reform Framework: Overview and Applications to Australia, Mexico, Tanzania, U.S.A and Vietnam

Grafton

Garrick

Manero

et al. 2019

Water

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“…Others looked at how the domestic political context has shaped transboundary water policies of riparian states (Menga 2015;Carkoglu and Eder 2001). Likewise, the recent study conducted by Hussein and Grandi (2017) looks at the relationship between power and broader political contexts. Building on these studies, this paper argues that the empirical evidence derived from hydropolitical interactions among Lebanon, Syria and Turkey suggests that the historical and political context strongly influences riparian states' transboundary water interactions on the Orontes Basin.…”

Section: General Overview Of the Orontes Basin Hydropolitics: Broadermentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydropolitics and issue-linkage along the Orontes River Basin: an analysis of the Lebanon–Syria and Syria–Turkey hydropolitical relations

Conker

Hussein

2019

Int Environ Agreements

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The Orontes River Basin is among the least researched transboundary water basins in the Middle East. The few studies on the Orontes have two main theoretical and empirical shortcomings. First, there is a lack of critical hydropolitics studies on this river. Second, those studies focus on either the Turkish-Syrian or Lebanese-Syria relations rather than analysing the case in a holistic way. Gathering both primary (international agreements, government documents, political statements and media outlets) and secondary sources, this paper seeks to answer how could Syria, as the basin hydro-hegemon, impose its control on the basin? This study argues that the lack of trilateral initiatives, which is also reflected in academic studies, is primarily due to asymmetrical power dynamics. Accordingly, Syria played a dual-game by excluding each riparian, Turkey and Lebanon, and it dealt with the issue at the bilateral interaction. Syria has used its political influence to maintain water control vis-à-vis Lebanon, while it has used non-cooperation with Turkey to exclude Turkey from decision-making processes. The paper also argues that the historical background and the political context have strongly informed Syria's water policy. Finally, given the recent regional political developments, the paper finds that Syria's power grip on the Orontes Basin slowly fades away because of the changes in the broader political context.

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“…SDG indicator 6.5.2 takes the first approach [37,40]. To strengthen SDG 6.5.2 various researchers propose either a cooperation continuum [41] or qualitative analyses, including hydropolitical assessments and discourse analyses [37,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]. Based on relevant literature review, we identified ten Indicator 6.5.2 gaps, as discussed in this sub-section.…”

Section: Identified Policy Gaps: Sdg 652mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Indicators: Monitoring Cross-County Water Cooperation in the Nzoia River Basin, Kenya

2019

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Kenya Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB) Impact Report indicates a stagnation in water coverage at 55 percent, for the last three years, contrary to the 2015 target of 80 percent. One main reason for the stagnation is weak cross-county cooperation between hydrologically interdependent governments. WASREB has little guidance on what indicators to use to enhance cross-county water cooperation. Through literature review, we assess whether the UN-Water methodology for assessing Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 6.5.2 would provide useful guidelines. Based on the literature review outcomes, we design a water policy game known as Nzoia WeShareIt. After that, we play seven-game sessions in four county governments (Busia, Bungoma, Kakamega, and Trans Nzoia), on 11–22 July 2016. We use the in-game and post-game questionnaire data to measure learning outcomes on interdependence and cooperation. The findings indicate that Nzoia WeShareIt policy game as a form of experiential learning increased understanding on the value of cross-county cooperation. The study constitutes a practical guideline to WASREB and a quick reference tool to be explored when designing indicators to monitor cross-county cooperation. We also propose a mixed method approach that incorporates team interdependence indicators as distinct and separate indicators from cooperation. Moreover, we recommend strengthening SDG 6.5.2 indicator to measure transboundary water cooperation inputs, processes and outcomes.

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Dynamic political contexts and power asymmetries: the cases of the Blue Nile and the Yarmouk Rivers

Cited by 61 publications

References 39 publications

The Water Governance Reform Framework: Overview and Applications to Australia, Mexico, Tanzania, U.S.A and Vietnam

The Water Governance Reform Framework: Overview and Applications to Australia, Mexico, Tanzania, U.S.A and Vietnam

Hydropolitics and issue-linkage along the Orontes River Basin: an analysis of the Lebanon–Syria and Syria–Turkey hydropolitical relations

Sustainability Indicators: Monitoring Cross-County Water Cooperation in the Nzoia River Basin, Kenya

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