The Guarani Aquifer System, highly present but not high profile: A hydropolitical analysis of transboundary groundwater governance

Hussein, Hussam

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2018.02.005

Cited by 33 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…For instance, when it comes to transboundary groundwater resources, there is no formal agreement on the groundwater aquifer between Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, but technical cooperation, promoted also by the UN through UNESCO, is very active and promising [37]. Similarly, the Guarani Aquifer System (GAS), a groundwater basin shared between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, shows that even before the ratification of the GAS agreement, bilateral cooperation at the local level was successfully happening, for instance, in the case of the municipalities of Concordia (Argentina) and Salto (Uruguay) [38]. Regardless of the GAS preratification of the agreement, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa would have all scored zero according to the SDG 6.5.2 Indicator.…”

Section: Either Operational Arrangement or Nothing?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, informal technical meetings behind closed doors known as the picnic-table talks between Israeli and Jordanian officials before the 1994 peace treaty are an example of informal pre-cooperation; these talks contributed to the subsequent official water cooperation after 1994 [43,44]. An instance of informal cooperation at the municipal level is the Salto-Concordia case of the GAS, where informal cooperation continued even after the GAS project was officially concluded [38,45]; in the GAS case, the regional treaty and GAS project were initiated by communication among the scientific and epistemic communities in the region. In the case of the Disi Aquifer, which is shared between Jordan and Saudi Arabia, informal political meetings of governmental authorities used to take place regularly in the past decades [46], and brought the two governments to signing the 2015 Disi Agreement; even if it is not yet fully operational although signed and ratified [47,48], the Disi Agreement is an example of informal cooperation in the preoperational arrangement phase.…”

Section: Making Informal Formal and Technical Talks Count By Adding mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Monitoring Transboundary Water Cooperation in SDG 6.5.2: How a Critical Hydropolitics Approach Can Spot Inequitable Outcomes

2018

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This article contributes to critical sustainability studies through an interrogation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their action towards improving access to water and sanitation. This is done through an analysis of ‘SDG 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all’, specifically focusing on Target 6.5: ‘By 2030, implement integrated water-resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate’, and its related Indicator 6.5.2, ‘Proportion of transboundary basin area with an operational arrangement for water cooperation’. While on paper Target 6.5 might seem relatively unproblematic, this article shows that its implementation could have some unintended practical implications for countries sharing transboundary waters. This article fine-tunes SDG 6.5.2 by suggesting two additional qualitative steps to improve the indicator. These qualitative dimensions are deemed extremely important for two reasons: the first one is the need to unfold and tackle inequitable water agreements; the second reason is to assess, recognize, and promote the role of civil society, NGOs, and technical and informal cooperation as a positive path toward the actual achievement of formal cooperation. The two steps that we propose are deemed essential if the United Nations (UN) is going to include SDG 6.5.2 as a proactive tool in the achievement of “implementing integrated water-resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate”, as declared in the 2030 agenda.

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Section: Either Operational Arrangement or Nothing?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Making Informal Formal and Technical Talks Count By Adding mentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring Transboundary Water Cooperation in SDG 6.5.2: How a Critical Hydropolitics Approach Can Spot Inequitable Outcomes

2018

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“…Groundwater resources are often over-exploited for agricultural uses in the Haihe River Basin, as well as in other basins around the world, from the Middle East to South America [35][36][37][38]. Research has shown how management of transboundary groundwater resources is more likely to happen at the local level rather than at the national or transboundary level, as users have a direct interest in preserving quantity and quality of its water [39,40]. SDG 6, although not perfect, gives important guidelines and sets goals for improving the sustainable use of water resources [41,42].…”

Section: Arol Model Of Groundwater Exploitation Rate and Effective Irmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation and Optimization of Agricultural Water Resources Carrying Capacity in Haihe River Basin, China

Kang

Wang

et al. 2019

Water

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The shortage and uneven spatial and distribution of agricultural water resources has greatly restricted the sustainable development of regional society and economy. In this study, an improved five-element connection number set pair analysis model, which subdivides the same–different–opposite connection number in the set pair analysis theory to enhance the integrity and effectiveness of the original ternary connection numbers is constructed to evaluate the agricultural water resources carrying capacity (AWRCC) in the Haihe River Basin. Based on this evaluation result, an optimization model (AROL model) is proposed to optimize the effective irrigation area and groundwater exploitation to achieve a “better level” of AWRCC. The evaluation result shows that the current AWRCC of the Haihe River Basin is relatively low. The AWRCC in Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Liaoning is Level III and the current agricultural water resources are not overloaded but have little carrying potential. The AWRCC of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, and Shandong are rated IV and overloaded, among which Shandong has the lowest comprehensive score and the most serious overload. The optimization result shows that the extraction and conservation of groundwater in most areas of the Haihe River Basin is unbalanced and the effective irrigation area needs to be increased. With different current conditions in different areas, the groundwater exploitation and the effective irrigation area is adjusted correspondingly. Among the areas, the adjustment of groundwater exploitation and the effective irrigation area in Hebei are the most significant.

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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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The Guarani Aquifer System, highly present but not high profile: A hydropolitical analysis of transboundary groundwater governance

Cited by 33 publications

References 34 publications

Monitoring Transboundary Water Cooperation in SDG 6.5.2: How a Critical Hydropolitics Approach Can Spot Inequitable Outcomes

Monitoring Transboundary Water Cooperation in SDG 6.5.2: How a Critical Hydropolitics Approach Can Spot Inequitable Outcomes

Evaluation and Optimization of Agricultural Water Resources Carrying Capacity in Haihe River Basin, China

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

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