Water Governance Workshop
At the present time, 48% of the world's population lives in town and cities. THis figure is expected to rise to 60% by 2030. While in many cases the central areas of big cities have access to water and sanitation, the urban poor usually lack this access. Water supply and sanitation services in poor urban areas face major contraints, such as limited financial resources, inadequate operation and maintenance capacity and so on. This call for strategic water provision to sustain a healthy environment in cities and particularly in disadvantaged areas, and to meet basic human needs and rights by addressing the water scarcity problem.
In addressing the above issues, there is a widespread recognition of the need for integrated approaches to water governance. In the water sector, governance is a broad term that includes institutions, organisations and policies which are in place to "develop and manage water resources and the delivery of water services at different levels of society". The notion of co-ordination between government agencies, corporate sectors and civil society is pointed out in many research studies. Nevertheless, the challenges of water governance are enormous when it comes to bureaucratic implementation, public participation, the sustainable management of water resources and the provision of water services. Different interpretations of integrated management, competing interests among different sectors/stakeholders, power dynamics and lack of capacity building are some examples of the challenges facing water governance in complex urban systems.
In light of these difficulties, the objectives of this them are formulated as follows:
- Examining the theoretical foundations and implementations of contemporary urban water governance approaches
- Developing methodological approaches and analytical frameworks in order to identify new and imrovied modes of urban water governance
- Investigating problems related with water managements in poor urban areas
- Assessing the role of private sector and civil society involvement in urban water governance.
This calls for finding new ways of thinking to foster creative integration across disciplines and between critical and problem-solving research traditions as well as bringing the natural and social aspects of sustainability together. In doing so, this theme calls for collaboration of researchers within the U21 network to incorporate their ideas and experiences in approaching teh complexity of urban water governance systems. This could be an arena to exchange the learning points of ongoing projects and research studies regarding urban water governance practices and models in different countries.
Should you have any questions regarding the theme, please contact Maryam Nastar at LUCSUS (maryam.nastar@lucsus.lu.se).
If you wish to register your interest in this theme, please contact Graham Steed, the project co-ordinator.
