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Water and democracy: new roles for civil society in water governance

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  • Lawrence Susskind

Abstract

In most democratic countries, government officials make water-allocation decisions. Citizens depend on these officials and their technical advisors to take account of both technical and political considerations in determining which water uses get priority, what infrastructure investments to make and what water quality standards to apply. In many parts of the world, water users and stakeholders have additional opportunities to comment on such decisions before they are implemented. Under some circumstances, citizens can challenge water management decisions in court. This is not enough. More direct democracy, involving stakeholders before such decisions are made, can produce fairer and increasingly sustainable results. The steps in collaborative adaptive management - a form of stakeholder engagement particularly appropriate to managing complex water networks - are described in this article along with the reasons that traditional forms of representative democracy are inadequate when it comes to water policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Lawrence Susskind, 2013. "Water and democracy: new roles for civil society in water governance," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 666-677, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:cijwxx:v:29:y:2013:i:4:p:666-677
    DOI: 10.1080/07900627.2013.781914
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    Cited by:

    1. Haiyan Yu & Mike Edmunds & Anna Lora-Wainwright & Dave Thomas, 2014. "From principles to localized implementation: villagers' experiences of IWRM in the Shiyang River basin, Northwest China," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 588-604, September.
    2. González-Gómez, Francisco & García-Rubio, Miguel A. & González-Martínez, Jesús, 2014. "Beyond the public–private controversy in urban water management in Spain," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-9.
    3. Guofeng Wang & Nan Lin & Xiaoxue Zhou & Zhihui Li & Xiangzheng Deng, 2018. "Three-Stage Data Envelopment Analysis of Agricultural Water Use Efficiency: A Case Study of the Heihe River Basin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, February.
    4. Mehdi Ketabchy, 2021. "Investigating the Impacts of the Political System Components in Iran on the Existing Water Bankruptcy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-22, December.
    5. Di Marco, Antonio, 2023. "Water democracy under European Union law: Requiring participatory services management," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

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