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IRRIGATION MATTERS: Transition in Global Water Resources Management Regimes

CRC for Irrigation Futures Irrigation Matters Series No. 02/08, Transition in Global Water Resources Management Regimes - A Review is now available online.

This paper is a literature review on the transitions in water resources management regimes. It presents a coherent discussion on water governance and provides an account of the shift in water resource management paradigm across the world with particular emphasis on Australia and India.

Sustainable water management has become a major global issue. Much of this water crisis can be attributed to poor governance. Water governance can be viewed as a framework of political, social, economic, and legal structures within which societies choose and accept to manage their water related affairs. It includes governments, the market forces that help to allocate resources, and any other mechanisms that regulate human interactions.

Reforms to address the pressure on water resources have lead to paradigm shifts in water resources management policy around the world. We discuss the policy shifts in United States of America, Europe, Australia and India. One of the most notable changes is the shift from water resource development to management.

To effect these changes institutional change is required. Institutional change not only refers to a change in the relationships between agencies and organisations but also incorporates the changes in value systems, informal and formal norms and rules of behaviour between agents, and also between agents and organisations.

There is need for a new approach to govern the water resources and the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is accepted as a means to ensure sustainable management of water resources.

This paper is part of the doctoral research project titled “Urban Wastewater Reuse for Agriculture: Governance Paradigms and Institutional Arrangements in Australia and India”. A complete copy of the thesis and other related publications can be obtained from the CRC IF website under Publications/Theses.

Click on the link below to download the report.

www.irrigationfutures.org.au/news.asp?catID=12&ID=781

Contacts:
Dr Ganesh Keremane