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Views on Water Management from Students of Different Faculties at the University of Calgary: Developing Water Policies Using Focus Groups
Abstract
Public participation in water management provides greater understanding of the challenges faced by a community and often leads to greater uptake of any new policies. Water management is a critical part of water security, and water management benefits from public participation. The objective of this research is to gain insight into the perceptions of water held by students at University of Calgary, and their beliefs about water management in Calgary. Focus groups were conducted with Engineering, Medical Science, Environmental Science, and Economics students of the University of Calgary. The focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The majority of the discussion was about decreasing Calgary's current water consumption and ways to go about doing this. This included discussion about the price of water, the use of water-efficient technology, legal regulations, incentives, and increasing awareness about water issues. Each student group had some predominant discussion and ideas unique to their group, and similarities were found amongst the different programs, particularly between the Engineering and Environmental Science groups. The students considered water as primarily a natural resource and a public resource, and some groups also agreed that water is a human right. The ideas about water management indicate that the students wish to see water used more sustainably, however the groups debated different methods for introducing change based on what kind of intervention was thought to be the most effective. The perspectives of the students offered a range of ideas that could provide insight into future management.
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With the promulgation of the EC Water Framework Directive (WFD), stakeholders' involvement in water management planning and public consultation has become mandatory for member states. This paper investigates the case of France, where water management has been based on a distinctive form of "participatory democracy" for over 40 years. It first analyses how public participation and expert opinion fit into the water-management planning procedure and compares this to what occurs elsewhere in Europe and the United States. It then proposes an operational method for initiating the participatory process with an analysis of the stakeholders' viewpoint at the watershed level. The method, which relies on interviews, is applied to two watersheds located in southern France. The results of the two case studies illustrate how the stakeholders' viewpoint analysis can give access to practical knowledge and experience and to a wider range of perspectives and options. The case studies highlight the idea that the mobilisation of non-scientific (or lay) knowledge, values and preferences can improve the quality of the identification of the issues at stake, the formulation of a generally complex and unstructured problem and the identification of a large panel of alternative solutions. The paper then proposes some recommendations for implementing the provisions of the WFD.
Watershed planning is an important focus of environmental protection efforts in many states. Still, how to involve the public in watershed planning remains controversial. This paper reports on research that used Q methodology to study how experienced watershed management planners and activists perceive the proper way to involve the public in decision-making. Four perspectives about how best to involve the public in watershed planning emerged. One emphasizes that a good process is credible and legitimate and that it maintains popular acceptance for outcomes. A second sees a good process as one that produces technically competent outcomes. A third focuses on the fairness of the process. A fourth perspective pays attention to educating people and promoting constructive discourse. Differences among these views suggest an important challenge for those responsible for designing and carrying out public participation processes. Conflicts may emerge about process designs because people disagree about what is appropriate in specific contexts.
Renewable fresh water comprises a tiny fraction of the global water pool but is the foundation for life in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. The benefits to humans of renewable fresh water include water for drinking, irrigation, and industrial uses, for production of fish and waterfowl, and for such instream uses as recreation, transportation, and waste disposal. In the coming century, climate change and a growing imbalance among freshwater supply, consumption, and population will alter the water cycle dramatically. Many regions of the world are already limited by the amount and quality of available water. In the next 30 yr alone, accessible runoff is unlikely to increase more than 10%, but the earth's population is projected to rise by approximately one-third. Unless the efficiency of water use rises, this imbalance will reduce freshwater ecosystem services, increase the number of aquatic species facing extinction, and further fragment wetlands, rivers, deltas, and estuaries. Based on the scientific evidence currently available, we conclude that: (1) over half of accessible freshwater runoff globally is already appropriated for human use; (2) more than 1 x 10(9) people currently lack access to clean drinking water and almost 3 x 10(9) people lack basic sanitation services; (3) because the human population will grow faster than increases in the amount of accessible fresh water, per capita availability of fresh water will decrease in the coming century; (4) climate change will cause a general intensification of the earth's hydrological cycle in the next 100 yr, with generally increased precipitation, evapotranspiration, and occurrence of storms, and significant changes in biogeochemical processes influencing water quality; (5) at least 90% of total water discharge from U.S. rivers is strongly affected by channel fragmentation from dams, reservoirs, interbasin diversions, and irrigation; and (6) globally, 20% of freshwater fish species are threatened or extinct, and freshwater species make up 47% of all animals federally endangered in the United States. The growing demands on freshwater resources create an urgent need to link research with improved water management. Better monitoring, assessment, and forecasting of water resources will help to allocate water more efficiently among competing needs, Currently in the United States, at least six federal departments and 20 agencies share responsibilities for various aspects of the hydrologic cycle. Coordination by a single panel with members drawn from each department, or by a central agency, would acknowledge the diverse pressures on freshwater systems and could lead to the development of a well-coordinated national plan.
Public Participation (PP) has gained widespread recognition as a key water management principle. Despite this, the practical application of PP remains problematic. This article presents the current state of developments in PP theory and practice. It discusses the benefits of PP and gives many suggestions for making PP more effective. It pays special attention to the place of PP in democratic theory, to the cultural context of PP, and to its application in international river basins. This article concludes that PP should not be regarded simply as an accessory in aiding water management. Effective PP is, in fact, an entirely different mode of governance.
Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is a holistic, participatory approach with involvement of all relevant stakeholders to address effectively water issues at river basin level within either a national or transnational framework. In the EU countries, the EU WFD provides for cooperation of riparians with stakeholders toward this end. In the wider Mediterranean region, very few relevant attempts have been made, with limited results. This chapter briefly refers to three cases with different “models” and level of involvement of stakeholders: The NW Sahara Aquifer System with rather limited stakeholder involvement, mostly, from the research and academic community; the Sava River case with a stakeholder involvement added, rather late, in the process; and the Drin River case, where the stakeholder involvement was – to a certain extent – one of the driving forces, integrated from the beginning into the process. The latter case is analyzed in detail, explaining the main specificities of the Drin Basin system, the international framework within which the Drin Dialogue was developed, the key players, the NGO and other stakeholders’ role and contribution, and the important results until now, including the adoption of a Memorandum of Understanding among the riparians.