222893e

WATER EDUCATION AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTThe six PMRGH pilot basins currently implementing SVP todevelop IWRM plans that are validated by river basin councilsSource: ANAThe circles of influence applied by SVP in Peru to develop IWRMplans at the six pilot basinsSource: ANAModel builders (Level 1):Technical Coordinators ofthe basin, Consultant Firm,President of RBC, AAAModel Validators (Level 2):Technical Working groupsInterest Groups (Level 3):Water user associations,municipalities, institutions,universities, NGOs,professional societiesDecision Maker (Level 4):River Basin Council (RBC)coast (15 mm average rainfall) with 30 per cent employmentin the agricultural sector (13 per cent of GDP).This wealth has enabled increases in public and privateinvestments. But it may have in turn triggered a record189 social conflicts recorded in 2008 by the ombudsman’soffice of Peru, which are associated with infrastructure inresource-rich areas of the Andean highlands. 1 Transparentand participatory processes can actually hinder negotiationsrelated to natural resources, especially when interestgroups are inflexible. The challenge is to develop a mechanismthat can structure transparency and participation,involving a broad range of stakeholders while minimizingrancour and needless delays in decision-making.SVP in PeruThe challenges listed above are not unique to Peru, butin fact routinely confront water planners and managersin the United States and around the world. In response,the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) developedSVP as a collaborative planning process that integratessystems modelling, structured public participation andtraditional water resources planning methods into apractical approach to solve water resource problems. 2SVP helps to facilitate agreement between diverse interestgroups on the facts, multiple objectives and valuesrelated to a watershed or basin.SVP has its origins in a response to severe droughtsin much of the US West, South-East and the Missouri-Mississippi valley in the 1980s. The National DroughtStudy developed a drought preparedness method thatwas based on a systems analysis approach designedby the Harvard Water Program of the early 1960s,which shaped the basic principles and standards thatguide federal water resources investment. The droughtpreparedness method, however, required planners tocooperate with decision makers and stakeholders todetermine the criteria used to accept or reject a droughtplan and to develop metrics to evaluate alternatives; andthis collaborative technical analysis method eventuallyevolved into SVP. SVP is part of a growing trend towardscollaborative modelling for decision support in waterresources, with an increasing number of water managerslooking towards cooperation in technical analysis asa solid and useful approach for water solutions.In 2011, the Project for Modernization of WaterResources Management (PMGRH), a section of ANA,initiated six IWRM pilot basins to evaluate execution ofPeru’s 2009 Water Resources Law. 3 To do this, PMGRHselected and adapted the USACE-SVP framework as theprocess for transparent governance of natural resourcesand participatory modelling. The framework would beused in IWRM plan development by each of the six riverbasin councils in the Chancay-Lambayeque, Chira-Piura, Puyango-Tumbes, Chancay-Huaral, Chili-Quilcaand Locumba river basins.Structured collaborationSVP provides a framework to facilitate stakeholderand decision maker collaboration in the iterative[ 137 ]