Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

M I T I G A T I N G R I S K A N D C O P I N G W I T H U N C E R T A I N T Y / 2 8 5reinsurance companies accept the risk, and governments mightnot have the financial strength required to assume the ultimatefinancial responsibility.Public and private responsibilitiesIn traditional systems, water users are accustomed to operating andsustaining production and social services under insecure andextreme climatic and economic conditions. As the systems growmore complex individual responsibilities to manage water-relatedrisk are assumed by state administrations. Box 11.6 summarizes theevolution of responsibility for risk in the water sector over the lastforty to fifty years as it has occurred in western Europe.But deregulation, privatization and market liberalization, unlessaccompanied by a shift of responsibility for risk to the privatesector, may leave the state with a responsibility that is notcommensurate with its resources. For example, the communitybasedrisk identification studies under the National Flood InsuranceProgramme (NFIP) in the United States amounted to aboutUS$115 billion for 18,760 communities.For a number of social, institutional and scientific reasons thatrange from climatic variability to economic globalization andliberalized market economies with their reduced roles ofgovernment, the management of risk and uncertainty has come tothe forefront. Natural and human-induced hazards are becomingone of the major challenges to the management, protection andconservation of water. They risk undermining other efforts to attaindevelopment targets. While international organizations and inparticular several national governments have adopted integrated riskbasedmanagement approaches, the institutional inertia and evenresistance to full recognition of the wider scope of risk mitigation inthe water sector persists. Risk and uncertainty continue to representweak links in management of water systems. Parallel to the progressof traditional risk mitigation, there is a call to national governmentsand international organizations for alternative managementapproaches and adjusted governance responsibilities that need to berecognized, assessed and acted upon.Citizens are becoming conscious of and affected by growingsocial costs of disasters such that the importance of riskmanagement and uncertainty can be expected to emerge as majorsocial and political challenges in water resources in the nextdecades. Figure 11.4 demonstrates the parallel and closely linkedtrend from natural to human-induced disasters in the causes of foodemergencies. The evolution is towards wider social responsibility tocontrol also the causes of disasters.New challengesNew challenges have arisen in the control and mitigation of newand less well-known long-term risk and uncertainty, which areadding to the costs and problems of managing natural hazards.Traditional risks include unreliable or unsafe supplies for urbanwater supplies and irrigation, in particular for large urbansettlements that depend on one source (hydrological risk) or oneBox 11.6: Evolution of responsibility for risk-based water resource management■ Up to 1945: Single-structured economies; traditionalmanagement system based on individual responsibilities.■ 1945–1980: Management responsibilities, includingprevention and civil protection assumed by the State.■ 1970–1990: Often in conflict with reduced governmentrole and resources, the functions are expanded to providefor IWRM.■ 1980–2000: In conflict with a trend of growing risk andcrisis, no-risk-based and development-focused managementis continued. Risks are dodged by integrated managementand planning, with constructs for participation and farreachingprovisions for sustainable development, precautionand preventive action obscuring state responsibility.■ Since 1990: End of the no-risk era, with more frequent,severe human-induced and natural accidents includingindustry-, pollution- and health-related catastrophes,accompanied by civil accidents, violence, and civil andethnic conflict at growing social costs. No-risk-basedintegrated management and planning approaches becomeinsufficient to manage increasingly frequent, large andlong-duration accidents;■ Today: No-risk to high-risk change renders current approachesnon-operational, initiating a decline towards broader socialcrisis; and risk-based management approaches are needed thatbuild on defined responsibility and timely, risk-based decisionmakingto pro-act on unanticipated and invisible threats.Source: Appelgren et al., 2002.