Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

3 7 4 / M A N A G E M E N T C H A L L E N G E S : S T E W A R D S H I P A N D G O V E R N A N C EGoverning Water Wisely for Sustainable DevelopmentBox 15.2: Japan promotes public participationIn 1997, the River Law in Japan was revised, and a clausetargeting improvement and conservation of the riverenvironment was added. A planning system designed toincorporate the opinions of local residents was alsointroduced with the aim of establishing a riveradministration system for flood control, water use andenvironmental conservation. This system aims to makeriver areas healthier, while at the same time challengingthe public to become more involved in the process.In order to satisfy the people’s need for improvementand conservation of the river environment, and to basesuch improvement on riverine and regional characteristicssuch as climate, landscape and culture, it is essential tocooperate closely with local communities. The riverimprovement plan is twofold: one part deals with mattersconstituting the fundamental river management policy,and the other deals with the river improvement andconservation plan. The new planning system includesprocedures for incorporating the opinions of the localgovernment and residents.The Tamagawa River System Improvement Plan wasimplemented in March 2001, the first such plan in GreaterTokyo and the second in Japan. Discussion groups are formedto set up both the planning process and the river basinprocess of formalization is all too often biased in favour of the richand powerful who may abuse the system. In many developingcountries, local regulations, customary laws and traditional rightsassign rights and responsibilities that differ from state regulations. It istherefore important for formal rights to consider traditional practices.For formal and informal rights to be meaningful, it is essentialthat they retain the capacity to protect against competing waterusers. Due to the nature of water resources, illegal abstractions aregenerally easy and commonplace. They can be difficult to resolvesince the transaction costs for controlling and excluding nonmembersor owners, particularly in irrigated agriculture, can be very2. The use of common property resources is here seen in similarity with Ostrom’sterminology ‘common pool resources’, which refers to ‘a natural or man-maderesource system that is sufficiently large as to make it costly (but not impossible) toexclude potential beneficiaries from obtaining benefits from its use’ (Ostrom, 1990).Ostrom distinguishes between resource systems and resource units. The formercontains groundwater basins, physical infrastructure such as sewerage lines androads, water basins, etc. The latter is what can be used from the resource systems,e.g. fish, quantity of water withdrawn from a lake or a river.committee as prescribed by the River Law. The TamagawaRiver Basin Discussion Groups (which include the local basincommunities, scientific experts, companies, relevant localgovernment authorities and river administrators) are engagedin an ongoing exchange of opinions and information relatingto the development of the Tamagawa River and the riverbasin environment. This exchange enables them to buildmutual trust and deepen their cooperation. These meetingsare organized to foster a gradual consensus towards creatinga healthy river and town.Another river improvement plan is being implemented,meanwhile, in the Yodogawa River basin, which comprisesthe cities of Kyoto and Osaka. The River Law provides forsetting and implementing goals, but step-by-stepconsensus-building is also an integral part of the process.Without a thorough understanding of the currentsituation and of the problems facing the basin, aconsensus cannot be built, and without a consensus, it isimpossible to discuss future steps and take action. Theentire process, although very lengthy, therefore rests onpublic involvement, and this trial should provide a basis forpartnerships between river administrators and the public.Source: Prepared for the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) by the Ministryof Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) of Japan, 2002.high. Excessive illegal use threatens to break down property rightsand established institutions, as well as depleting water resources.Water can be seen as a common resource system. 2 All water usecreates positive or negative externalities (social, economic and/orenvironmental). The effective governance of water requires thatwater rights and obligations be clearly defined. For some definitionsof property rights, see box 15.3. Such rights and obligationsstipulate who is entitled to what quantity and quality of water, andwhen they are entitled to it. Water entitlements may also includeobligations, such as respecting the rights of downstream waterusers and the discharge of wastewater (Lundqvist, 2000).Although the state will normally legislate on the issues ofproperty rights, many of the current problems of water governancederive from hierarchical and centralized control by the state and itsinability to provide sufficient water-related services or to enforceregulations. It is often held that the local community, together withwater users’ organizations, can govern common resources inequitable and efficient ways (Bromley, 1992; Ostrom, 1990).