This book demonstrates how Morocco and other semi-arid countries can find solutions to water scarcity by rediscovering traditional methods of water resource management. The book begins by examining indigenous water heritage, considering the contribution of Islam and the mixed influences of Greek and Roman, Middle Eastern, Andalusian and Berber cultures. It then provides a thorough examination of resource management practices in Morocco throughout history, tracing the changing patterns from the instillation of agrarian capitalism in the 19th century, through the Protectorate years (1912–1956), to the 21st century. The book explains how reviving and modernizing traditional methods of water management could provide simple, accessible, and successful methods for addressing 21st century challenges, such as water scarcity and climate change. The work concludes by highlighting how these indigenous practices might be used to provide real-world practical solutions for improving water governance and therefore developing sustainable water management practices. Reviving Indigenous Water Management Practices in Morocco will be of great interest to students and scholars interested in water resource management, indigenous peoples, traditional knowledge, and sustainable development.

This book examines the complex interrelationships between water availability, governance and violent and non-violent conflicts, drawing on in-depth case studies of Lake Naivasha in Kenya and Lake Wamala in Uganda. When international economic endeavours like flower farming, oil exploration and extensive rice growing are coupled with a government's prioritization of economic development, not only does this lead to the commercialization of water resources but it also creates conflicts between national, regional and local stakeholders. Often overlooked in existing literature, such is the case even in water abundant areas like Lake Naivasha and Lake Wamala. Presenting a comparative study, the book provides a unique perspective on multifunctional water use and illustrates how politically and economically motivated water use increases violent tensions over access to and the use of freshwater resources. The coverage stretches from international and national agencies to NGOs, economic stakeholders and local actors. The book evaluates the resilience and vulnerability of local actors' ability to access water and examines the nexus between the need to access water and the ability to influence access to water, taking into consideration both countries’ economic development agendas. The book concludes by discussing strategies for reducing water-induced conflicts that can be applied to not only these cases but water conflicts across the globe. This book will be of great interest to scholars and professionals of water resource management and governance, African development, conflict resolution and sustainable development.

The book presents a critical and comparative analysis of the hydropolitical landscape of African transboundary river basins which, for much of the past century, have been affected by water scarcity. River and lake basins can become a source of tension and conflict due to a complicated mix of environmental, demographic, diplomatic, historical and geopolitical factors. This book, however, specifically focuses on the important, and often under looked, role played by scarcity in generating or exacerbating conflicts in shared river basins. Asserting that transboundary river basins tie states into a web of interdependence, this book raises awareness of how water scarcity, or the depletion of water resources, complicates this relationship as nations are forced to look beyond their own borders to meet the demand for water to satisfy multiple needs. Taking a comparative approach, it examines three shared basins: the Orange-Senqu, the Nile and the Niger River basins. While situated in different regions, all three basins are marked by serious environmental challenges that are detrimental to combustible hydropolitics over such shared water resources and they provide fascinating insights into the links between climate variability and change, water resources, human security, conflict, adaptation and regime capacity. Overall, this book argues that conflict over transboundary resources can be prevented given the establishment of norms, rules, and the role of external actors that help regulate state behaviour and control their impacts. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of water resource management, hydropolitics, environmental conflict, resource scarcity and international relations. It will also be of interest to policymakers involved in transboundary water resource governance.

This book examines the role played by business in urban water governance by analyzing the evolution of the global private water sector along with four public-private partnerships in Mexico and the U.S. The local nature of water services often hides the global developments behind the rise of transnational water corporations, which have gone from being local operators to becoming dynamic and powerful actors within an interconnected transnational space for water. This book focuses on the French groups Veolia and Suez, two of the most prominent private actors in global water governance, and the development and adaptation strategies of both companies in the cities of Aguascalientes, Mexico City, Atlanta, and Milwaukee over the past 30 years. Drawing on over 100 interviews conducted with corporate executives, public authorities, and local users of water services, this book moves beyond the simplistic dichotomy of the public-private debate and develops a theoretical framework that analyzes the economic and political power wielded by transnational business actors in global water governance. Not only does the book explain how Veolia and Suez strategically mobilize resources at difference scales in order to expand their global operations, but it also provides a nuanced picture of how state regulation remains of central importance to understanding the dynamics and evolution of the global water sector. Students and scholars interested in business and the environment, including public-private partnerships, business management and transnational corporations, and water governance, will find this book of great interest as will professionals and policymakers working in these fields.

This book establishes a framework for defining transboundary water cooperation and a methodology for evaluating its effectiveness, which will contribute to more effective and therefore successful cooperation processes. With the increasing focus on transboundary cooperation as a part of the Sustainable Development Goal Framework, there is global recognition of transboundary water cooperation as a tool for improved governance and management of transboundary surface and groundwaters. However, there is not an agreed upon definition of transboundary water cooperation in the literature or in practice. This book develops the Four Frames of Transboundary Water Cooperation, which is a neutral modular framework for developing context-specific explanatory definitions of transboundary water cooperation in basins and aquifers. The Four Frames of Cooperation are legal, institutional, relational, and outcome. However, we need to move beyond defining cooperation to understand better measures of the quality and effectiveness of cooperative processes. The Weighted Model of Effective Cooperation presents a first step in qualitatively evaluating the effectiveness of transboundary water cooperation. This model defines effective transboundary water cooperation and operationalizes a method to evaluate the effectiveness of cooperative processes over internationally shared waters. Effective cooperation emphasizes the relational and outcome frames of cooperation while working towards equitability and sustainability. Together, the Four Frames of Cooperation and the Weighted Model of Effective Cooperation will improve the understanding of cooperation and encourage a detailed evaluation of the quality, success, and effectiveness of cooperative processes. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of water resource management, water governance, and environmental politics. It will also appeal to policymakers and professionals working in the fields of water conflict, water diplomacy, and international cooperation.

This volume assesses the nexus of gender and transboundary water governance, containing empirical case studies, discourse analyses, practitioners’ accounts, and theoretical reflections. Transboundary water governance exists at the intersection of two highly masculinised fields: diplomacy and water resources management. In both fields, positions are mainly held by men, and core ideas, norms, and guiding principles that are presented as neutral, are both shaped by men and based on male experiences. This book sheds light on the often hidden gender dynamics of water conflict and cooperation at the transboundary level and on the implicit assumptions that guide research and policies. The individual chapters of the book, based on case studies from around the world, reveal the gendered nature of water diplomacy, take stock of the number of women involved in organisations that govern shared waters, and analyse programmes that have been set up to promote women in water diplomacy and the obstacles that they face. They explore and contest leading narratives and knowledge that have been shaped mainly by privileged men, and assess how the participation of women concretely impacts the practices, routines, and processes of water negotiations. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of water governance, water diplomacy, gender, international relations and environmental politics. It will also be of interest to professionals and policymakers involved in supporting gender mainstreaming in water cooperation. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book explores how conflicts around access to water shape cities, citizenship and infrastructures by tracing how water is commodified and controlled by the Public Enterprises of Medellín (EPM), one of the most successful publicly owned utility companies in the global South. Why are water inequalities dramatically increasing in Medellín, a city that is located in an area of bountiful water resources and owns a successful, established utility company? This book explains this paradoxical situation by weaving together two central threads. The first is a critical historical analysis of the political, economic and ecological conditions that enabled the city’s utility company to grow and expand internationally, and the second is a rich account of the everyday practices and struggles of residents in low-income areas to secure access to water and demand citizenship rights. The EPM is a case of global significance as the company continues to expand its commercial operations in the Latin American services market by taking over the utilities in Panama, El Salvador and Guatemala, Mexico and Chile. Although its successful international expansion has been a source of pride and admiration for many Colombians, the implementation of market-oriented operating principles in all activities of the utility company raises important and complex questions about its public character and responsibility in the provision of basic services, which has much wider implications given how it is poised to be a model for other for-profit municipal service operations in other Latin American countries. This book advances the empirical knowledge of corporatized utilities, with a globally significant case, as well as providing new theoretical insights with which to understand the limits, challenges and opportunities faced by public utility companies to provide affordable and equal access to water in cities. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of water resource management, corporatization, privatisation and commodification of natural resources, urban studies, citizenship and human rights, environmental sociology and Latin American studies.