Table Of ContentWater Ethics
Fully revised and updated, this second edition of Water Ethics continues to
consolidate water ethics as a key dimension of water-related decisions.
The book introduces the idea that ethics are an intrinsic dimension of any
water policy, program, or practice, and that understanding what ethics are
being acted out in water policies is fundamental to an understanding of water
resource management. Alongside updated references and the introduction of
discussion questions and recommended further reading, this new edition dis-
cusses in depth three significant developments since the publication of the first
edition in 2013. The first is the growing awareness of the climate crisis as an
existential threat, and associated concern about adaptive strategies for sustain-
able water management and ways of using water management for climate
mitigation (e.g., practically through agricultural soil management and con-
ceptually through ethics awareness). Second, there has been increased clarity
among the religious community, Indigenous leaders, and progressive academics
that ethics needs to become an arena for application and action (e.g., the Vati-
can encyclicalLaudatoSi,protests at Standing Rock and Flint,Michigan,inthe
US, and climate demonstrations worldwide). Thirdly, there have been new
normative water standards ranging from “water stewardship” (industry initia-
tive) to water charters (Berlin) and the on-going initiative to develop a global
water ethics charter.
Drawing on case studies from countries including Australia, India, the Phi-
lippines, South Africa, and the United States, this textbook is essential reading
for students of environmental ethics and water governance and management.
David Groenfeldt is the founder and Director of the Water-Culture Institute in
Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology,
UniversityofNewMexico,USA.Hehaspreviouslyworkedonirrigationresearch
at the International Water Management Institute (Sri Lanka), the design and
management of irrigation projects for the World Bank, and rural development
consulting for various international agencies. He is also the co-editor of Global
WaterEthics(Routledge,2017).
Earthscan Water Text
Key Concepts in Water Resource Management
A Review and Critical Evaluation
Edited by Jonathan Lautze
Reconnecting People and Water
Public Engagement and Sustainable Urban Water Management
Liz Sharp
The International Law of Transboundary Groundwater Resources
Gabriel Eckstein
Water Governance and Collective Action
Multi-scale challenges
Edited by Diana Suhardiman, Alan Nicol and Everisto Mapedza
Water Stewardship and Business Value
Creating Abundance from Scarcity
William Sarni and David Grant
Equality in Water and Sanitation Services
Edited by Oliver Cumming and Thomas Slaymaker
Environmental Health Engineering in the Tropics
Water, Sanitation and Disease Control (third edition)
Sandy Cairncross and Sir Richard Feachem
Flood Risk Management
Global Case Studies of Governance, Policy and Communities
Edited by Edmund Penning-Rowsell and Matilda Becker
Water Ethics
A Values Approach to Solving the Water Crisis (second edition)
David Groenfeldt
Water Ethics
A Values Approach to Solving the Water
Crisis
Second edition
David Groenfeldt
Secondeditionpublished2019
byRoutledge
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andbyRoutledge
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©2019DavidGroenfeldt
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FirsteditionpublishedbyRoutledge2013
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Groenfeldt,David,author.
Title:Waterethics:avaluesapproachtosolvingthewatercrisis/David
Groenfeldt.
Description:Secondedition.|Abingdon,Oxon;NewYork,NY:Routledge
isanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,anInformaBusiness,2019.|
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.|
Identifiers:LCCN2018047516(print)|LCCN2018049479(ebook)|ISBN
9781351200196(eBook)|ISBN9780815392019(hbk:alk.paper)|ISBN
9780815392026(pbk:alk.paper)|ISBN9781351200196(ebk)
Subjects:LCSH:Water-supply--Moralandethicalaspects.|
Water-supply--Governmentpolicy.|Waterresourcesdevelopment--Moraland
ethicalaspects.|Waterresourcesdevelopment--Governmentpolicy.|
Environmentalethics.
Classification:LCCTD353(ebook)|LCCTD353.G762019(print)|DDC
178--dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2018047516
ISBN:978-0-8153-9201-9(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-8153-9202-6(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-351-20019-6(ebk)
TypesetinSabon
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
List of illustrations vi
Preface viii
1 Introduction to water ethics 1
2 Managing rivers 21
3 Ethics of agricultural water use 56
4 Ethics in urban and domestic water use 80
5 Water for industry: What is ethical use? 108
6 The ethics of water governance 131
7 Indigenous water ethics 164
8 Charting a new water ethics 188
Bibliography 215
Index 235
Illustrations
Figure
5.1 Ethical Spectrum of Good Water Deeds 116
Tables
1.1 Domains of water (left) and domains of values/ethics (top) 10
6.1 Domains of freshwater governance (left) and categories of values/
ethics (top). 140
Boxes
2.1 Cochiti Dam 33
2.2 Dams and fish in the Lower Mekong River 35
2.3 Flood “control” along the Rio Grande, New Mexico 44
2.4 The 2007 Brisbane Declaration on Environmental Flows 47
3.1 Agriculture at a crossroads 62
3.2 Multifunctional agriculture in Asia 70
4.1 Water as a human right 82
4.2 The UN Sustainable Development Goal 6: “The water goal” 83
4.3 It’s complicated! Sustainability challenges for rural water and
sanitation initiatives 86
4.4 Conspicuous water consumption in Las Vegas 101
4.5 IWA’s 17 principles for urban water management 104
5.1 Swedish Water Textile Initiative: The backstory 113
5.2 Corporate water initiatives 118
6.1 Dublin principles 133
6.2 The World Water Vision 2000 (excerpts) 136
6.3 World Social Forum 2018 Declaration 137
6.4 Sustainable Development Goals related to water 143
6.5 OECD principles on water governance 144
6.6 Bellagio principles on valuing water 145
6.7 Water Ethics Charter: Draft 2.0 146
Illustrations vii
6.8 Learning from Cochabamba 151
6.9 Berlin Water Charter 153
6.10 Revitalizing the Arvari River watershed (India) 158
7.1 Indigenous views of water 166
7.2 Is water alive? 169
7.3 UN recognition of Indigenous peoples’ rights to water 172
7.4 Indigenous Peoples Kyoto Declaration on Water 176
7.5 Fitzroy River Declaration 178
7.6 Rivers as people 181
7.7 Grandmother walks to protect water 183
8.1 Water art 208
Preface
If the message of the first edition of this book was “we need to address the
ethics driving our water decisions,” the message of this second edition is “we
need to institutionalize ethics into all our water decisions and our water beha-
viors.” It is not enough to have laws, policies, and regulations about water; we
also need ethics as a complementary set of behavioral guidance. An example is
environmental flow, or what in the US lexicon is called “instream” flow. In the
drierWesternstateswhereinstreamflowsaremostproblematic,thereisusually
no legally mandated instream flow requirement, but there is nonetheless an
ecological ethic that streams should be kept alive. Similarly, clean water reg-
ulations can be overturned politically, but the ethic that brands deliberate pol-
lution as unconscionable is immune to political tampering. Ethics adds to the
resilience of water systems through systematizing value principles which can
endure even through legal and policy changes
This book seeks to contribute to the growth anddevelopment of water ethics
as a field of study and practice. Just as medical ethics has become a standard
component of medical practice, water ethics ought to be a standard component
of water governance, and for similar reasons: Both medicine and water are
fundamental to individual health and the well-being of society itself. Decisions
aboutboth medical servicesandwaterservices needto consider awiderangeof
concerns; they are not simple business matters. When ethical responsibility is
not recognized, the results can be tragic. The lead poisoning in Flint, Michigan,
is a sad reminder of the importance of water ethics.
I look forward to a time when I can receive an affirming nod of the head,
rather than a quizzical expression, when I tell a new colleague that my area of
interest within the arena of water policy is the subfield of water ethics. The
typical response now is “Water ethics? That’s unusual!” And in fact, a concern
with water ethics is very unusual and almost unheard of. For six years I’ve
writtenaperiodic(rangingbetweenmonthlyandquarterly)newsletteronwater
ethics1 and publicized reports and blog posts that touched on water values,
norms, and ethics. I adopted the practice of regularly searching water reports
fortheword“ethic”andonlyrarelyencounteredevenasinglehit.Clearlythere
is work to be done!
Preface ix
It is not enough to wave the flag of water ethics through a newsletter, a
conference paper, or even this book. For ethics to have a real impact on water
decision-making,thefieldofwaterethicsneedstohaveaninstitutionalhomeor
multiple homes. And more than a home, water ethics needs to become a
dynamic member of a larger ecosystem of related schools of thought such as
environmental justice, resilience, water stewardship, and decolonization. The
particular contribution of water ethics, it seems to me, lies in highlighting the
value principles within these other normative frameworks, finding commonal-
ities and revealing differences.
Values about water are gaining currency within the mainstream of the water
world. The UN High Level Panel on Water recently highlighted the importance
of better understanding diverse water values (HLPW 2018). Yet even in this
report on water values, the role of ethics, which Aristotle invented to help sort
out conflicting values, receives no mention. Instead we are confronted with
undigested conflicting values about water with no resolution. This is where
water ethics can contribute. If there were no value conflicts, if everything were
clearly agreed upon, there would be no need for ethics. It is because we have
complicated values that we need to formulate ethical principles to help us
navigate through our values.
The arena of water values and ethics is not for the faint of heart. There is
little solid ground under foot; values need to be teased out from statements and
behaviors, and ethics are even murkier. But even if vague and ill-formed, values
motivate real behavior with real impacts on nature and people. And because it
is a topic that has been relatively little studied, there is opportunity to help
shapethefield.Aristotlemightbesurprisedtoknowthatevenafter2,300years,
ethics, at least as pertaining to water, remains a new frontier of knowledge!
Note
1 https://waterethics.org/wen-enewsletter/
