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A CRITICAL APPROACH
TO INTERNATIONAL WATER
MANAGEMENT TRENDS
Policy and Practice
Edited By
CHRISTIAN BRÉTHAUT AND RÉMI SCHWEIZER
Palgrave Studies in Water Governance: Policy
and Practice
Series Editors
Christian Bréthaut
University of Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland
Thomas Bolognesi
University of Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland
Looking at the issues of water governance through the perspective of the
social sciences, books in the Palgrave Series in Water Governance take a
global perspective on one of the key challenges facing society today: the
sustainable development of water resources and services for all. In step-
ping away from the traditional focus on engineering and geophysics, the
series takes a more holistic approach to both consolidate and generate
knowledge that can be applied to different geographic areas by academ-
ics, researchers, policy-makers, NGOs and the private sector. This series
emphasises the link between science and policy through considering
water as a socio-ecological system, water and the territoriality of action,
and water in the context of conflicts.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/15054
Christian Bréthaut • Rémi Schweizer
Editors
A Critical Approach
to International
Water Management
Trends
Policy and Practice
Editors
Christian Bréthaut Rémi Schweizer
University of Geneva ETH Zürich
Geneva, Switzerland Zürich, Switzerland
Palgrave Studies in Water Governance: Policy and Practice
ISBN 978-1-137-60085-1 ISBN 978-1-137-60086-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-60086-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017947897
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Contents
1 Taking Up Practical and Intellectual Challenges
Posed by International Water Management Trends:
Some Introductory Remarks 1
Christian Bréthaut and Rémi Schweizer
2 Avoiding the Commons Trap: An Exploration of Local
Community Governance of Water in Valais, Switzerland 23
Rémi Schweizer
3 Integrated Water Resources Management as a
Compromise: Renewing the Water Act in the Canton
of Fribourg, Switzerland 45
Arnaud Buchs
4 Transboundary Water Management: From Geopolitics
to a Non- state Analytical Perspective: The Case of the
Rhône River 71
Christian Bréthaut
v
vi Contents
5 From Multi-level Governance to Scalar Politics: Water
Community Networks Challenging Neo-Extractivist
Governmental Institutions in Ecuador 97
Emilie Dupuits
6 Exploring the Democratic Legitimacy of Privatization
in the Water Sector: Two Cases in Switzerland 123
Eva Lieberherr
7 Governing Water with Market-Based Instruments:
Preferences and Skepticism in Switzerland 147
Florence Metz and Philip Leifeld
8 Climate Change Adaptation as a New Global Norm
in the Water Sector? Between Symbolism and Dilution 177
Johann Dupuis
9 Water Security as a Normative Goal or as a Structural
Principle for Water Governance 201
Thomas Bolognesi and Stéphane Kluser
10 Politicizing the Water-Energy Nexus: Hydropower
and Instream Values in Two Swiss Cantons’ Water
Strategies 233
Luc Tonka
11 From the Promises of International Water Management
Trends to the Reality of Policies and Practices: Some
Conclusive Thoughts 269
Rémi Schweizer and Christian Bréthaut
Index 295
About the Authors
Rémi Schweizer is Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the University of
Lausanne and ETH Zürich in Switzerland. His research focuses on envi-
ronmental and food governance, with an interest on power relations,
policy implementation and innovation and local community governance.
Author of several books and articles, he conducts research with a strong
empirically grounded approach.
Christian Brethaut is Assistant Professor at the Institute for
Environmental Sciences at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He
leads the Education and Knowledge component of the Geneva Water
Hub and co-leads the UNESCO Chair on Hydropolitics from the
University of Geneva. His work focuses on challenges interlinked with
transboundary contexts and with intersectorality. He is a co-editor of
Palgrave Studies in Water Governance: Policy and Practice series.
vii
List of Figures
Fig. 1.1 Structure of the book 7
Fig. 1.2 Switzerland, geographical positioning 9
Fig. 4.1 The Rhône basin: geographical context 73
Fig. 5.1 Strategic national water system of Ecuador 105
Fig. 6.1 Zurich wastewater treatment operator management
and governance structure 131
Fig. 6.2 Zurich water supply operator management and governance
structure 132
Fig. 6.3 Berne wastewater treatment operator management and
governance structure 133
Fig. 6.4 Berne water supply operator management and governance
structure 134
Fig. 7.1 Preferences by types of policy instruments. Note:
Abbreviations for instruments are explained in Table 7.1. 162
Fig. 7.2 Biplot of actors’ instrument preferences. Note: Red arrows
represent policy instruments; dark blue dots reflect actors’
preference profile positions in the two-dimensional space;
coloring of actor labels indicates membership in the clusters as
illustrated in Fig. 7.4. Dimensions 1 and 2 reflect systematic,
internal variance of actors’ instrument preferences and are not
predefined, exogenous variables (correspondence analysis) 164
ix
x List of Figures
Fig. 7.3 Instrument preferences by actor type (see Table 7.4 for
instrument abbreviation) 167
Fig. 7.4 Cluster dendrogram of actors’ preference similarity profile.
Note: Cluster colors correspond to the coloring of actor
labels as illustrated in Fig. 7.2 169
Fig. 9.1 Areas of concerns of water security indicators surveyed
by GWP (2014). 207
Fig. 9.2 Nature of water security indicators surveyed by
GWP (2014). 207
Fig. 9.3 Summary statistics of selected water security indicators 209
Fig. 9.4 Overview of water security globally 210
Fig. 9.5 Variation in water security assessments 211
Fig. 9.6 Relation between governance quality and GNP per capita 212
Fig. 9.7 Relation between water security and governance 214
Fig. 9.8 Relation between water security and GNP per capita 215
Fig. 9.9 Governance, GDP and water security 215
Fig. 9.10 Evolution of collective problems and water governance in
Switzerland since 1870. 217
Fig. 10.1 Map of river streams available for power development,
Canton Bern. 249
Fig. 10.2 Map of canton Valais with hydropower plants >25 MW 252
