Water Governance in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

From p. 99: "The need to achieve a shared understanding of the 'water crisis' has also important implications for water-related academic and techno-scientific endeavors, emphasizing the call for meaningful, not just rhetorical, interdisciplinarity in water research. In this regard, although a high degree of sophistication has been reached in the techno-scientific fields related to water, such as hydrogeology, hydraulic engineering, or biotechnology applied to water management, we are still very far from plainly understanding the historical, socio-economic, cultural and political processes underpinning the 'water crisis'. This gap between the techno-scientific and socio-political fields of knowledge, we claim, may contribute to explain why the enormous technological progress made in relation to water in recent decades has not been reflected in more sustainable, efficient, effective and efficacious practices of water management. Therefore, there is a need for establishing a balance between the techno-scientific, socio-economic, political, and cultural aspects of water management activities, and superseding the artificial separation of water research and practice in disciplinary and corporatist feuds. Correspondingly, the development of genuinely interdisciplinary approaches that contribute towards developing water governance and management practices grounded on the principles of sustainability and social justice is one of the most urgent challenges facing water governance in the twentieth-first century."