Jeff Camkin

Designs for the future: the role of sustainable irrigation in northern Australia.

Northern Australia (NA) accounts for 40% of the Australian landmass, is largely undeveloped and is one of the few large natural areas remaining on earth. The interplay between the landscapes, rivers, groundwater and strongly monsoonal weather pattern has resulted in unique, diverse and iconic ecological systems that will need special attention to ensure their integrity is retained as development pressure increases. With 60 to 70% of Australia’s fresh water discharging from tropical rivers, and reduced water availability in much of southern Australia due to drought, climate change and increasing water demand, there is rapidly growing interest in the land and water resources of the north. The Australian Government has recognised this growing pressure and that there is a unique and historic opportunity to ensure the management and use of Australia’s northern land and water resources takes place within a strategic, sustainable framework. Taking this opportunity requires forethought about the future of NA and what role irrigation should play in that future. Key questions are whether irrigation should play a significant role, and if so, where should it be located, what should it look like and how should it be managed? Established in 2003, Northern Australia Irrigation Futures (NAIF) is a collaboration of four governments responsible for NA, research organisations and industry developing new knowledge, tools and processes to support debate and decision-making about the future of irrigation in NA. NAIF exhibits many of the characteristics of the emerging discipline of implementation and integration science. It has been a catalyst for further work to help understand and deal with the many complexities and uncertainties relating to decisions about the future of irrigation in NA.

OECD principles on water governance in practice: an assessment of existing frameworks in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and South America

ABSTRACT Through the lens of the 12 OECD Principles on Water Governance, this article examines six water resources and water services frameworks in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and South America to understand enhancing and constraining contextual factors. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used to analyze each framework against four criteria: alignment; implementation; on-ground results; and policy impact. Four main target areas are identified for improving water governance: policy coherence; financing; managing trade-offs; and ensuring integrity and transparency by all decision makers and stakeholders. Suggestions are presented to support practical implementation of the principles through better government action and stakeholder involvement.

Sharing stakeholder knowledge across water management boundaries and interfaces: experiences from Australian and New Zealand ‘HELP’ basins

Abstract As water management issues have grown and become more connected, the need to engage civil society and incorporate a wider range of community knowledge in decision-making is increasingly recognised. This paper discusses experiences of three river basins that are part of the UNESCO-IHP Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy programme. In each, water management issues cross different kinds of ‘boundaries’. At the Ord River, north-western Australia, investment in irrigation expansion and social infrastructure is driving the need for more comprehensive water planning and management incorporating a new set of economic, social and ecological values, new knowledge sources, and more collaboration with the neighbouring jurisdiction. In the lower Burdekin, north-eastern Australia, sugar cane irrigators need to reduce their impact on local groundwater, wetlands and adjacent Great Barrier Reef. And at the Motueka River, on New Zealand’s South Island, an 11-year Integrated Catchment Management programme sought solutions to the impacts of upstream land use on downstream water quality. While none of the basins physically crosses an international or national boundary, they can all be considered transboundary waters. These examples show that many of the challenges experienced in relation to international transboundary resources are replicated at other scales and in other ways: across internal borders, through institutional confines, across environmental interfaces, between economic sectors and around a range of social norms. Understanding the various boundaries can help identify a more comprehensive and inclusive suite of stakeholders, enabling their interests and knowledge to be incorporated into decision-making. Sharing knowledge across these boundaries is critical to developing the mutual understanding necessary to support better water management and more equitable benefit-sharing from available water resources.

Roles, Rights, and Responsibilities in Water Governance

Numerous commentators have highlighted the criticality of improving water governance to help address current and future water challenges. But whose job is it? In water governance, what should we expect from our governments? What should commercial water users expect from each other? What changes should environmental and social advocates expect as a result of their representations on behalf of stakeholders who have little or no voice? And what should governments expect from the communities they serve? This article briefly examines the rights and responsibilities of various actors in water governance through a selection of key water issues. We suggest that discussions about water are often unbalanced, overemphasizing the rights of large water users and underemphasizing the responsibilities all parties have toward achieving effective and efficient water governance. Among all the responsibilities in water governance, none is more fundamental than our shared responsibility toward intergenerational equity. This shared responsibility can and should be the rallying point around which we gather to improve water decisions at all scales, from local streams to national policies and global agreements.