Issues, Stakeholders, Regulation, and Challenges in Water Management

Water lies at the heart of multiple and conflicting issues, visions, and interests. The interplay of these various elements raises questions about integrated water resources management (IWRM) and regulation (particularly through public policy), the balance between collective and private values, and decision-making processes concerning collective issues—in short, governance. Decentralization, water and sanitation services, basin-level management, the European Water Framework Directive, and financial flows, in particular, illustrate various facets of governance.

This module is designed to enable students, regardless of their prior academic background or specialization, to grasp the complexity of water-related issues and the multitude of stakeholders involved, as well as the challenges posed by regulation—due both to this multitude of stakeholders and to the fluid nature of water and the interactions across different scales that it generates. This approach, focusing on the issues and stakeholders, is intended to make students aware that, regardless of the “water profession”—whether technical or more institutional—they choose, they will face the need to understand the dynamics among stakeholders and their various interests.

Hourly volumes*:

            CM: 24

            TD: 3

            Practical Work:  

            Lot:

Continuous Assessment Exam

Introduction to Integrated Water Management and Governance, F. Molle

This course introduces IWRM and the three collective values it promotes through a historical overview of the “water mission” and the emergence of three “challenges.” It highlights the interconnectivity of users and ecosystems, the variety of externalities generated and propagated throughout the hydrological cycle, and the necessity and complexity of coordination or regulation. A role-playing exercise on water allocation during periods of scarcity among different types of farmers in a small irrigated system illustrates the diversity of criteria, values, and mechanisms that can be considered when managing water scarcity.

The module introduces the three archetypes of coordination (state, market, community) and the issue of governance through a critical review of the various definitions found in the literature, detailing in particular what falls within the purview of the state and what does not. The case of Mekong River Basin management is used to illustrate the nature of decision-making processes and the links between governance and the distribution of power at different levels.

Key Players and Financial Channels in the Water Sector in France, S. Richard

Based on a fictional case study inspired by real-life experiences, this course examines French institutions and stakeholders in the water sector, their actions and interactions, their areas of responsibility, and the financial channels they utilize. It aims to provide students with a general knowledge and understanding of the institutional complexity and the wide range of stakeholders in the water sector in France.

Organizational Structures and Management Principles for Drinking Water and Sanitation Services C. Lejars

 This course focuses on the small water cycle. It presents the key players in the small water cycle and introduces the principles of managing drinking water and wastewater services. Through a history of water services in France, it emphasizes the concepts of service delegation and intermunicipal cooperation. It analyzes major developments in the organization and management of these services in France.

Water Management in the Face of the WFD and Decentralization, S. Ghiotti

This course is divided into two parts. I) The implementation of the 2000 Water Framework Directive (WFD) is based on a number of texts and documents that ensure its “translation” and application within EU member states. In France, the SDAGE, the Program of Measures, and the management plan are examples of such documents; we will analyze their content, objectives, and the processes by which they are developed by what are commonly referred to as “water stakeholders.” Putting the French case into perspective alongside other European examples will help us understand the diversity of situations and the responses adopted to achieve “good ecological status” for water bodies. II) The WFD and other European directives issued since then (on floods, groundwater, the marine environment, etc.) have profoundly transformed water management and governance in France. Their implementation has been accompanied by a transfer of authority from the central government to local and regional authorities, a process that has accelerated in France over the past decade. This decentralization encompasses not only infrastructure and new powers but also new obligations. Three areas are of particular concern: territorial policies (SAGE and river management contracts), the role of intermunicipal bodies in managing the broader water cycle, and the long-standing regional development agencies focused on irrigation issues. Particular emphasis will be placed on the terms and conditions governing the transfer and management of these “tools,” the social and spatial challenges associated with them, and the restructuring of the networks of stakeholders involved. Using the regional level as an example, this second part of the course will draw on a film screening and the reading of short articles from the specialized press. These materials will help clearly identify the stakeholders, issues, challenges, scales, and proposed projects aimed at achieving quantitative and qualitative objectives—which represent significant challenges for local regions.

'Closure' and Watershed Governance, F. Molle

The combined overexploitation of surface water and groundwater leads to a process of “closure,” in which water flows are no longer sufficient (at least for part of the year) to meet needs—particularly environmental ones—and in which aquifers are exploited well beyond their “safe yield.” This phenomenon is universal and therefore of great importance: the aim of this course is to understand both its causes (the political reasons why societies systematically overexploit their resources) and its consequences. Numerous examples illustrate the difficulties of managing a system that tends toward a zero-sum game and in which users are in direct competition with one another. In particular, the course highlights the limitations—and even the negative impacts—of conventional technical solutions such as micro-irrigation or wastewater reuse.