Wicked Problems of Water Quality Governance

This book explores the many dimensions of water quality problems in different parts of the globe, with focus on problems of governance, from legal frameworks to social discourses and compensation measures.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.3 on Water and Sanitation emphasizes the centrality of improving water quality to attain sustainable development. Yet the obstacles to achieving this goal are significant. This book explores the variety of difficult, possibly intractable “wicked” problems of water quality governance around the world. Cases include the challenge of managing water from source to sea, exploring why attempts to do so have come up short in limiting harm to the Great Barrier Reef; differing social discourses on market based instruments in Canada; efforts to bring to closure the human legacies of Minamata methyl mercury poisoning half a century ago in Japan; current problems of mercury use in Andean mining; misalignment of established Eastern European water laws with those of the EU; water quality markets in China; the impacts of service coverage and quality on low income households in countries from New Zealand to Bangladesh and Malawi; the importance of perceptions, ranging from the use of treated wastewater by farmers in the MENA region to consumers in Fukushima and to users of the artificial river in Beijing’s Olympic Park; and finally the confluence of wicked problems in refugee camps facing COVID.

The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal, Water International.

James E. Nickum, Fellow, Global Reach Awardee and former Vice-President of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA), is the Editor in Chief of Water International, non-resident Professorial Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Raya Marina Stephan is Fellow and Former Director of IWRA. She is an expert in water law, and an international consultant in water related projects with international organizations. She is the Deputy Editor in Chief of Water International.

Henning Bjornlund is Fellow and Vice President of the International Water Resources Association and Research Professor in Water Management and Policy at the University of South Australia. He has been researching water management and policy issues in Australia since 1993, in Canada since 2005, and in southern Africa since 2013 working with partners in Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.