The Politics of River Basin Organisations

A long overdue volume which comes to grips with the diversity of physical, political and administrative realities behind the seemingly uniform and appealing institution of the River Basin Organization. This book squarely engages with the politics of RBO formation and will provide clues and inspiration to those interested in further exploring the complexities of human institutions in their attempt to manage water resources for the greater good.' - Francois Molle, IRD and International Water Management Institute (IWMI), France'A critical challenge for humanity is to design institutions for stewardship of water and ecosystem services in a globalized world faced with climate change. Dave Huitema and Sander Meijerink take on this challenge in this impressive volume. Through case studies from a diverse set of countries, all using a joint typology as a framework for the analyses, a deeper understanding of the political dimension of river basin stewardship is provided - exciting. Enjoy!' - Carl Folke, Beijer Institute, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Sweden 'There is no better book on river basin organisations for practitioners and researchers. It imposes tough criteria to evaluate the performance of eleven such hydrologic based governance forms. Findings are surprising and cautionary for water resources reformers. The authors suggest that the demands of complex interaction and interplay in layered organisational environments, the power of inertia to thwart change, and inability to command resources can overwhelm the aspirations of river basin organisations for coordination, accountability, legitimacy and environmental effectiveness. This book belongs in the library of everyone seriously interested in water management.' - Helen Ingram, University of California at Irvine and University of Arizona, US Can River Basin Organisations (RBOs) actually improve water governance? RBOs are frequently layered on top of existing governmental organisations, which are often reluctant to share their power. This, in turn, can affect their performance. The Politics of River Basin Organisations addresses this issue by exploring the subject on a global level. With the use of case studies from such diverse countries as Mongolia, Afghanistan and South Africa, the expert contributors to The Politics of River Basin Organisations provide a comprehensive assessment of the performance of eleven RBOs around the world. They develop a typology that works to characterize the institutional design of these organizations whilst distinguishing between them. This unique book will appeal to those involved in environmental and water policy and governance. It will also be of interest to practitioners of water management looking to improve their approach to the field. Contributors: D. Benson, C. Bernhardt, A. Guerreiro de Brito, D. Calvert, D. Connell, H. Cook, I. Dombrowsky, N. Funke, S. Ganjanapan, J. Gupta, N. Hagemann, L. Horlemann, A. Houdret, F. Huesker, D. Huitema, F. Jaspers, A. Inman, D. Lach, L. Lebel, M. Leidel, R. de Loe, S. Meijerink, R. Meissner, M. Morris, A. Ross, A. Thiel, V. Thomas, J. Warner