WaterWired

Report: 'Advancing towards Gender Mainstreaming in Water Resources Management'

I have already Tweeted this important report several times but I am posting it here to ensure that it stays around and doesn't migrate from its current electronic locations. 

Download Advancing-towards-gender-maintreaming-in-wrm---report

Foreword
Gender equality and social inclusion are among GWP’s core values, and have been since our creation in 1996. A lot has changed in the world since then, and much progress has been made, but advancing towards gender equality by fully recognising the important role of women and marginalised populations in water resources management remains a major challenge. In our 25th anniversary year, GWP remains as committed as ever to pursuing this objective .

Since 2017, we have partnered with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UNEP-DHI Centre, and Cap-Net through the SDG 6 IWRM Support Programme. This Programme assists countries in monitoring and accelerating progress towards their water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Support Programme uses the SDG 6.5 monitoring process as a three-yearly status check on how well the world is progressing towards fully implementing integrated water resources management (IWRM), and builds on that process to provide guidance and assistance for countries to advance towards their national targets. We believe that mainstreaming gender in countries’ water resources management is a key strategy to assist them to reach not just SDG 6.5, but also, in the indivisible spirit of the SDGs, many other related targets.

We are therefore proud to present this summary of the study on the gender-related question in the SDG 6.5.1 survey instrument, which all UN Member States were invited to fill in during the 2020 data drive. This report has been prepared as a starting point for more detailed conversations with national and local governments, international development partners, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions, and any other interested party, on how best to achieve gender mainstreaming in IWRM. It was opened for comments in March and April 2021, and the feedback received hasbeen incorporated in this version. Rather than a final version, we prefer to view this document as a starting point for the necessary dialogue and action around how to advance towards the vision of fully mainstreaming gender considerations in water resources management.

As a network of networks striving for a water secure world, we welcome any organisation that shares this vision to join forces with us. If our 25 years of work have taught us anything, it is that the world’s water challenges can only be solved by working in partnership.

Darío Soto-Abril
Executive Secretary
Global Water Partnership

I'll skip right to the concuding remarks:

Concluding Remarks
Gender considerations have been intrinsic to integrated water resources management since this term was first employed. As we have seen, from the Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development, if not before, the world recognised that “women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water”. This report has approached the question of why we should materialise such engagement, and some possible pathways to do so, based on experiences from countries around the world. We hope that by reading it, you will have been inspired by some of the specific actions that nations and states have taken, and will be asking yourself how you can contribute to gender mainstreaming in IWRM within your own context.

Our aim with this report was to share some guidance based on the experiences of a representative selection of countries. Given the complexity of countries’ political, social, and economic systems, we deliberately avoid recommending any singular approach, since there is definitely no one-size-fits-all solution. However, we believe that the enablers that have been highlighted in this report may be common to all countries, and many of the examples from one country may be applicable to others. Be it around the legal framework, high-level leadership, policies and strategies, funding, human resources and expertise, normative support for women’s participation, centralised monitoring systems, or multi-stakeholder consultation processes, clearly there is much that can and should be done to mainstream gender in WRM. In that sense, this report is intended to be a starting point for further exchanges on this important topic, between different stakeholders and geographies.

At the Global Water Partnership, it is our belief that fully achieving IWRM will not be possible without mainstreaming gender equality, and vice versa. The monitoring of SDGs 5 on gender equality and 6 on clean water and sanitation has shown that the pathway to fully achieving both objectives is long, and countries are at different points in their respective journeys. However, the SDG 6 IWRM Support Programme and its member organisations are committed to supporting nation states wherever they may find themselves on that journey, by providing them with tools and facilitating experience exchange. We firmly believe that doing so will be a significant contribution towards the sustainable development of those nations, their economies, their societies, and their natural environments.

Great work!

Enjoy! 

“We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons… but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.” - Gloria Steinem

Paper: 'Intrinsic and Spiritual Dimensions of Water at the Local Scale, and the Disconnect with International Institutions'

E. Lynn Porta and Aaron T. Wolf just published this paper - Intrinsic and Spiritual Dimensions of Water at the Local Scale, and the Disconnect with International Institutions - in Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 8948; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168948

Download Sustainability-13-08948

Abstract
Local and indigenous populations the world over ascribe deeply and explicitly spiritual attributes to water. Springs, wells, and rivers are the homes of deities, have divine healing powers, and enhance processes of spiritual transformation. These attributes are rarely expressed in global declarations related to sustainable water management and are found only implicitly in a handful of international water treaties. This paper uses a multi-scalar lens to identify areas of disconnect between community-specific intrinsic and spiritual dimensions of water, regional management institutions or international agreements, and global conventions. The scale-based structure of the article highlights the systems-based connections, and disconnections, from global to local-scopes of dimensions of water enshrined in different institutions.

Introduction

1.1. Scales of International Freshwater Management Institutions

Freshwater resources are unique within natural resources management practices because of the multiple layers of importance water holds for both human and non-human uses (Some material in this article draws heavily from: Porta, E.L. (2021). Cross-cultural and Sustainability Values in International Freshwater Management Institutions. Masters of Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA, 12 June 2021). Agriculture, transportation, construction, energy, recreation, certain religious practices, basic ecosystem functioning, all rely on the presence and accessibility of water for some part of each system. Social and cultural practices grounded in both place-based and cross-culturally common traditions further add layers of importance to water management and access. Local and indigenous populations the world over ascribe deeply and explicitly spiritual attributes to water. Springs, wells, and rivers are the homes of deities, have divine healing powers, and enhance processes of spiritual transformation.

 

 

The international community has developed several guiding documents and concepts in the management of these challenging resources, particularly in cases in which water crosses borders. Probably best known of the global declarations are the Dublin Principles of 1992, developed for the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, laying out basic concepts of water governance. Two general conventions regarding transboundary waters came also in the 1990s: The Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) was adopted in Helsinki in 1992 and entered into force in 1996, while the Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1997. While the former was specific to European countries when it was first adopted, it has since opened to any country that accedes to the treaty anywhere in the world. Other conventions address specific components of transboundary basins, such as the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, which provided a framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources, which was signed in 1971.

Institutions such as global international treaties, joint technical committees, or River Basin Organizations (RBOs) are more localized mechanisms used by governments from national to local scales to monitor, provision, or otherwise organize water resources use, access, and protection. Treaties help states organize their interactions over shared water resources and minimize conflicts over resources and communicate their goals, needs, and values in the negotiation process [1]. Agreements can vary in spatial scale through differences in the total area of interest to address a shared water resource, or the continuity of the territory covered in the treaty based on the number of riparian states participating in the agreement [2]. Assessments of the impacts of international agreements over transboundary water resources management have identified the utility of treaties in increasing cooperative behavior even when water availability is uncertain or variable, and across political power disparities among treaty signatories [1,3]. Such assessments follow the approach to examining the role of institutions like agreements in water management and conflict transformation began with the Basins at Risk (BAR) project of the Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database (TFDD) out of Oregon State University [4].

Also within the TFDD is a register of international RBOs based on the significant legal and organizational characteristics of these institutions identified by Schmeier and colleagues [5,6]. RBOs are institutions with broad mandates in which representatives of riparian countries manage shared surface water resources. Past scholarship used the presence of both a treaty and an RBO in a river basin as an indicator of cooperative intent between countries [7,8]. RBOs can be effective institutions for managing international water resources through both politically challenging and environmentally complex management problems [9]. As Wolf, Stahl, and Macomber (2003) initially noted, these institutions themselves do not necessarily have the capacity to meet either their own stated goals or to address the challenges that water management entails [10]; prohibitive challenges include water scarcity, inequities in the distribution of the water resource, pollution from exogenic sources relative to the basin, and legal limitations in the organizations’ power [11,12]. The structure of these organizations is traditionally considered the most important determinant of this degree of effectiveness [8,10].

1.2. The Spiritual and Intrinsic Dimensions of Water

Institutions such as international conventions, agreements, and RBOs reflect the policy priorities and management choices favored by the participating stakeholders. The development of these priorities into shared policies implies a complementary set of favored dimensions of water or values associated with water needs, which may differ between signatories. In the practice of facilitating international freshwater resource management discussions, focusing on common values rather than stakeholder-differentiated needs or issues tends to result in more cooperative discussion processes and holistic treaties. This work also examines how the process of transboundary water management negotiations occur in a four-level process, which correlate with four worlds, or dimensions, of water: the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Using a value-centered dialogue, with the aim of moving towards a fourth and final dialogue level of the universality and spirituality of water, management negotiations can avoid tendencies of thinking for short-term needs, and can help promote conversations in water management that last in the long-term [13].

The considered, or overlooked, values associated with the intrinsic, spiritual, sustainable, and culturally-aware dimensions of water are distinct across the scales of international institutions used to organize their interactions over shared water resources. Intrinsic valuing of water resources manifests from a recognition of the importance of a water resource for its own existence, rather than for a tangible environmental good, service, or benefit derived from it. This recognition could take the form of environmental preservation measures, or protection of endemic organisms or ecosystems, or some similar policy [14]. Spiritual and culturally-linked local value-recognitions of water would recognize the connections formed between the human spirit, soul, or collective group to a water resource, as opposed to material or physical things that come from a water resource. This could include awareness of aspects of water which foster a connection between the measurable, physical aspects of the world, and the harder to measure social, emotional, and cultural norms of place or group. In short, the spiritual aspects of water would focus on connections and relationships with some form of ‘other’—other people and their needs, the water resource itself, or something else [13]. This paper uses a multi-scalar on international institutions to identify areas of disconnect in the values expressed in different interactions and organizations over shared water resources. We consider variations in value-expressions across community-specific intrinsic and spiritual dimensions of water, regional management institutions or international agreements, and global conventions. The scale-based structure of the article highlights the systems-based connections, and disconnections, from global to local-scopes of dimensions of water enshrined in different institutions. This systematic-perspective is particularly relevant when the global environment includes actors from outside of riparian areas with possible levers of influence through funding and global political standing.

 

Cutting to the chase...

Conclusions
Water management decisions within political interactions are ultimately based on the values that actors hold when interacting with each other. Detecting when values that inform more sustainable, long-term, and culturally-integrated approaches to water based on its intrinsically-held or spiritually-based importance can identify opportunities to expand the activities by states associated with these values. This assessment highlights that signals of values in international water management institutions related to the intrinsic and spiritual, or environmental protectionism and inter-community connectivity and recognition, vary across the scale of institutions, time of establishment, and place. Currently, such values are growing in frequency and intensity of support in international agreements signed by states. However, global conventions and RBOs—the institutional scales addressing larger and smaller scopes than international regional treaties—express a greater variety of these values at a greater proportion than regional treaties. A more informed understanding of the values of implementing organizations such as RBOs can help the rising variety of states interested in these values implement programs in a more targeted, effective manner appropriate to their goals, location and interests.

Enjoy!

"No, you can’t require masks or vaccines for students in your class. And, very clever, but no, you can’t offer extra credit for vaccinations either. And please stop trying to get IRB to approve an experiment where you use deception to vaccinate your unvaccinated students."- @ass_deans

Moving the Needle: Women In Water Awards Its Third Scholarship to Lauren Bartels, UN-Reno

Picture at the 2017 NWRA meeting where the WiW concept took hold. Brenda Burman, the newly-installed Reclamation Commissioner, is at the podium on the right. She is the first woman in that position. That's why you see all those smiles.

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The Women In Water Scholarship Fund is a relatively young 501(c)(3) organization (c. 2018) founded by Cheryl Zittle, Christine Arbogast and others with a noble goal (I won't tell you what it is). It just awarded its third scholarship ($5000) to Ms. Lauren Bartels of the University of Nevada-Reno's Graduate Program of Hydrologic Sciences. I am partial to the UNR program as I taught in it from 1976 - 1989.

Here is Lauren's statement upon learning of her success:

As I embark on my second and final year as a master’s student in the Graduate Program of Hydrologic Sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno, I could not be more thankful to receive the 2021-2022 Women in Water Scholarship. All my thanks go to the incredible women behind this award who recognize the need to broaden and diversify the field of water resources management and promote an integrated systems approach. 

 

Receiving this award allows me to pursue professional development opportunities over this next year. I believe one of the most beneficial aspects of graduate school is having the ability to connect and engage with researchers within and outside your discipline. There is always something new to learn, and much of the learning evolves from interactions with others. Sharing your research also opens avenues for collaboration and introduces new lines of thinking, both of which can considerably enhance your research.

 

Given that my research combines aspects of hydrogeology, engineering, and policy, I will present my findings at an interdisciplinary set of conferences hosted by local water professionals, political science associations, geoscience associations, and engineering groups. I hope to apply the knowledge I gain from diverse groups of individuals to implement sustainable water management practices and further encourage women to pursue careers in this field. As I continue to piece together my life puzzle, I will remain grateful for the support of the Women in Water Scholarship Fund.

 

I encourage you to donate to this excellent organization. Why? From the website:

When you contribute to the Women in Water Scholarship Fund, you're helping young women pursue fulfilling careers developing, managing and conserving this finite resource. We are an organization of volunteers and our only administrative costs are those necessary to process your donation.

Here is what Christine Arbogast recently said:

When I first "joined" the western water community in 1985, water leadership was provided by directors of water district boards, district general managers, and water lawyers. Nearly all were men." said Women in Water scholarship fund President, Christine Arbogast.

The face of the community has changed considerably since then. In all walks of the western water world, women are in high-profile, leadership positions which help influence the water policy so critical to the semi-arid West.

Tanya Trujillo has been confirmed as the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science in the Biden Administration.

Brenda Burman was the first female Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation and Camille Camlimlum Touton has been nominated to serve as her successor.

Cheryl Zittle of the Salt River Project was the first female president of the National Water Resources Association, and Christine Arbogast now serves as President.

April Snell is the executive director of the Oregon Water Resources Association.

Leslie James leads the Colorado River Electric Distributors' Association.

The Texas Water Conservation Association is led by Stacey Steinbach.

The nine-member Colorado Water Conservation Board has five female members, and its executive director is Becky Mitchell.

And the list of talented engineers, lawyers, governmental affairs directors, managers and board members goes on and on.

I would add Pat Mulroy, Sharon B. Megdal (Director of the Arizona Water Resources Research Center and a former elected BoD member of the Central Arizona Project) and Arlene Dietz (first woman president of the American Water Resources Association - thanks, Ken Reid) to the above list. 

Things are changing, although we still have a ways to go. WiW will help show us the way.

And don't forget - we still need to increase the diversity in the water world. 

Enjoy!

"My hope is that someday, when asked how she got into western water, a young woman will say 'Christine inspired me.'" - Christine Arbogast

CRS Insight Report: 'Drought in the Klamath River Basin'

From the dynamic duo of Charles V. Stern and Pervaze A. Sheikh comes this timely (understatement) CRS Insight (8 June 2021) report: 'Drought in the Klamath River Basin'.

Download CRS_Insight_Report_Drought_Klamath_River_Basin_8June2021

These 'Insight' reports often have hot links embedded in the text. If they are not displaying properly, read the document online (click on the title in the second line). I have pasted the entire report below. Click on the graphics to enlarge them.

Introduction
Historic drought conditions in the Klamath River Basin (Figure 1) have received national attention and have led to increased conflicts among water users and other stakeholders. The basin includes the Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Project, which delivers irrigation water to approximately 230,000 acres in Southern Oregon and Northern California. The Klamath Basin has a history of debates related to water allocation and species protection. In the past, these issues have generated conflict among farmers, Indian tribes, fishermen, water project and wildlife refuge managers, environmental groups, hydropower facility operators, and state and local governments.

Background
Much of the Klamath Basin relies on economic activity generated by irrigated agriculture. Water supplies from both the federal Klamath Project and other “off project” sources of water support basin agriculture. Other major users of Klamath Project water include six national wildlife refuges that sustain migratory bird habitat and several Native American tribes that rely on Basin fish species. Currently, two species of upper basin fish (Lost River and shortnose sucker) are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA; P.L. 93-205) and one species of lower basin fish (coho salmon) is listed as threatened under the ESA. The basin also contains seven dams on the Klamath River and its tributaries, built between 1918 and 1962. PacifiCorp, a regulated utility, owns six of these dams (known as the Klamath Hydroelectric Project). The original Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license to operate these dams expired in 2006; FERC has since extended operations in multiple temporary annual licenses.

The Klamath Project has a history of conflicts associated with water deliveries. Most prominently, in 2001, Reclamation, at the direction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), significantly curtailed water deliveries to the Klamath Project to provide more water for endangered fish. Irrigators protested these actions. Later in 2001, the George W. Bush Administration directed additional water for irrigation. In 2002, irrigators received significantly more water than in the previous year, but thousands of Chinook salmon died on the lower part of the Klamath River, largely due to poor water conditions and fish health in that part of the basin.

Congress has provided multiple appropriations in response to previous issues in the basin. In the 2001 and 2002 farm bills (P.L. 107-20 and P.L. 107-171, respectively), Congress provided the U.S. Department of Agriculture with $20 million and $50 million in funding, respectively, for water conservation in the Klamath Basin, in addition to funding under other emergency authorities. Congress also appropriated supplemental funds, including $60 million to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2007 (P.L. 110-28) for a 2006 fishery failure determination under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. §§1861(a) and 1864), as well as $10 million for Reclamation drought activities in the basin in 2010 (P.L. 111-212).

Also in response to earlier conflicts, the federal government facilitated talks among multiple groups, including formal negotiations between 2006 and 2010. The resulting agreements—the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) and the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA)—aimed to resolve long-standing issues in the basin. The KBRA proposed actions to restore Klamath fisheries and support tribes, and it provided assurances for water deliveries to wildlife refuges and project irrigators. The KHSA outlined a process to remove four of PacifiCorp’s dams on the Klamath River. These agreements were proposed but not enacted in prior Congresses. Removal of the four PacifiCorp dams has proceeded, with the federal government no longer directly involved in dam removal. At the same time, Reclamation continues to operate the Klamath Project under recent biological opinions (BiOps) under the ESA for listed sucker and salmon species.

Recent Drought and Federal Response
In 2021, the Klamath Basin is facing one of its worst droughts in four decades. Water deliveries are at historically low levels (Figure 2); Reclamation allocated 33,000 acre-feet for irrigators. On May 12, 2021, Reclamation announced the closure of the Klamath Project “A” canal, a major source of project releases. The agency also said it would not implement Klamath River surface flushing flows for salmon (an action it normally conducts pursuant to the ESA) during the current water year.

Reclamation determined that 2021 hydrological conditions are preventing, and will continue to prevent, it from operating the Klamath Project in a manner consistent with the BiOps. Per terms in the BiOps, Reclamation conferred with FWS and NMFS and created a Temporary Operations Plan (TOP) to manage water to address immediate and temporary competing needs, including the needs of all threatened and endangered species. Reclamation will use the TOP to operate the Klamath Project in an adaptive manner using real-time monitoring and forecasting, and it will coordinate with FWS and NMFS to implement deviations from this plan.

In response to the drought, the federal government has provided additional aid, including $15 million in immediate aid to the Klamath Project Drought Relief Agency announced in April 2021, plus $3 million in trial technical assistance for ecosystem activities in the basin. The Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture issued a joint statement declaring their intent to coordinate resources and identify immediate financial and technical assistance for impacted irrigators and tribes. The Department of the Interior also withdrew several TrumpAdministration determinations related to basin water supplies because the determinations “were issued without government-to-government consultation with affected Tribes and do not reflect the current administration’s goals for long-term water recovery and economic restoration.”

Enjoy!

"You can lead a man to Congress but you can't make him think." - Milton Berle (quoted in @TheExpressPA via  @TheWeek).

Students and Young Professionals (35 & Under)! Write a Short Article for AWRA's Water Resources IMPACT!

I want you!

No, this is not a late April Fools' Day joke - it's the real deal! Everyone's favorite ex-New Yorker and erstwhile Golden Stater (Truckee and Santa Cruz) WaterWired/Aquadoc is editing the July-August 2021 issue of Water Resources IMPACT with the working title  'SYPs: Speaking on Water'. I need your help in populating the issue with 6 - 9 short (800 - 1300 words, more or less) articles.

Why SYPs? Well, why not? Let's hear what they have to say. I am not necessarily soliciting articles that describe what it is like to be an SYP in a 'boomer' world, although a few such articles would be valuable. I am just looking for articles written from the SYP vantage point. Climate change. The 'water crisis'. Diversity, inclusion, equity. Gender issues. IWRM. Sustainability/resilience. Water quality. Water security. A short story about droughts. Forever chemicals. 

I am not seeking journal-style articles but ones that are much shorter, less technical, and written in a conversational, 'story-telling' style. The audience will be water-resources practitioners and students who are not necessarily technical geeks; even those who aren't WaterWonks read the magazine, which is published online-only. Circulation is a couple thousand or so.

If you think your proposed topic is too speculative or 'off the wall' - run it past me. If it is labeled as such - no problem - I like thinking outside the box. For example: you may be older than 35 and going back to school to switch to a new career. That could make a very interesting article. 

Here are two IMPACT articles I wrote that may help you:

Growing Up...with Managed Aquifer Recharge - recounts my 'childhood  adventures' on 1950s Long Island, NY, and the 'sumps' (recharge basins) I encountered. 

Download IMPACT_MAR Campana

Here is a brief article I wrote for the March 2018) of Water Resources IMPACT - Managing Water Ethically. It's sure to raise the hackles of some, as I promote the concept of Managed Aquifer Depletion (MAD) to assess when a groundwater supply is going to run out and then manage it to prolong it for as long as possible. 

Download MAD_Article

If you have never seen a copy of Water Resources IMPACT, take a look at our current
issue Connecting Land and Water for Healthy Communities, edited by our friend and colleague Mike Antos. 

If you are interested in submitting an article please let me know as soon as possible by sending a title and several sentences. We would like the complete articles by 24 June or so. We have some flexibility. Email: Michael.Campana@oregonstate.edu. My cell is 541-602-4085. Please don't send an article written without checking with me first; I don't want you wasting your time. Previously-written articles may be suitable for publication in Water Resources IMPACT as long as there are no copyright restrictions. 

Here are author instructions:

Download IMPACT Author Instructions_08.2019

Questions? Let me know ASAP.

Thank you!

Tell me a story.

"An ill-chosen word is the fool's messenger."- Anonymous