We are pleased to start 2019 with an open issue of Water International, as that provides us the opportunity to provide our readers with an Editors’ Introduction. As in the past, we will provide an overview of the papers in the issue, and share some updates on the journal and association.
This issue is composed of one viewpoint, three research papers and two book reviews, plus some introductions to people you should know for the next three years.
The viewpoint by Hussein deals with the water strategy of Jordan, which is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. The national water strategy ‘Water for Life’ was first prepared for the period 2008–22, and then updated for 2016–25. It identifies and analyzes the causes of water scarcity, and proposes solutions. The update aimed mainly at responding to the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), increasing water demand, continued water scarcity and the impact of Syrian refugees. Both versions of the strategy reveal a heavy reliance on two engineering projects: the Red Sea–Dead Sea Canal and the Disi water conveyance, which are seen as strategic to obtain a demand–supply balance, and on economic and market solutions. Missing are a consideration of the distribution of water in society, notably those who remain excluded from the current allocations.
The research papers that follow look at critical water issues in three other countries: Ghana, Pakistan and Egypt. The paper on Ghana is about domestic water supply; the two others relate to agriculture. The Ghana and Egypt cases look at institutional weaknesses, while that on Pakistan links growing evapotranspiration to unsustainable groundwater use.
Mvulirwenande, Wehn and Alaerts deal with the failure of delegated urban water supply management in Ghana, with a case study analyzing the management contract signed between Ghana Water Company Ltd, the grantor, and Aqua Vitens Rand Ltd, the operator. The paper identifies the major policy-related factors underlying the failure, and provides an analysis based on empirical investigations on the above-mentioned contract. The result is a number of insights that could inform and guide efforts aiming at designing and executing delegated management projects in the water supply.
Moving across the Sahara to Egypt, Rap, Molle, El-Agha and Abou el Hassan deal with the Water Users’ Association programme introduced at the branch canal level alongside internationally funded improvements to the irrigation infrastructure in the Central Delta. The paper focuses on the intermediary Branch Canal level that is critical to the institutionalization of the policy of participatory irrigation management. In strengthening water users’ associations at this level, the Egyptian government is aiming to limit the inevitable conflict that will increase in the Egyptian Delta as part of a creeping water crisis. However, these organizations remain weak and do not play any significant role. This paper is this issue’s Editor’s choice, which will be freely available for download for a limited time from the journal’s website (www.tandfonline.com/loi/rwin20).
Moving further east, Ahmad, Kirby and Cheema deal with the impact of agricultural development on evapotranspiration trends in the irrigated districts of Pakistan. The authors assert that understanding time-series evapotranspiration trends is critical for water-balance assessments and sustainable water management in arid regions. They present an approach that combines remote sensing-based evapotranspiration and agricultural statistics data, aiming to develop a quick and easy approach to estimate time-series evapotranspiration trends that will improve the understanding of the water balance and enable sustainable water management of large irrigation systems or river basins. Unfortunately, the trend in Punjab Province suggests that the already unsustainable groundwater use in some areas may increase. The authors note that the evapotranspiration of most districts in Punjab increased over the period, whereas in Sindh it generally remained about the same or decreased.
Following these papers, two book reviews deal with transboundary waters, and so fall under our generic category ‘Transboundary waters’ initiated in the October 2018 issue.
Van der Gun reviews a book related to a complex aspect of transboundary water management as it deals with transboundary groundwater: Transboundary Groundwater Resources: Sustainable Management and Conflict Resolution, edited by Fried and Ganoulis. The book is based on a training workshop addressing lawyers and hydrogeologists to develop their ability to work across disciplines on the complex management of transboundary groundwater resources.
Hussein reviews a book edited by Yihdego, Rieu-Clarke and Cascão on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The book investigates the social and environmental impacts the GERD will have on the riparian countries through different perspectives, in 10 chapters representing the contribution of 18 experts. It represents the first book about the GERD in English, by key members of the team that previously edited the very well-received special issue that appeared in Water International in 2016 on this topic (see vol. 43, no. 4).
Every three years, the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) has a new Executive Board. That serving between 2019 and 2021 gathers a good mix of veteran and newcomers under the presidency of Gabriel Eckstein. Fulfilling a long unfulfilled goal, the new team is well balanced from a gender and age perspective. To get to know them better, see https://www.iwra.org/executive-board/.
The new year also brings changes to the team of Associate Editors. Jonathan Lautze, and S. M. Wahid left us after providing valuable services to the journal for a number of years. They were replaced by Alvar Closas and Kevin Wheeler, whom we are happy to welcome. We would like to introduce them to you here before we sign off.
Alvar Closas is a political scientist and human geographer working in research for development in the fields of irrigation, water resources development and agriculture, with a focus on groundwater management and governance. Until recently he was Acting Office Head in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for the International Water Management Institute in Cairo, Egypt, overseeing the research portfolio in the region. Part of his research has focused on the role of state policies and the problems with regulation and rule enforcement in groundwater abstraction for irrigation leading to the depletion of groundwater resources. More broadly, he is also interested in multidisciplinary and systemic approaches to water resources governance and policy analysis, and the interaction between society, environment and technology.
Until the next open issue, most likely in May!