This book is organized in an interesting way. The first chapter, entitled: “Water politics as diversity,” makes the case that watersheds provide a good framework for the study of water politics. In each of the 10 chapters, the author provides a brief historic review followed by a watershed-based case study that documents who the power brokers are that shape water politics and decision making. The first three chapters focus on the different influences, successes and failures that private corporations, governments, environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and multi-stakeholder groups have in determining politics. The author then proceeds with five chapters covering specific water issues such as fisheries, irrigation, flooding and flood control, hydropower and groundwater politics. His final chapter focuses on emerging trends in Canadian freshwater politics and concludes with a discussion on political powers, the strengths and weaknesses of the state, the need for networks and multi-level governance and putting the political system and decision making into a watershed context.
Chapter 1 provides a good introduction on why watersheds are a sensible way of addressing water issues. The author makes the point that watersheds are a natural physical unit, and the human activities within the watershed should be responsible to shape water politics. He then provides a case study of the James-West River watershed in Nova Scotia that illustrates the complex changes that occurred when the first settlers arrived and engaged in farming and logging, which affected the First Nations people and, over time, resulted in flooding and demands for a new drinking water supply system. It showed how fragmented the evaluation and decision-making process was throughout history when not much consideration was given to making holistic considerations for the entire watershed.
Chapter 2 focuses on what the political powers are that shape decision making in water. It covers the struggle of the First Nations’ water use against corporate pulp and paper development that contaminated freshwater fisheries. The case study of the Boat Harbour is used to document the fragmented decision-making process, compensation efforts, legal challenges and efforts to rehabilitate a stream badly affected by pulp mill effluent.
Chapter 3 focuses on how group politics is emerging as a powerful tool in shaping decision making in water management. It poses the question: Are commercial business interests such as farm irrigation groups, power generators, and wood and paper enterprises better able to mobilize politics than recreational users, community residents and naturalists? It shows how corporate actors like the oil sands corporations enjoy privileged access to state authorities in the case study of the Athabasca watershed. Group pressures from the NGO communities have so far had limited success through the courts, but they are proving to become a more powerful force in pressuring government agencies to address issues in a river basin context.
Chapter 4 is devoted to the role that the state authorities – national, provincial and local – play in shaping water politics. It covers the role of the executive, legislative, administrative and legal authorities, and then proceeds with a case study of the Souris River watershed as an example of politics in an international transboundary watershed. The key issues addressed are the decision making of dam construction for flood control and agricultural water use and pollution, with a specific focus on the Rafferty–Alameda dam project.
Chapter 5 deals with fisheries and pollution issues, which the author rightly considers a very complex field of politics and management. Managing fish under stress from habitat degradation due to pollution, overfishing and climate change is one of the major challenges facing decision makers. The case study of the Atlantic salmon in the Miramichi watershed in New Brunswick shows how difficult it is to find common ground among different interest groups.
Chapter 6 covers irrigation politics and discusses state-sponsored projects and the recent emergence of putting irrigation into a watershed context. The case study on the Old Man Basin in Alberta is used as an illustration of the challenges we are facing in a basin that is highly sensitive to climatic variability, has the highest irrigation water use in the country and has over-allocated water use resulting in a moratorium on new water licenses. It addresses the “the first in time – first in right” legal problem that will need reconsideration in the future in view of increased climatic variability.
Chapter 7 addresses flooding and flood control politics in Canada and shows the evolution from structural to non-structural control. The Red River in Manitoba is used as an example of an international basin subject to large flooding events and, despite major efforts to divert and store water, it is shown that five of the top 10 flooding events have occurred in the past two decades. Structural control remains the primary focus of the flood protection strategy, but the author should have devoted a bit more consideration to the need for more non-structural control efforts (temporary water storage on farm land and wetland reestablishment). Also, much more attention is needed on the water pollution issues from agriculture and the eutrophication problem in Lake Winnipeg.
Chapter 8 deals with hydro-power and illustrates the hydro-power history of dam building in Canada. It features the La Grande hydro project in Quebec and illustrated successful negotiations with the Cree and Inuit First Nations to complete Canada’s largest power systems, and the failure of the Great Whale project. The author also briefly poses the question whether large hydro projects are still viable in Canada’s future, and the emerging prospect of small-scale hydro as an alternative.
Chapter 9 covers groundwater politics by providing a brief introduction to basic groundwater science, the role of governments in managing groundwater and the emerging issues of groundwater use and potential contamination from shale gas fracturing. He then covers the over-extraction of groundwater and the contamination from nitrates and pesticide use in agriculture in Prince Edward Island.
Chapter 10 is devoted to emerging trends in Canadian water politics. The author suggests that civil society is playing an increasing role in putting community issues into the forefront, while the federal government is reducing environmental protection at the same time. He devotes one paragraph to the issues of climate change and notes that there is a mismatch between institutional capacity to address issues and to respond to them. He particularly illustrates the lack of forward-thinking policies by the Harper government in diminishing the environmental impact assessment process, abandoning the support of the lake experimental site, ignoring effective measures to address greenhouse gas emissions and having a poor species-at-risk policy. He suggests that the ecological concerns to maintain sufficient and high-quality water for environmental services is an essential and emerging topic. He also suggests that meso-scale watershed authorities such as interjurisdictional boards, water basin councils and multi-stakeholder-based organizations might succeed in improving water politics in Canada. He also suggests that legal water rights and allocations need to be reconsidered and encourages increased emphasis on citizen-based science that is able to capture valuable local knowledge. He then offers the Mackenzie Basin as a case study as a way to reach improved consensus in the management of water in river basins.
He then concludes with a summary of the politics and powers by which we manage water resources, highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the state in making policy decisions and supports a multi-level water governance structure. He makes a good case to use the watershed not only as a physical but also as a political unit. In his pathway for water policy renewal, he suggests that crises are an important force for change. The public is well aware of the prospects of increased stream degradation, and environmental services provided by nature have to become an integral part of water politics.
The book provides an interesting approach to documenting the complexity of political issues in governing water and how decisions are made in managing water in Canada. It is a valiant effort to cover a very wide range of water issues with some historical background and illustrative examples in the 10 case studies.
My only concern is that not enough emphasis was placed in the concluding chapter to address the problem of increased climatic variability, which will have a profound impact on water resources. How we adapt to these new conditions is a work in progress, but it clearly needs more national attention. The politics of this issue is very contentious but the economic, human health and environmental consequences will be profound without proactive policy measures.
Faculty of Land & Food Systems
University of British Columbia
© 2015 Canadian Water Resources Association
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2014.984335