Wicked Problems of Water Quality Governance

James E. Nickum, Raya Marina Stephan, Henning Bjornlund, James E. Nickum, Raya Marina Stephan, Henning Bjornlund

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032363349
• eBook ISBN: 9781000815375
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: The Wicked Problems of Water Quality Governance
• 1 IWRA’s water quality project, including the report Developing a Global Compendium on Water Quality Guidelines
• 2 Wicked problems facing integrated water quality management: what IWRA experts tell us
• 3 Water quality management from source to sea: from global commitments to coordinated implementation
• 4 Adaptive or aspirational? Governance of diffuse water pollution affecting Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
• 5 The social discourses on market-based instruments to manage non-point-source water pollution in the Oldman River basin, southern Alberta
• 6 Minamata: how a policy maker addressed a very wicked water quality policy problem
• 7 Mercury pollution in Colombia: challenges to reduce the use of mercury in artisanal and small-scale gold mining in the light of the Minamata Convention
• 8 Water laws of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine: current problems and integration with EU legislation
• 9 The evolution of markets for water pollution allowances in China: a case study of Jiaxing
• 10 Service levels for the four billion people with piped water on premises
• 11 Water and sanitation in Dhaka slums: access, quality, and informality in service provision
• 12 Poor water service quality in developed countries may have a greater impact on lower-income households
• 13 Quality matters: incorporating water quality into water access monitoring in rural Malawi
• 14 Radiation knowledge and willingness to buy bottled water from regions near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
• 15 Farmer perceptions regarding irrigation with treated wastewater in the West Bank, Tunisia, and Qatar
• 16 Issues and challenges of reclaimed water usage: a case study of the dragon-shaped river in the Beijing Olympic Park
• 17 The potential impact of water quality on the spread and control of COVID-19 in Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon
• 18 Exploring challenges in safe water availability and accessibility in preventing COVID-19 in refugee settlements
• Index