Water Governance

Water governance is about how different societies organise the extraction, provision, financing, use and disposal of water for different uses and users, as well as the protection of water sources. We want to understand how different actors such as government organisations, NGOs, community organisations and companies co-shape water governance through collaboration, negotiation and social mobilisation at different levels.

Work within this theme focusses on analysing how disputes between stakeholders may arise from diverging interests that relate to differences in institutional, economic, geographic, ideological and social positions, showing that water governance is ultimately about culture, imaginaries, narratives and values, but with real environmental and differentiating social effects.