Water Politics

Everyday international political economy
(EIPE) offers an opportunity to rethink the role of
individuals and citizenry in shaping governance of
natural resources. In South Africa, significant progress
has been made by government in re-shaping water
governance since the end of apartheid in the early 1990s.
The role of government in water governance and water
politics has thus been emphasised to a large degree. This
study looks at historical material to assess the role that
water politics and EIPE has played in shaping the use
and management ofwater resources in the country. Case
studies are analysed of two quaternary catchments,
A63E and A71L in the Limpopo River Basin, to show
how everyday actions by different actors has shaped the
current waterscape in the basin. Four events, namely, the
politics of the Middle Iron Age State at Mapungubwe;
the development of theMapungubwe National Park and
World Heritage Site; the management of water for the
DeBeers VenetiaDiamondMine; and the establishment
of the Coal of Africa Limited colliery are discussed in
terms of the agential power at play during each event.
The conclusions of the study are that EIPE and reflexive
agential power are important factors in water
governance that can sometimes be ignored through
neoliberal institutionalism. In the current and future
governance of water in South Africa they can offer an
alternative view of the role and importance of actors
and pathways for development.

Despite having a more advanced water management system than most Middle Eastern countries, similar to the other countries in the region, Iran is experiencing a serious water crisis. The government blames the current crisis on the changing climate, frequent droughts, and international sanctions, believing that water shortages are periodic. However, the dramatic water security issues of Iran are rooted in decades of disintegrated planning and managerial myopia. Iran has suffered from a symptom-based management paradigm, which mainly focuses on curing the problem symptoms rather than addressing the main causes. This paper reviews the current status of water resources in Iran and recognizes three major causes for the current water crisis: (1) rapid population growth and inappropriate spatial population distribution; (2) inefficient agriculture sector; and (3) mismanagement and thirst for development. The country is faced with serious challenges in the water sector, including but not limited to rising water demand and shortage, declining groundwater levels, deteriorating water quality, and increasing ecosystem losses. If immediate actions are not taken to address these issues, the situation could become more tragic in the near future. The paper suggests some crisis exit strategies that need to be immediately adopted to secure sustainable water resources, if Iran does not want to lose its international reputation for significant success in water resources management over thousands of years in an arid area of the world.

The purpose of this paper is to review the key analytical developments in international trans-boundary water politics and to shed light on the important, but overlooked, issue of ecosystems. The scholarship has gained greater breadth than the narrowly focused ‘water war’ discussion of two decades ago. The understanding of power and power relations has given greater nuance to why and how conflict and cooperation occur in international trans-boundary river basins. A new conceptual approach, the Transboundary Waters Interaction Nexus (TWINS), is discussed briefly to show how the analysis of coexisting conflict and cooperation provides an insight into the cross-sector linkages of water and the resulting interests and motives governing water use and allocation. However, it is argued that much of the literature is anthropocentric and frames the natural environment through a human lens. This paper calls for more attention to the ways in which the analytical framework on trans-boundary water interaction can include ecosystems as legitimate users. The paper concludes with some suggestions for future research and policy discussions.

Mongolia Water  Authority and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report  releasde in 2011 has warned that " Climate change and rapid urbanization are  threatening fragile water resources in Mongolia". The report also says that"  half of the inhabitants  have no access to clean water in Mongolia"
Mongolia has an annual precipitation of 361 km3, about 90 percent of which is lost to evapotranspiration. Of the remaining 10 percent, 37 percent infiltrates into the soil while 63 percent turns into surface runoff. Almost 95 percent of the surface runoff component flows out of the country . Consequently, only 6 percent of Mongolia’s annual precipitation is transformed into available water resources in surface water bodies The total surface water resource of Mongolia is estimated as 599 km3 /year and is composed of water stored in lakes (500 km3/year), glaciers (63 km 3/year) and rivers (36 km 3/year) The amount of renewable groundwater resources has been estimated at 10.8 km 3/year. Groundwater resources continue to be a major source of water, especially during winter when many surface water resources are frozen.

Meriç River Basin is located in Eastern Balkans within the borders of Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece. It is one of the large riversystems of the region and it both forms the boundary between those countries and it is a trans-boundary river. Therefore, water development and management issues for this river require the regional collaboration of those three countries.

This chapter discusses in detail the analytical framework used in this work. A discussion of the World Commission on Dams process and response is used to identify the gaps in existing approaches. This is put into context using the Bhakra project as a case study. The combination of political ecology approaches and Foucauldian discourse analysis is proposed for an examination of discursive and political functions of river control, with a special focus on the role of expert knowledge.

To the north of the Ilgın Plain and on the southern slopes of the Gavurdağ-Karadağ massif lies Yalburt, a summer pasture settlement (a yayla) belonging to the village of Şuhut/ Çobankaya. As the story is told by the residents of Yalburt, immediately uphill from the yayla used to be a well known as Kocakuyu that had the sweetest and the coldest waters in the area. No matter how much you drew from it, its water was never lessened.

"Authors: Adam Horálek and Pavel Ptáček
"The book contains eight chapters in four major fields (each field contains two chapters) - environment, demography and population, economy, and geopolitics. As an introduction, the short outline of major reforms China took under the rule of Deng Xiaoping is used. In stead of conclusion, the vision of China in 2030 is incorporated according to the official plans and prognoses. The book is structured as a study text, including topics and questions for further reading and thinking about the topics. It is mainly focused on Chinese studies and Geography undergraduate as well as postgraduate students in Czechia (as it is in Czech).

Content:
Otec čínské transformace Deng Xiaoping
2. 1. Environmentální problémy současné Číny
2.2. Projekt jiho-severního transportu vody jako odpověď na deficit vody v severní Číně
3.1. Stárnutí populace Číny
3.2. Populačně-národnostní politika Číny
4. 1. Měnící se role Číny v globální ekonomice a její dopad na místní obyvatele
4.2. Rozvoj západu: analýza hlavní čínské regionální „kohezní“ politiky 21. století
5.1. Afrika jako sféra čínských zájmů
5.2 Energetická geopolitika Číny
Čína roku 2030
"""