Contributions of an ethically-grounded and values-based approach to water governance – the case of two contrasting catchments

ON Odume
April 2019 – March 2022
Sponsor: Water Research Commission
Collaborators: U Okeja (Department of Philosophy, Rhodes University

The governance of water resources in the context of social-ecological systems (SES) is complex. This project develops an ethical and values-based approach to distil ethical criteria and principles for navigating the complexity of water governance as well as reflecting and analysing values, including value interactions. Using the Lower Sundays River catchment and the lower section of the Upper Vaal River catchment as case studies, this project develops an ethical and values-based approach to water governance in South Africa. The intention is to bring ethics and values-based analysis into the domain of water governance, and to shed light on its contribution to realising the foundational values of equity, sustainability and efficiency enshrined in the National Water Act.

Project aims
The specific aims of the project are as follows:

1. Together with stakeholders, surface key values informing water governance in the selected catchments and undertake a values-based analysis of how the stakeholders go about reconciling/trading off conflicting values, and the ethical implications.
2. Explore whether an appeal to ethics-level, context-sensitive principles can foster greater equity, sustainability, and efficiency in water governance in the selected catchments.
3. Explore instances of polycentricity in water governance in the catchments, paying attention to whether or not, in such instances, it contributes to effective and cooperative water governance.
4. Synthesise lessons of the value of an ethically grounded and values-based approach for policy, practice, and implementation, while providing comparative data from the selected catchments.

Last Modified: Wed, 13 Dec 2023 16:06:14 SAST