Water policy innovations - the role of academia and policy makers

Abstract:

Water, a multi-dimensional resource of cross-sectoral concern, relies increasingly on policies and stakeholders in other sectors for its management, development and governance. Since water is multi-sectoral, multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional, so are its associated trends, drivers and challenges.

The uncertain and unexpected developments of our changing environment require water policy innovations to set a framework for more comprehensive and more efficient planning, management, development, and governance strategies. With a focus on an inclusive development agenda rather than a water agenda, policy innovations should be cross-sectoral, and inclusive of social needs as well as scientific knowledge.

At times, policy precedes science, as in crafting an ambitious industrial development policy; sometimes, advancement in science and technologies, as in the case of water reuse for potable purposes, create the need for new regulations.

In the academia, it is argued that policymakers need to understand and accept complexity. Also, that governance silos need to be opened up in order to better prepare for expected and unexpected events that may occur simultaneously exacerbating each other. In the policy-making arena, clearer communication and more understanding of the practical implications of theory are expected.

Policy innovations, and science and knowledge that inform policy, seem to be difficult to be realized because of stakeholders (those in the policy arena but also those in the academia), their competing interests, and the lack of understanding of the value of each other’s work to reach a common goal. It may be that innovation starts only when problems and possible solutions are considered in a holistic context rather than as ‘research projects’ or as ‘policy portfolios’ that render only partial solutions.