Participatory groundwater protection regimes in Turkey: influence, control and institutional incoherence
Abstract
This paper will focus upon analysing the effectiveness of participatory groundwater protection in Turkey for ensuring sustainable water allocations. As part of its EU accession process, Turkey is implementing the Water Framework Directive, which features public participation within river basin management planning (RBMP). The resultant integrated and decentralised form of water management should, theoretically, support protection of groundwaters through active involvement of stakeholders, including farmers, in planning processes at the river basin scale. However, in basins such as the Konya Closed Basin groundwater availability has declined markedly in parallel to the development of RBMP since 2010. The paper therefore examines three relevant questions: (i) what are the institutional arrangements for facilitating stakeholder participation in the RBMP process?; (ii) to what degree do non-governmental stakeholders participate in water allocations in RBMP? (ii) could greater participation of these actors in water allocation decision-making help support more sustainable groundwater use? The analysis draws upon theoretical arguments on the effectiveness of participatory governance and institutional coherence from the environmental management literature. A critical focus is the degree to which non-governmental stakeholders such as farmers are integrated into water allocation decision-making. A mixed methods case study approach is used that encompasses documentary sources, stakeholder interviews and participant observation. Initial findings suggest that while participation is now established under RBMP via management committees, water allocations are primarily determined via top-down, centralised decision-making resulting in over-abstraction. Policy recommendations are therefore forwarded, based on supporting greater institutional coherence.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.H33G..06A
- Keywords:
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- 3322 Land/atmosphere interactions;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 1630 Impacts of global change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1829 Groundwater hydrology;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 6324 Legislation and regulations;
- POLICY SCIENCES