This IV GovAgua 2013 Meeting, by emphasizing the iberoamerican context, we propose to widen the knowledge about the different national governance experiences, opening up a space in which we can be able to think innovative ways of management, as we balance the various political interests and realities, at the same time highlighting climate change as an aspect incorporating growing relevance in cross and interdisciplinary analysis.

 

In 2012, during the World Water Forum, the U.N. published a document which emphasizes the topics – feeding, urbanization, governance, and climate change -, as those that must receive great attention due to the menacing future risks, uncertainties, and scarcity in water provision.

 

Water governance represents a conceptual focus proposing alternative theoretical and practical pathways which really link social demands and the government level. Generally, the use of this concept includes laws, regulation, and institutions, but also refers to policies and government procedures, local initiatives, and influence networks, as well as international markets, private sector, and civil society; all of them are influenced by those political systems in which they are embedded.

 

The three main factors placing the sustainable water governance under the spotlight of global reach are: climate change, free trade, and water-sector privatizing. In order to move towards arrangements which allow accentuating local problems, the challenges arise in the promotion of water utilization efficiency, in the warranty of its sustainable use, in the stimulus for fair sharing the water stocks, and in the need for fostering a joint responsibility facing scarcity.

 

In this sense this event tries to deepen and share the diverse scientific awareness, and stimulate new paths of development of a still incipient field of knowledge.

 

 

General Coordinator

Pedro Roberto Jacobi