|
Showing 1 - 4 of
4 matches in All Departments
In 2018, the city of Cape Town faced the prospect of reaching 'day
zero', that is a combination of natural and human-made factors
leading to the complete collapse of its municipal water supply.
While the rains eventually fell and a major disaster was averted,
the fear of running out of water looms large in the psyche of
residents in many cities around the world. Water is a
non-substitutable, essential, finite and fugitive resource. It is
the lifeblood of human endeavour. Cities, through global processes
such as Agenda 2030 and forums such as ICLEI exchange best
practices for achieving water security. These forums also are
collective social spaces occupied by civil society organizations
who share strategies and tactics, and the private sector, who
compete for markets and contracts, promoting patent-protected
technologies. It is these groups - states, civil societies, private
sectors - coming together who determine who gets what water, when,
and where. It is the job of academics to understand the how and
why, and of (academic-)activists to fight for equity of access and
sustainability of use. Evidence drawn from around the world and
over time consistently shows that water flows toward money and
power. Outcomes are too-often socially inequitable, environmentally
unsustainable and economically inefficient. How to shift existing
processes toward improved practices is not clear, but positive
outcomes do exist. In this collection, we compare and contrast the
challenges and opportunities for achieving urban water security
with a focus on 11 major world cities: Bangalore, Beijing, Cairo,
Cape Town, Chennai, Istanbul, Jakarta, London, Melbourne, Sao Paulo
and Tokyo. Through the theoretical, conceptual and practical
insights provided in these case studies, our collection
constructively contributes to a global conversation regarding the
ways and means of 'avoiding day zero'.
This collection critically engages the resource use nexus. Clearly,
a nexus-approach to resource policy, planning and practice is
essential if sustainable development goals are to be met. In
particular, in an era of climate change, an integrated approach to
water, energy and agriculture is imperative. Agriculture accounts
for 70% of global water withdrawals, food production accounts for
30% of global energy use and a rising global population requires
more of everything. As shown in this collection, scholars of
resource development, governance and management are 'nexus
sensitive', utilizing a sort of 'nexus sensibility' in their work
as it focuses on the needs of people particularly, but not only, in
the global South. Importantly, a nexus-approach presents academics
and practitioners with a discursive space in which to shape policy
through research, to deepen and improve understandings of the
interconnections and impacts of particular types of resource use,
and to critically reflect on actions taken in the name of the
'nexus'.
In 2018, the city of Cape Town faced the prospect of reaching
‘day zero’, that is a combination of natural and human-made
factors leading to the complete collapse of its municipal water
supply. While the rains eventually fell and a major disaster was
averted, the fear of running out of water looms large in the psyche
of residents in many cities around the world. Water is a
non-substitutable, essential, finite and fugitive resource. It is
the lifeblood of human endeavour. Cities, through global processes
such as Agenda 2030 and forums such as ICLEI exchange best
practices for achieving water security. These forums also are
collective social spaces occupied by civil society organizations
who share strategies and tactics, and the private sector, who
compete for markets and contracts, promoting patent-protected
technologies. It is these groups – states, civil societies,
private sectors – coming together who determine who gets what
water, when, and where. It is the job of academics to understand
the how and why, and of (academic-)activists to fight for equity of
access and sustainability of use. Evidence drawn from around the
world and over time consistently shows that water flows toward
money and power. Outcomes are too-often socially inequitable,
environmentally unsustainable and economically inefficient. How to
shift existing processes toward improved practices is not clear,
but positive outcomes do exist. In this collection, we compare and
contrast the challenges and opportunities for achieving urban water
security with a focus on 11 major world cities: Bangalore, Beijing,
Cairo, Cape Town, Chennai, Istanbul, Jakarta, London, Melbourne,
Sao Paulo and Tokyo. Through the theoretical, conceptual and
practical insights provided in these case studies, our collection
constructively contributes to a global conversation regarding the
ways and means of ‘avoiding day zero’.
This project breaks disciplinary silos by bringing those who work
in climate finance and policy together with development scholars
and practitioners to share lessons, understanding, and research
with an overall goal of making a contribution to the climate change
field so that those at the community level benefit from the
multitude of programmes designed for climate impacts. For some 70
years, International Development specialists have been developing
programs and delivering funds to those who most need assistance.
There is a wealth of knowledge to be uncovered by examining the
international development industry for those who are now tasked
with delivering climate finance. The academic, policy, and
practitioner communities have spent decades researching, examining,
and analyzing both development policies and finance independent of
each. This volume will seek to bring that research together.
|
|