The Public Involvement in AquaStress: Building the Cooperation

1
The Public Involvement in AquaStressBuilding
the Cooperation

• Info Day
• 4 November 2005, Sofia
• Prof. D. Assimacopoulos, NTUA

2
The Problem and the Vision

• Water stress is a serious threat to
  sustainability
• Mitigation of water stress is a major goal and a
  transition is needed to
• Soft-path solutions
• Decentralised decision-making
• Equitable pricing
• Equity of access
• To this process
• Public Participation is of outmost importance

3
Water StressThe Context Processes

• Water stress exists when the quantity and
  quality of available water does not meet human
  and ecological needs at all spatial and temporal
  scales

4
The Public Participation issue 30 years of
progress

• Stockholm Declaration on Human Environment,
  1972Recognizes the need for governmental
  public cooperation for protection improvement
  of the environment
• Brundtland Commission, 1987Sustainable
  development includes environmental, economic,
  and social dimensions
• Rio Declaration on Sustainable Development,
  1992Sustainable development through encouraging
  public participation
• Aarhus Convention, 1998Environmental justice
  through public participation in decision-making
• UN Millennium Declaration, 2000Include social
  equity and public involvement in problem solving
• Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable
  Development, 2002 Public participation and
  involvement in decision-making is a basic
  requirement of sustainable development on global
  scale

5
The Public Involvement Requirement in the Water
Framework Directive

• Article 14
• Member States shall encourage the active
  involvement of all interested parties in the
  implementation of this Directive, in particular
  in the production, review and updating of the
  river basin management plans
• 3 forms of Stakeholder engagement
• Access to background information
• Consultation within the planning process
• Active Involvement in the planning and
  implementation of water management plans

6
Laying a hand on the Vision
7
The AquaStress approach
PUBLIC Stakeholder Fora/Council

• Characterisation
• Water demand availability / sector
• Indicators for option assessment

• Providing Options
• Technologies
• Water management
• Policies
• Economic incentives

Users acceptance
IT Platform Toolboxfor Collaborative Planning
Feasibility Studies
Option Implementation Securing water supply for
users and the environment
8
The AQUASTRESS Test Sites

• Iskar, Bulgaria
• Guadiana, Portugal
• Flumendosa, Italy
• Tadla, Morocco
• Limassol, Cyprus
• Przemsza, Poland
• Vecht, Netherlands
• Merguellil, Tunisia

9
AquaStress A Stakeholder Driven Project

• Stakeholders determine the problems, options to
  be tested
• Stakeholders will be the final arbiters of
  success and failure
• Dialogue between experts and stakeholders

10
A Ladder of Citizen ParticipationS.R. Arnstein,
1969
11
Participatory processin AquaStress
LEVEL OF PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT
ACHIEVED THROUGH
12
Public Involvement and Empowerment

• Stakeholder Council
• Permanent Advisory Body/Panel to the Consortium
• Public Stakeholder Forum
• Public representation in the Joint Assemblies
• Local Public Stakeholder Fora
• Co-decision on the Agenda of project local actions

13
Interrelations betweenStakeholder Bodies
Project LevelJoint Assemblies
Local (Test Site) Level
Regional
Partner
Stakeholder
Council
B
ound
by
Contract
Public
Local
Public
Bound by
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Protocol
of
Forum
Forum
c
ooperation
Delegates
14
Benefits to Stakeholders

• Access to
• Information/data that has been accumulated
  through AquaStress procedures and activities
  either locally or in other Test Site regions
• Expertise and knowledge on technical and
  non-technical options for water stress mitigation
• Programs, guidelines, training manuals
• A collaborative Internet Forum for all AquaStress
  parties

15
Benefits to Stakeholders

• Networking
• A regional network of stakeholders
• An international network of stakeholders
  (Stakeholders from 8 Test Sites 8 countries)

16
Info Day

• To be realised in all Test Sites
• Objectives
• To introduce AquaStress to the Public
• Sign a protocol of cooperation between the
  AquaStress and the Local Stakeholders
• To define
• Objectives
• Activities
• Indicators for work progress and LPSFs operation

17
From the Protocol to Activity Planning
SituationAnalysis
StakeholderAnalysis
ProblemAnalysis
ObjectivesAnalysis
ActivitiesPlanning
AlternativesAnalysis
18
What is a Case Study?

• Test-Sites are the entire set of sites as
  mentioned in the Description of work
• Case Studies are
• In-depth plans covering selected issues and
  possibly selected regions within the Test-Sites
• Implementation of specific options or combination
  of options in all or part of a Test Site

19
Types of Case Studies

• External Case studies
• Experiences from actual implementations or
  experiments in the past to serve as input to the
  knowledge base on (cost-effectiveness of)
  measures
• Virtual implementation
• Field implementation

20
Mitigating Options - Technical Options

• Alternative water sources
• Waste water reuse
• Desalination
• Rainfall harvesting
• Drainage water reuse
• Use of brackish water
• Integrated surface/ groundwater management
• Water table management
• Groundwater remediation
• Surface water control
• Reservoir management

• Technologies for water saving
• Minimising water losses
• Process optimisation and recycling in industry
• Domestic water use and conservation
• Water saving technologies
• Practices of water saving
• Irrigation water management
• Tailoring cropping patterns
• Less water intensive processes

21
Mitigating Options - Policy Instruments

• Incentive mechanisms for balancing demand and
  supply
• Welfare water pricing
• Uncertainty investments
• Sustainable IWRM long-run discounting
• Socio-economic instruments
• Centrally administered economic instruments
• Market based economic instruments
• Community based participatory socio-economic
  instruments

• Procedural methods
• Planning
• Crisis management
• Balancing institutional societal economic and
  structural options
• Scenarios for climatological and socio-economic
  development, translation into water demand and
  availability
• Priority assessment comparison of alternatives

22
Issues for consideration

• Case Study prerequisites
• Innovation
• Potential for evaluation
• Feasibility (technically institutionally) of
  implementation
• Stakeholder acceptance
• Constraints and Risks in implementation
• Solutions Ways to overcome constraints
• Output monitoring evaluation\
• Confirmed involvement of stakeholders

23
Case Study Decision process
Identification of potential Case Studies
Review of alternatives in the LPSF
Case Study Definition Month 18
Selection of options
LPSF reaches decision on Case Studies
Discussion in the 1st Joint Assembly (Month 12)
24
18 month onwards Framework of cooperation

• Project planning is not a linear process
• One does not move mechanistically from one step
  to the next, always in a forward direction, and
  arrive automatically at the best solution
• Planning is an iterative and creative process,
  and selecting a design option often involves
  significant leaps in thinking which cannot be
  neatly slotted into a stage in the planning
  process

25
Thank you