Water Rights Reform

"Rights to water are increasingly crucial and increasingly contested across theglobe. Urbanization, industrialization, environmental degradation, agriculturalintensification, rising per capita water use, increasing population, andother social, political, and economic transformations contribute to growing scarcity and demand for better management of water resources. In responding to these challenges, the world can draw on a rich heritage of institutions for regulating rights to water and resolving disputes, and a diversity of institutional arrangements that demonstrate great ingenuity in designing solutions to fit the conditions and priorities of various river basins. However, policy discussion in water management has often been impoverished by narrow polarization around a few idealized models of centrally integrated management or water commoditization, even though these comprise only a small and very incomplete subset of the institutional options available for effective management. The authors in this book expand the range of reflection and analysis of water rights reforms, offering insights aimed especially at those seeking practical pathways to improve equity, efficiency, and sustainability in access to water."

The vital importance of water to human activity is such that most societies and cultures have sought to establish legal rules over its use and allocation. In most jurisdictions legal rights to water have been linked to land tenure and ownership rights. A number of countries have recently undertaken substantive water law reforms, usually involving the introduction of formal and explicit water rights that clearly specify the volume of water that is subject to each right ("modern water rights"), together with institutional arrangements for their allocation, registration, monitoring and enforcement. Modern water rights are not intrinsically tied to specific land plots, are often transferable and available to be traded on a temporary or permament basis. This book reviews international experiences of the introduction and use of modern water rights. It is based on a survey of relevant primary and secondary legislation, published literature, internet sources and practical experience.

This book provides a first comprehensive legal examination of water rights arrangements and water rights trading in China. Although recent water reform in China has made substantial progress in policy development and practice, how its legal and institutional framework facilitates or hinders the application of tradable water rights remains less addressed in the existing scholarship. Against the backdrop of China’s water reform and the wider international debate in water governance, this book aims to provide an innovative approach to the complex issue of water governance by critically analysing the recent legal and policy developments in China towards tradable water rights. It examines the deficiencies of the current systems for water rights arrangements and trading, explores how China may learn from and build on the international trends in water rights trading practice (mainly Australia and the US), and proposes legal and policy frameworks for defining and administering tradable water rights in China that underpin sustainable water use in the face of exacerbated water scarcity, variability, and uncertainty. All in all, the book proposes pragmatic strategies for China’s water law and policy reform to move towards tradable water rights, which encompasses a comprehensive prescription from initialising and defining tradable water rights to administering water rights and trading. By reflecting on the deepening water reforms in both China and other jurisdictions, the book aims to contribute to the international water governance debate by exploring from a legal and policy perspective, how China, comparative to other cases around the world, can find a balanced combination of water allocation mechanisms to address its water challenges. It is hoped that the observations and proposed implications for China’s water reform will contribute to developing a better understanding of the way in which experiences in water markets can be shared from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

The fifteen chapters of this book analyse the living community-based water laws in Africa, Latin America and Asia and critically examine the interface between community-based water laws, formal water laws and a variety of other key institutional ingredients of on-going water resources management reform.

According to a famous Talmudic story (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat: 31a), a gentile once approached Rabbi Hillel and asked to be taught the entire Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel replied, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself. That is the entire Torah. The rest is simply an explanation. Go and learn it!’ In much the same way, Jewish law can be described in one word—Torah. All the rest is simply an explanation. The Torah, also known as the Bible, the five books of Moses, and the Pentateuch, was written over 3,000 years ago. Since then, Jewish law has developed various interpretations and applications of the Torah, interpretations of those interpre- tions, and so on. Jewish law contains civil dictates as well as religious protocol. Problems that arose in the framework of religious life and problems surrounding civil relationships both found solutions in the same legal source—the Torah and the Halacha, the Jewish legal interpretations and rulings. This chapter on water law in the Jewish tradition provides insight into Jewish law and custom in general, and rules related to the protection of water sources in particular. One should not look, however, to find a written code of Jewish law, as there is none.

This book develops an analytical framework for water law reform, using case studies across four jurisdictions, for academics, students and policy makers.

This book identifies the most effective water policy tools and innovations, and the circumstances that foster their successful implementation by taking a comparative look at a world-leading ‘laboratory’ of water law and governance: Australia. In particular, the book analyses Australia’s 20-year experience implementing a hybrid governance system of markets, hierarchical regulation, and collaborative integrated water planning. Australia is acknowledged as a world leader in water governance reform, and an examination of its relatively mature water law and governance system has great significance for many international academics and jurisdictions. This book synthesises practical lessons and theoretical insights from Australia, as well as recommendations from comparative analysis with countries such as the United States to provide useful guidance for policymakers and scholars seeking to apply water instruments in a wide range of policy contexts. The book also advances our understanding of water and broader environmental governance theory and is a valuable reference for scholars, researchers and students working in law, regulation and governance studies – especially in the field of water and environmental law. Chapter “Lessons from Australian water reforms: Indigenous and environmental values in market-based water regulation” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

In the face of growing freshwater scarcity, most countries of the world are taking steps to conserve their water and foster its sustainable use. Water crises range from concerns of drinking water availability and/or quality, the degradation or contamination of freshwater, and the allocation of water to different users. To meet the challenge, many countries are undergoing systemic changes to the use of freshwater and the provision of water services, thereby leading to greater commercialization of the resource as well as a restructuring of the legal, regulatory, technical and institutional frameworks for water. The contributions to this book critically analyse legal issues arising under international law, such as environment and human rights provisions, concerning the economic, environmental and social consequences of proposed water regulatory changes and their implementation at the national level. The book examines the situation in India which is currently in the midst of implementing several World Bank led water restructuring projects which will have significant impacts on the realisation of the right to water and all other aspects of water regulation for decades to come. In analysing the situation in India the volume is able to detail the interactions between international law and national law in the field of water, and to ask broader questions about the compliance with international law at the national level and the relevance of international law in national law and policy-making.