Water management today is faced with new challenges such as climate change or the effects of human activity. Public and private stakeholders who are active in this field must develop new ways to better manage the water cycle "as a whole". The objective of this MOOC is to develop an understanding of the problems related to water management. Firstly, this course will define a resource and, more specifically, the resource of water. It will look at how water is used and the activities associated with it as well as any potential conflicts. The course will look at water management in detail through the analysis of the different types of rights and obligations associated with, for example, the development of a multi-sectorial regulation system or a watershed management approach. By the end of this course, our aim is to enable you to: 1) Identify the main issues and strategies linked to water resource management 2) Acquire the key reading material needed to understand the many variables (environmental, institutional and political) which affect water and which, in terms of management, may require adjustment. This course was developed by the Geneva Water Hub. Alongside researchers from the University of Geneva from a range of faculties, researchers from other universities and research centres will be involved in this course. Practitioners who deal daily with the political dimension of water management will also input into the course. This MOOC is designed for all those interested in the water sector. Prior training is not necessary to follow our program. The findings presented in this course can be easily reapplied to different contexts and to different scales of analysis. This MOOC is supported by the Geneva Water Hub and the University of Geneva along with the MOOC in « Ecosystem Services: a Method for Sustainable Development » (www.coursera.org/learn/ecosystem-services) and the one in "International Water Law" (www.coursera.org/learn/droit-eau). This course is funded by the Global Programme Water Initiatives of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). This course is also available in French : www.coursera.org/learn/gestion-eau
4.5 Watershed Management in Switerland: Practical Experience
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Do curso por University of Geneva
Water Resources Management and Policy
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Module 4: The Integrated Watershed Management (IWM)
In this module, we further examine water management but this time we look specifically at how watersheds are managed. We see how stakeholders in Switzerland, in Europe (with the case of the Rhine) and internationally have promoted this concept as a reference for water management. These case studies allow us to identify the benefits and limitations (both practical and institutional) that are presented by the Integrated Watershed Management approach. The module is concluded by a quiz worth 20% of the final grade. You must have at least 80% of the responses correct to pass the module.
Conheça os instrutores
Christian BréthautAssistant Professor
Institut des sciences de l'environnement, Université de Genève
Géraldine PfliegerProfesseure associée
Institut de Gouvernance de l'Environnement et de Développement Territorial
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Very good Olivier, thank you.
I am really delighted to welcome you to our MOOC in Water Resources
Management and Policy.
Perhaps to begin with and so that our participants get to know
you, I suggest you introduce yourself and tell us what
your relationship is to the famous concept of integrated watershed management.
>> Hello and thank you for the invitation. I started working in the field of
water in 1984 after studying at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne,
first in sub-Saharan Africa,
in Burkina Faso, just between the Upper Volta and Burkina Faso, then,
in what was then the Zaire, which became the Democratic Republic of Congo,
in Malawi for access to drinking water and then I worked in North Africa,
Algeria, Morocco, on drinking water and dams,
then in Switzerland for hydropower, and finally,
for the last twenty years, on the protection and management of water.
For ten years, I was on the general management for a large engineering group
and two years ago I set-up my own company to work on
my first love,
the development of integrated water resources management projects.
>> Okay. >> And in fact I can do this now
because at the time when I started to work,
I always had this vision of integrated management.
Back when I started, 32 years ago, nobody talked about it,
it did not exist.
>> This is exactly what is interesting in the Swiss case.
When compared, for example,
with French neighbours, we see that they established
the watershed as a reference area from the 1964 water act onwards.
In the case of Switzerland, the idea emerged much later.
How can we explain the delay
behind the relatively recent emergence of this concept?
>> So whilst it is quite recent (the first publications date from the
the idea, of course,
has always existed.
I think there are two reasons, maybe three why
Switzerland has come to this concept so late.
Above all, honestly, is the fact that there are not major
water management problems in Switzerland. There is enough water, the quality is good.
This will not last. We know that with climate change there will be
problems with annual cycle changes. The regime will have to adapt and modify its
hydroelectric production.
It has steady population growth on the plateau where the majority of the
population is concentrated, which also means
that urban growth will endanger some water resources, some
groundwater resources, that can no longer be properly protected.
It's hard to protect groundwater located under a city.
Therefore, the problems are felt, little by little.
There are also problems of protection against floods,
with increased urban densification
they increase, peak flood also increases.
We think it is an effect of climate change, a precursor.
So we know that we need to prepare for the future.
We know that the situation will not always be as ideal as today.
But, the fact remains that the situation is not really so difficult
and therefore there is less need to manage the watershed, to globally manage.
Then the second reason
which I believe is linked to Swiss politics.
Swiss politics has a policy of consensus where there is no majority and
no minority opposition.
This is a direct democracy. It is like an inverted pyramid where
it is not the government that governs, but rather the people who govern,
as anyone can challenge any government decision.
So, it's great for the people but harder for the government.
And it is not necessarily in those conditions that
centralist concepts will emerge.
>> Okay.
>> And then, federalism. This is a very strong third element,
that is to say, the entire organisation of
Switzerland is based on communes that can be federated
by intercommunal associations, or intercommunal syndicats that are
within the cantons, which are
within the Swiss confederation.
But the confederation does not have power, the state has little power.
The confederation issues the framework law, and the cantons implement it.
In other words, the central government is weak, or non-existent.
And in the case of France in 1964, it was the central state,
(France in 1964 was hyper-centralized) and some administrative people decided
“a very good idea, we'll do that.”
It is a good idea. It's easy,
relatively easy, to implemented in a centralized country, whereas it is extremely
difficult in a country where the central government is non-existent.
>> And so,
in a country where there is institutional fragmentation,
the principle of subsidiarity, which delegates the implementation
to the lowest rank of decision-makers,
how can a concept such as integrated watershed management
be expressed?
How do we try to put this concept into practice
within the setting of Swiss politics?
>> A huge question.
It’s easy.
If I summarize the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management
as we understand it, it has two axes.
This is the vertical integration between the different strata
of water resources management. So, urban sanitation,
drinking water, management of groundwater, hydrology,
protection against floods, all environmental aspects etc.
Traditionally, in administrations,
each is in its own small box.
We even have, more or less, people who are also in one small
box titled “water projects” and others who are in a box titled “revitalization”.
The law still distinguishes between these two things,
whereas, logically, it is one thing.
That is the vertical axis, and then there is the horizontal integration.
We must not view the commune as the base entity
but rather the catchment area.
And so, it is the commune in general
in Switzerland but not everywhere. Geneva is a little different.
In Geneva, it is the canton which controls water resources management
and integrated management has taken place for a long time.
In most other cantons, it is the communes that does it.
If we want to achieve integrated management, we must federate the communes.
The federation of communes is done by themes.
For example, for drinking water, communes were grouped into
intercommunal associations for the production and distribution of drinking water.
For sanitation, in some cantons
it was the large treatment plants that connected to,
unless I am mistaken, 48 or 50 communes, for the biggest plant in Solothurn.
So integration does take place but sectorally.
Now the idea is to take the next step,
and try to have one watershed, one entity that manages,
or at least that plans, the water management of all these strata.
But to do so, we need to start with the plans.
Because then there is the implementation of the plans and in the implementation
of the plans we discover this subsidiarity.
If I summarize, we can say that the Integrated Water Resources Management
may be carried out effectively and efficiently in Switzerland
if all the strata of water management that needs to be
coordinated – the planning - is centralised by watersheds.
This planning will outline where,
with what priorities, which action.
This action will be delegated to the body
responsible for the implementation of the action, usually the commune
sometimes the canton, sometimes intercommunal associations,
or intercommuncal syndicats, sometimes cooperatives, there are even
owners cooperatives for protection against flooding.
And so these people will be responsible for implementing the planning.
So, to use the subsidiarity in an intelligent way, we can say
that planning is integrated, and the implementation is done,
could be carried out at a fully subsidiary level, delocalised.
And you can also go further.
We could say, but why continue to have these different levels?
Why can we not make a single management entity that does everything?
>> But this time, the challenge is huge,
it means negotiating with a massive number of interlocutors.
>> Very important and it was done.
It is still rare in Switzerland but I had the opportunity to do so
in a valley in the canton of Neuchâtel.
There is an enormous amount of communication.
Ultimately, as it is the citizen who decides, we must convince the citizen.
Do not convince the government, do not convince the politicians.
Or rather, the politicians and the government,
and the citizen need to be convinced.
To take the example of the Val-de-Ruz. It was presented
to the 16 communes, the entire population, before the final vote.
So everyone was invited into a school gym.
The smaller the commune, the more people came - it was pretty amusing.
More than 100 people were there. There was a presentation of
about three quarters of an hour to tell them this is what we will do.
Here’s how it'll work, here’s how you will be organised etc.
And then, questions.
Questions and answers.
And in some communes, the session started at eight in the evening,
and it ended at midnight.
Four hours of intense questions and answers in order for people
at the end, to be convinced that, yes, they will vote in favour.
So that's it.
Drinking water was integrated including the private connections that have become
public, the sanitation, the agricultural drainage system -
we did a huge amount of lobbying among the farmers.
In Switzerland, farmers are powerful decisions makers.
They have an extremely powerful lobby. It is the same for fishermen.
If you want a successful integrated water resources management, you must have all the fishermen,
all the farmers on board. It's a little silly to say, but that’s how it is.
>> And through these two activity sectors, you can see
the intersectoral issues and the importance of sectors.
If we take the example
of hydropower. We have an industry
where the watershed is not necessarily a reference in itself.
There are huge plants in Switzerland who fetch water
across multiple watersheds,
storing it and then turbining
outside of a geographically defined watershed.
Therefore, based on these examples, what do you think
about this watershed scale as the unit of reference
Does it make sense for water management?
>> When you speak of a watershed,
one can imagine all kinds of watersheds.
There are hydrological watersheds,
the rivers, in the valleys, there are hydrogeological watersheds,
which are not exactly the same, especially when it's karst.
There are the technical watershed particularly those in the catchment,
production and distribution of drinking water.
Or those of urban sanitation, collecting wastewater,
the treatment, the restitution.
So already, there are 4 different watersheds.
The fifth already mentioned is that of hydroelectricity which
creates short circuits between hydrological watersheds. In the canton of Valais,
in the Grisons, it's obvious. There are dozens, hundreds of kilometres of
pipelines that bypass, which move water from the
catchment area to be taken to another artificial development of the
the sub-watershed or basin. >> So,
hydropower is specific.
It is the only sector in Switzerland which is private. So it's a double challenge.
When you talk about protection against floods, urban sanitation,
drinking water, ecology, it's all in the public sector.
There is not any, with the smallest exception,
it is all in the public sector, not the private.
And then suddenly we see
the overlap that hydropower is 100% private.
It does not have the same interests. It does not have the same operation methods
and therefore, when dealing with hydroelectricity problems,
it must be done in two stages.
One stage is hydropower with its partners,
its private partners and superimposed on this is the hydrographic stage where
other watersheds are publically managed.
That's an additional difficulty found
mainly in the Alps.
>> Okay. >> In the Alps, there is a relatively
small population whereas in the plateau, it is not a problem.
>> Okay.
>> And this is where there are many inhabitants.
Therefore, problems depend on topography, infrastructure.
These reference watersheds these
operational entities, must be fixed. You will have then a
functional space.
There you go.
This is a very good term.
Functional spaces depending on the subjects to be treated.
So, we will not have rules.
>> So, not only limited to the hydrographical scale.
>> No. >> That would be your view.
>> Absolutely.
>> Okay. >> Moreover,
George Bernard Shaw said, something that I like.
“The golden rule, is that there is no golden rule.”
And water management in Switzerland, it really just that.
With the its political system, languages,
the diversity of cultures, topography, the problems can not be solved by
superimposing a single system of planning and management.
There's no...
there is research work from the National Fund for Scientific Research,
which demonstrated that no unique optimal systems
of integrated watershed management exist in Switzerland.
Everything should be done according to the circumstances and local problems.
>> Okay.
Very good and thank you Olivier.
It is interesting to see how this concept is implicated in the Swiss case.
I think that we have raised all the issues,
and we will see more in other sections,
including issues of intersectorality and the necessary coherence of
different interests for the use of water resources.
There you go. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much.
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