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Hurlbert, Margot, Harry Diaz, Darrell R. Corkal, and Jim Warren. 2009. Climate change and water governance in Saskatchewan, Canada. International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management 1 (2):118-132.
Over 40 interviews of water authorities and social actors were conducted and their responses categorized and reported in this work. The problem explored is summed up by the statement, “should future climate‐induced water stress be more severe in intensity and frequency, even greater economic and social impacts are likely to occur.” The challenge of developing institutional frameworks and governance structures to manage climate change and water governance is explored.
Two concepts are used to help frame the climate change and water governance discussion: promotion of adaptive capacity and a vulnerability approach, defined as susceptibility to changing conditions. Adaptive capacity addresses a range of institutional attributes including: economic resources, technology, information and skills, infrastructure, equity and institutions. The authors argue that institutional adaptive capacity requires participatory planning and participation by civil society whereby an institutional governance environment must: (1) identify social needs and problems, (2) balance interests and (3) execute and implement solutions. Vulnerability is a measure of an institutions’ sensitivity to exposure of climate change induced risk.
Historically the South Saskatchewan River Basin region has experienced over 40 events of drought over the past 100 years and yet interviews with social actors indicate that “strategies to cope with water scarcity seem to be addressed more as an ad hoc response to an extreme event even though drought is a natural characteristic of the region” and “…today droughts and flood are dealt with in a reactive mode.” A significant challenge is confusion over the multitude of organizations and the unclear role of different orders of government, as identified by one interviewee as “too much water governance, yet not enough water governance.”
The authors articulate a need for coordination of federal and provincial organizations and institutional leadership. Saskatchewan does not have a climate change and adaptation plan nor has the Federal Water Policy (1987) been fully resourced or implemented in Saskatchewan. Moreover, watershed advisory groups lack both the legislative authority, and the required financial security while relying on unpaid volunteers to deliver their services. In order to reduce conflict and vulnerability, government actors must develop a governance framework that promulgates a common vision for irrigation, water storage, and water use priorities.
The authors use two water governance definitions to set the stage for their discussion quoting Jenkins (2002) “the pattern by which public power is exercised in a given context” and the Conference Board of Canada (2007) that defines water governance as “…an inter‐organizational network defined by different amount of political power and competing priorities and which involves government policies and actions related to water, encompassing laws, regulations, public organization, and those sectors of the civil society that participate, interact with, or influence the management of water resources.”