This dissertation develops and assesses hypotheses regarding the design and adaptation of institutions for maintaining the quality of a shared natural resource at regional scales. The analysis is centered on arrangements created by governmental actors for deciding how to jointly govern a resource producing high-quality drinking water. The cases studied are Boston (Massachusetts), New York City (New York), Portland (Oregon), and San Francisco (California). Drinking water in each of these cities is provided unfiltered, and it is sourced from lands located in other jurisdictions. To maintain water quality, both providers and landowners in the watersheds have reached agreements defining how to jointly govern the resource. This dissertation studies the design of these arrangements. Studying these dynamics, particularly in a federal regime, highlights the limits that governmental actors face in making decisions with other governments at different levels. The dissertation contains three empirical papers addressing aspects of design in these arrangements. The empirical chapters are structured as separate papers that follow a common theme. Throughout the dissertation, insights from various research traditions are brought in to complement the analysis of institutional design. The studies in this dissertation combine arguments from the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework, Common-Pool Resource Theory, Transaction Cost Economics, social network analysis, Adaptive Governance, and theories of information processing stemming from the Punctuated Equilibrium literature in public policy.

The rivers and tributaries of our planet carry water through Mother Earth, like veins carry blood, and for many Indigenous Peoples, the Great Lakes are the heart of Mother Earth sustaining her life blood - water. However, centuries of water colonialism have led to the disenfranchisement of Indigenous Peoples’ water citizenship, which is connected to the evolution of Indigenous water governance in the Great Lakes. Indigenous water governance includes the intergenerational and adaptive institutions and processes by which Indigenous Peoples and Nations protect the water through decision-making, treaty relations, and resurgent kinship. Indigenous water governance is grounded in the principle of Indigenous survivence – the capacity of an Indigenous Nation or community to survive stressors to water governance through resilience building that allows for sustainability and protection of water for future generations. Understanding the roles of Indigenous Nations as rightsholders in a given social-ecological-system is necessary for understanding the institutions, policies, and processes shaping collaborative water governance in transboundary basins. The failures in equity of participation, decision-making authority, and government-to-government consultation for Indigenous Nations in the shared protection of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence River Basin (GLSLRB) represent governance crises for water security. Adaptive water governance is grounded in Indigenous inclusion as rightsholders and knowledge co-production for shared agenda setting and equitable decision-making in the face of uncertainty. This dissertation empirically investigates the norms, dynamics and mechanisms that underlie the management structure, composition, and politics of Indigenous water governance in the Great Lakes. Chapter 1 introduces the literature and background necessary for positioning the four studies of the dissertation presented in Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5. Chapter 2 presents the history of water colonialism in the region and the transferability of Indigenous water institutions to manage the complex multilevel governance waterscape of the Great Lakes. Chapter 3 examines Indigenous attitudes towards Great Lakes protection in public opinion polls and the cross-national differences among Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents of the Great Lakes basin. Chapter 4 contains a case study of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Areas of Concern, their impacts on Indigenous Nations, and the water injustices that result when Indigenous worldviews are not valued. Chapter 5 explores the reawakening of sleepy water knowledges through the Water Walks and presents the path forward set by the water walkers for rebuilding water diplomacy through Indigenous water citizenship for Great Lakes governance. Taken together, these studies help us to conceptualize Indigenous water governance within the Great Lakes and provide best practices for Indigenous leaders globally working to protect the water and enacting Indigenous water governance. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy / The rivers and tributaries of our planet carry water through Mother Earth like veins carry blood, and for many Indigenous Peoples, the Great Lakes are the heart of Mother Earth sustaining her life blood - water. However, centuries of water colonialism have led to the disenfranchisement of Indigenous Peoples’ water citizenship, which is connected to the evolution of Indigenous water governance in the Great Lakes. This doctoral dissertation investigates the history of water colonialism in the region and the transferability of Indigenous water institutions to manage the complex multilevel governance waterscape; Indigenous Peoples perceptions of Great Lakes well-being; water injustices that result when Indigenous worldviews are not valued; and the path forward for rebuilding water diplomacy through Indigenous water citizenship for Great Lakes governance. Great Lakes Indigenous Nations’ reawakening of sleepy water knowledges are lessons for Indigenous Nations around the world fighting to protect the water on how to reclaim their water sovereignty for Indigenous water governance.

There has been talk of countries facing water "crises" and even predictions of a "global water crisis", for some years now. The effects of climate change, population growth, and ever higher levels of development are being felt around the world. Even in the United Kingdom, generally considered to have plentiful rainfall, there have been restrictions on water use. How much more serious a problem, then, is this issue for those countries with less bountiful water resources and fewer financial resources to cope with increasing water stress. One common response has been to consider the water crisis as a "crisis of governance", in recognition that it is less about the lack of water and more about the need to address poverty and power imbalances within society. However, this neither clarifies the measures to be taken nor the responsibilities that governments have towards their people when facing such a crisis. This thesis explores the meaning and implications of "good water governance" as a means of addressing the water crisis and concludes that for the meas to be successful a clear end goal is required. This thesis proposes that the normative content of the Human Right to Water is a useful starting point in defining the goals for national water policy able to meet the challenge of a potential water crisis. By combining positive contributions both good water governance and the Human Right to Water, the thesis develops a framework to assist governments in planning, implementing and monitoring the measures necessary to fulfil their responsibilities. In order to verify the framework that has been developed, the thesis applies the framework to the case of South Africa, a country that is facing increasing water stress while still redressing the balance of past inequities. The thesis concludes that a framework using aspects from a water governance approach and aspects of the Human Right to Water can assist governments to focus their efforts on the critical issues that affect their communities' access to water.

Yes / Water governance is a widely-used but ill-defined term. Our objective throughout this seminar series has been to analyse what it does mean and to question the consensus that seems to attach to it. In this paper for the final seminar I discuss what governance is not, I suggest what it is and I consider some propositions and issues that seem to have emerged from our meetings. In doing this, I appreciate that governance can mean different things to different people, but I suggest that, used in a specific way, it is a concept with particular value and significance for water development. / ESRC

Yes / The concept of water governance is a firmly established part of the consensus on international water development, and has become a constant theme in the policy processes we are discussing in this seminar. Originating in its present format at about the time of the second World Water Forum in 2002, it was specifically restated at the International Conference on Freshwater in Bonn, 2001 (¿the essential key is stronger, better performing governance arrangements¿), and it featured prominently in the outputs from the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, 2003. In the Alternative Water Forum, held here in Bradford just after the Kyoto event, we encouraged participants to analyse and critically debate the underlying ideas, In this paper I want to encourage this continuing analysis and debate. Like many of the issues we shall be discussing over the next couple of days, I believe it repays closer consideration, and that it encompasses a set of important ideas which must not be lost in constant re-iteration of a general theme. / ESRC

Networks of indigenous irrigating farmers played an influential role in the Cochabamba Water War of 2000 that succeeded in ousting the major water company Bechtel from Bolivia and securing changes to the national legislation to recognize indigenous water rights. In their mobilization against privatization, the irrigators used a narrative grounded in the defense of their water rights and traditional uses and customs or usos y costumbres. Following the Water War, the irrigators effectively organized to have their traditional water rights recognized in the new Irrigation Law no. 2878, which was signed into law in 2004, and the Regulations, which came into effect in 2006. This paper critically examines the impacts of the Irrigation Law on access to water in the heavily farmed region of the Cochabamba Valley. It asks whether the social inequalities amongst farming communities, often exacerbated by usos y costumbres, are being reinforced through the law’s implementation. An analysis of the political processes of institutional change and the power dynamics in the rural water sector reveals that the configuration of power asymmetries formalized in the Irrigation Law maintains unequal access to water resources.

Networks of indigenous irrigating farmers played an influential role in the Cochabamba Water War of 2000 that succeeded in ousting the major water company Bechtel from Bolivia and securing changes to the national legislation to recognize indigenous water rights. In their mobilization against privatization, the irrigators used a narrative grounded in the defense of their water rights and traditional uses and customs or usos y costumbres. Following the Water War, the irrigators effectively organized to have their traditional water rights recognized in the new Irrigation Law no. 2878, which was signed into law in 2004, and the Regulations, which came into effect in 2006. This paper critically examines the impacts of the Irrigation Law on access to water in the heavily farmed region of the Cochabamba Valley. It asks whether the social inequalities amongst farming communities, often exacerbated by usos y costumbres, are being reinforced through the law’s implementation. An analysis of the political processes of institutional change and the power dynamics in the rural water sector reveals that the configuration of power asymmetries formalized in the Irrigation Law maintains unequal access to water resources.

Networks of indigenous irrigating farmers played an influential role in the Cochabamba Water War of 2000 that succeeded in ousting the major water company Bechtel from Bolivia and securing changes to the national legislation to recognize indigenous water rights. In their mobilization against privatization, the irrigators used a narrative grounded in the defense of their water rights and traditional uses and customs or usos y costumbres. Following the Water War, the irrigators effectively organized to have their traditional water rights recognized in the new Irrigation Law no. 2878, which was signed into law in 2004, and the Regulations, which came into effect in 2006. This paper critically examines the impacts of the Irrigation Law on access to water in the heavily farmed region of the Cochabamba Valley. It asks whether the social inequalities amongst farming communities, often exacerbated by usos y costumbres, are being reinforced through the law’s implementation. An analysis of the political processes of institutional change and the power dynamics in the rural water sector reveals that the configuration of power asymmetries formalized in the Irrigation Law maintains unequal access to water resources.

Yes / This paper engages with policy on meeting development goals for water through interventions which promote good governance. Addressing an under-researched area, we propose a new analytical framework for understanding water governance, not as a set of abstract principles, but as interlinked processes with variable practical outcomes for poor people. The framework is informed by theories of governance, institutions and structuration, empirical research and field insights. We apply the framework to a case in Southwestern Tanzania, and we identify a range of issues for further research, particularly relating to water access for the poor.

Yes / In this paper we present a framework for understanding water governance, through which we critique some of the assumptions underlying the current consensus on good governance. Specifically, we suggest that current approaches are based on incomplete or partial understandings of the concepts of governance. We question the idea that governance can be identified as an abstract set of principles, without the need for contextualisation and localisation. In particular, we suggest that there is a general lack of understanding of the way local interactions shape and influence governance processes. Finally, and with specific reference to the MDGs and the water sector, we question the implicit assumption that `good¿ governance is necessarily pro-poor governance. The paper addresses these issues through a critical discussion of governance, from which we develop a framework for conceptualising water governance. The framework draws on theories of governance, institutions and structuration, but is also informed by recent empirical research and experiences from the field. We apply the framework to a specific case in Southwestern Tanzania and raise a number of issues and challenges for further research.