New Water Policy and Practice Volume 1, Number 1 - Fall 2014 | Page 4

New Water Policy and Practice - Volume 1, Number 1 - Fall 2014

particular river system), and others on emergent scientific disciplinary or education discussions (e.g., ecohydrology, new learning methodologies). All editions will feature foundational contributions from internationally recognised water leaders, together with submissions expressing new ideas from the world’s young water professionals and emerging
water leaders.

In this first edition of New Water Policy and Practice Journal, six members of our
International Advisory Board give their very personal thoughts on some of the world’s major water issues. With an African focus, Prof. Mike Muller from Wits University Graduate
School of Governance, South Africa, and former Director General of the South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, begins with his thoughts on a more useful agenda
for water management. Reflecting on examples of rights to water, privatisation and commoditisation of water in South Africa, the debate about dams and development in Africa,
and river basins, regional institutions and state sovereignty, Mike presents the case that the
current water management discourse has been distorted by strong interests with, on occasion, very significant negative impacts. Next, Dr. Zafar Adeel, Director of the United Nations
University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Canada, gives his thoughts on the
role of the private sector in solving the world’s water problems. Adeel opens by pointing out
some of the failures of current approaches, identifies emerging opportunities that did not
exist before now, describes the challenges of engaging and incentivising the private sector
and finishes with the need to create positive incentives and effective regulations to support
private sector contributions to resolution of the world’s water problems. In the following
paper, Dr. Carmen dos Santos, Scientific Coordinator Director of the Department of Biology
in the University of Agostinho Neto, Angola, discusses the challenges and the recent development of the institutional framework for water management in Angola in the context of the
Southern African Development Community, with particular focus on the recognition of the
strategic importance of water for the regional economic integration, and the management of
shared water resources. Prof. Shahbaz Khan, Deputy Director & Senior Program Specialist
UNESCO Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, Jakarta, Indonesia, then presents some ideas on how to move Integrated Water Resource Management from rhetoric to
action. Reflecting on IWRM, and some of the difficulties experienced in its implementation,
Shahbaz discusses some international initiatives which can strengthen IWRM in practice,
identifies obstacles to operationalising IWRM principles, and proposes some opportunities
to facilitate IWRM implementation at the river basin level. In the next paper, Dr. Clive Lipchin, Director of the Center for Transboundary Water Management, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, Israel, discusses the need for decentralized approaches to transboundary wastewater management under conditions of inadequate infrastructure and political
complexity, using the Israel-Palestine context in Gaza as a case example. Lastly, drawing
inspiration from her work in establishing Integration and Implementation Sciences (I2S),
a new discipline providing concepts and methods for conducting research on complex, real-world problems, Prof. Gabrielle Bammer from the National Centre for Epidemiology and
Population Health, Australian National University, discusses the importance of documenting and communicating methods used in interdisciplinary research and in research implementation. Prof. Bammer recognises that this is a key challenge of interdisciplinary research
and proposes ways that contributors to New Water Policy and Practice Journal can help set
the direction for interdisciplinary research and communication.
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