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Browsing by Author "Bhat, Anjali"
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Item Institutional and policy analysis of river basin management: the Guadalquivir River Basin, Spain(World Bank, 2005-02-25) Blomquist, William; Giansante, Consuelo; Bhat, Anjali; Kemper, KarinThe authors describe and analyze river basin management in the Guadalquivir River Basin in Spain. The Guadalquivir river flows westerly across southern Spain, with nearly all of its 57,017 km2 drainage area within the region of Andalusia. Water management issues in this semi-arid, heavily agricultural, but rapidly urbanizing region include drought exposure, water allocation, water quality, and in some areas, groundwater overdraft. A river basin agency (Confederacion Hidrografica del Guadalquivir, or CH Guadalquivir) has existed within the basin since 1927, but its responsibilities have changed substantially over its history. For much of its life, CH Guadalquivir's mission was water supply augmentation through construction and operation of reservoirs, primarily to support irrigation, under central government direction with little provision for water user participation. Following the Spanish political system's transformation and Spain's accession to the European Union, water law and policy changes greatly expanded CH Guadalquivir's responsibilities and restructured it to incorporate representation of some basin stakeholders. Although the basin agency's accomplishments in reservoir construction have been prodigious, its record of performance with respect to its newer responsibilities has been mixed, as have perceptions of its openness and responsiveness to basin interests other than irrigators. This paper - a product of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department - is part of a larger effort in the department to approach water policy issues in an integrated way. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project "Integrated River Basin Management and the Principle of Managing Water Resources at the Lowest Appropriate Level: When and Why Does It (Not) Work in Practice?"Item Institutional And Policy Analysis Of River Basin Management: The Tarcoles River Basin, Costa Rica(World Bank Group, 2005) Blomquist, William; Ballestero, Maureen; Bhat, Anjali; Kemper, KarinThis paper describes and analyzes the effort to institute river basin management in the Tárcoles basin of Costa Rica. Located in west-central Costa Rica, the Tárcoles basin represents 4.2 percent of the nation's total land area, but is home to half the nation's population and the metropolitan area of San José, the nation's capital and largest city. Water management issues include severe water pollution resulting from sewage, industrial waste discharges, agricultural runoff, and deforestation. In the early 1990s a locally-initiated effort established a river basin commission for the Río Grande de Tárcoles (CRGT), which was supported by the central government's environment ministry. Since the late 1990s, however, the DRGT has struggled through changes of leadership, inconsistent support from the central government, and waning participation from basin stakeholders. Despite several programs to arrest deforestation and encourage better industrial and agricultural practices, the basin's water problems continue largely unabated. The Tárcoles case is instructive about both the possibilities and the fragility of efforts to establish integrated water resource management at the river basin level.Item Policy, politics, and water management in the Guadalquivir River Basin, Spain(AGU, 2004-07-16) Bhat, Anjali; Blomquist, WilliamAmong countries with river basin organizations to manage their water resources, Spain's experience is one of the longest. One of the first basin agencies established in Spain was for the Guadalquivir River in the south. A case study of that river basin and its management indicates how basin management is shaped by political economy factors such as the historical path of the agency's evolution, the basin agency's relationships with central government and with regional or local governments, the patterns of water user representation within the agency, and developments in water law and policy external to the basin agency. The case raises questions about whether and how integrated water resources management at the river basin scale is implemented, even in locations where basin agencies already exist. It also suggests that the politics of management at the river basin level will affect the implementation of national water policies intended to promote integrated management.