Competition for Water: International Case Studies of River Management
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-~ ,,-, Verh. Internat. Verein. Lirnnol. 1581-1587 StUttgart,October 2002 Competition for water: international casestudies of river management and conflict resolution P. J. Boon, G. M. Gislason, P. S. Lake, B. K. Ellis, C. Frank and A. J. Boulton Introduction natural flow regime and to river ecology (e.g. E al . h d d c. HENRIQUES 1987). In this sense, the issue of sc atmg uman eman s ror rIver water m most . ... parts of the world are intensifying, resulting in competition for water is p:mcipally related to reducedor severelyaltered flows, hydrological alter- the need to protect or remstate natural flow ations of groundwater and surfacewater drainage regimes. It also calls for diversions of rivers to patterns, alienation of floodplain habitats and vary- other channels and submersion of land under ing degreesof water pollution. In competition with reservoirs. humans for this water is the 'environment', whose . water requirements are difficult to measure (e.g. In Ap~li 19~9, the M!~ister for Industry, m RICHTERet al. 1997) and, in many cases,even harder cooperation With the Mmister for the Environ- to defendagainst the pressuresof economicrational- ment in Iceland, set up a Master Plan for Hydro ism and social desires (PAlMERet al. 2000). Thereare and Geothermal Energy Resourcesand estab- innume.rable~xamples. of this competitio.nfor wat~r lished a steering committee. In February 2000, ,,:,orldwlde,with ,:,arym~degrees, of .SOCI~recogm- four working groups were established to evalu- tlon of the aquatic environment s rIghts to water .al h d I . d h al and its necessityfor the long-term survival of adja- ate potenti y roe ectnc an geot er~ cent ecosystems. developments. Th~ members. of each worki?g The SIL Working Group on the Conservationand group were appomted by mterested parties Managementof Running Watersbelieves that much (power companies, municipalities, farmers and can be learnt from eachother's experiences by com- tourist services) as well as educational and paring casestudies from different parts of the world, research institutes. The role of each group seeki~gparallels in successfulconflict resol';1tionor (com risin 5-13 ex erts) is to assessall sites aquatic ecosystem management methods m areas p g . p . I' where competition for water is intense.This paper that have potential for generatmg hydroe ectnc reviewssuch examples,varying in success,from Ice- and geothermal energy and to rank them land, eastern Australia, Montana, and Germany. according to their importance within each cate- Eachcontributor wasasked to briefly describea river gory. The groups deal with (1) nature conserva- syste~, the key competitorsfor water,the impact~of tion, landscape, history, and archaeology; (2) excessivewater use, and th~ ~urrent srtateFiYbeIng recreation, tourism, land use (especially graz- adopted to resolve competition.h. Information was . g) d c h fi h . (3) .al d also sought on the degree to w ICh rIver. water was m '..an rres water is enes'. ' . SOCi. an being allocatedback to the environmentby the other econ~~ic issues; and .(4) the identification ~d competitors,and the way in which the successof this defimtion of specific energy generation allocationwas being monitored. projects. The chairs of each group, in addition to experts in management, form a steering Hydroelectric and geothermal competition group chaired by a senior research director of for water in Icelandic rivers the National Energy Authority (LANOVERNO In Iceland, one of the main human require- 2001). ments for river water is for hydropower genera- In some cases,additional information will be tion. Whilst this consumes minimal amounts of obtained (e.g. vegetation maps, groundwater water, there may be substantial changes to the maps and species lists and relative abundance). 0368-0770/02/0028-1581 $1.75 @2002 E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 0-70176 Srurrgarr 1582 Verb.Internat. Verein. Limnol. 28 (2002) For very important areas(e.g. Ramsar sites), Rehabilitation of a river by an environmen- 'red flags'are applied to ensurethat they will be tal flow programme: the Snowy River, Aus- excluded from hydroelectric or geothermal tralia development. Finally, the steering committee The Snowy River risesnear the summit of Mt. will categorisethe proposals,identifying those Kosciuszko in the Snowy Mountains, south- that appearto be feasibleboth in terms of eco- easternAustralia, and flows south for approxi- nomic implications and environmental conse- mately 380 km to enter the seanear Orbost in quencesversus those that, for economicreasons Victoria. The river was a national icon, with and/or environmental consequences,should dramatic scenery,excellent cold- and warm- not be carried out. The result of this work will water fishing and a diversebiota varying from be a proposedmaster plan for the utilisation of that of a high montaneriver to that of a coastal hydro- and geothermalenergy resources.It is lowland river. In 1949, construction beganon expectedthat ca. 100 project proposalswill be the SnowyMountains Scheme,aiming to 'tame' evaluated.The steeringgroup expectsto finalise the rivers to generatehydropower and to divert the evaluationof the first 25 project proposals water inland to meet the insistent demandsof by the end of 2002 (LANDVERND2001). large-scaleirrigation. The schemetook 25 years .. to build and consists of 16 dams storing 7000 The method of ranking sItes accordmg to GL 145 km of trans-mountaintunnels, 80 km four key c~tegoriesaims to establisha consensus of diversion aqueducts,and sevenpower sta- on thosesItes or areasthat should undergoEIA tions. The schemelies almost entirely in the and those that should be left undevelopedand KosciuszkoNational Park so that nearly all of possiblyprotected under the Nature Conserva- the rivers in the park have been dammed or tion Act. In the past,a singleproposal would be diverted. Water ftom the Snowy River is stored made for hydroelectricor geothermaldevelop- in Lake Jindabynebehind the JindabyneDam ment that then underwent EIA without any and is diverted to the inland-flowing Murray alternativesbeing considered.Predictably, this River. The averagenet flow (ANF) of the river often causedlengthy disputesbetween environ- downstreamfrom JindabyneDam was reduced mentalistsand official environmentagencies on by 99% with a 'riparian release'of constant the one hand and the National Power Com- flow of only 10 GL year-I. Flow at the river pany and the Ministry for Industry on the mouth fell by 47% and the largesnowmelt-fed other. It also intensified political pressureon spring floods were eliminated. Consequently, the government'splanning agency,which evalu- the condition of the river habitatsand biota has atesthe EIA reports. deteriorateddownstream (BANKS et al. 1996). Th I I d. d I. "1 d I In 1993, the Council of Australian Govern- e. ce an lC m~ e IS slml ar to one eve - ments allowed corporatisation of the Snowy oped m Norway m the 1970s (NoRWE~IAN Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority, includ- ~INISTRYFOR THE E~RONME~ ~984), revIsed ing the setting of environmentalflow regimes. m t.he1990s, ~d stIll ~nder revIsIon.T~e eval- The Snowy Genoa Catchment Management uatlon sys.t~~IS dyn~lc. ~or example,If ~ new Committee commissionedan expert panel in way of utlhsmg a specIficrIver were to be Iden- 1995 to recommend an environmental flow tified .by a.voiding.a large reservoirin wetlands regime for the Snowy River below Jindabyne and dlvertmg the rIver through tunnels to other Dam. The panel comprisedexperts in hydrol- lessimportant areas,the river site can be con- ogy,fluvial geomorphology,riparian vegetation, sideredagain and reclassified.In this way, it is fish biology, and stream ecology (BANKSet al. hoped that a consensuswill be reachedbetween 1996). The panel'sapproach differed ftom pre- landowners,environmentalists and power com- vious methods of environmental flow assess- panieson which sitesand areasshould be con- ment. Instead of concentratingon setting sus- sidered for the development of hydropower tainable minimum flows, the recommended production. regime was set to maintain the critical flow P.J. Boonet al.,Aquatic ecosystem management systems 1583 componentsthat allowed survival in summer, spectacularscenery in the world, with views of the movement of biota (predominantly fish), the high peaksof GNP, a pristine trout river, the recruitment of riparian vegetation and, herdsof elk and frequent visits by grizzly bears, most importantly, the reshapingand replenish- and thus the potential for large commercial ment of habitat. Thus, a minimum summer development (hotels, condominiums) was flow, variable seasonalflows and an annual looming on the horiwn. Such development flood flow event were all set, giving a total would constitute intensifying human competi- regimeof 28% ANF (BANKSet al. 1996). It was tion for water in this otherwiseuntegulated and made clear that if the recommended flow 'wild' river. regimewere implemented, rigorous monitoring D h d d b th U . Th 1 f h 1, l:'-esearc con ucte y e nIVersity 0 f was necessary, e re ease 0 t e expert pane s M Fl h d Lak B. 1 .cal S ' al ( al 6) d d ' d ontana at ea e 10 Ogi tation propos s BANKS et ,199 pro uce conSI - h d h th . bl ' h N S h s owe t at e InteractIon zone between the era '_I e controversy, promptIng t e ew out, d h 'fi . d G ' . .. rIver an t e aqui er was extensIve an Wales overnment to commIssIon an InquIry ". ' 1998 d' ANF f 15O! dynamIc, BIogeochemIcal processes In the In recommen Ing an 0 70 . (SNOWYWATER INQUIRY 1998). Further negoti- hyporheI~ w?e ~ay naturally load ground ation resulted in a long-term target of 28% waters wIt~ bioavallable solutes that appear to ANF fi th S Ri exert proxImal controls on productIon and or e nowy ver, d. f . d . , .. Iversity 0 rIver COmmUnItIes an rIparIan veg- The responses of the rIver and ItS bIota to the etation (STANFORD& WARD 1988, STANFORDet new flow re.gi~e are now under scrutiny. In al. 1994). Over 80 invertebratetaxa (approxi- 1,999.' monItorIng, of chan?el ~orphology, mately one-third new to science)were discov- rIparIan and aq~at~c,:egetatIon, Inverte~rates ered in the shallowalluvial aquifer of this flood and fish beganwIthIn eI~t geomorph?logically plain.