Detail

Implementing River Basin Management in developing countries

March 2, 2018, 1.30 pm - 2.30 pm

Eawag Dübendorf

Speaker: Dr. Ines Dombrowsky, German Development Institute (DIE) Germany
Place: Forum Chriesbach, FC-D24
Language: English

Abstract

The concept of River Basin Management (RBM) calls for managing water resources at the level of river basins in order to allow for an adequate protection of ecosystems as well as economically optimized and socially equitable outcomes. In the last two decades, many countries have started to institutionalize RBM and to introduce River Basin Organizations (RBOs). However, while RBM may solve ‘problems of fit’ between hydrological and political boundaries, it may create new problems of ‘institutional interplay’ between RBOs and existing jurisdictions. Furthermore, in particular in developing countries many RBOs face a serious lack of funding.

In a first part, the presentation analyses the institutionalization and implementation of RBM using the case of Mongolia, where River Basin Authorities have been introduced since 2012, focusing in particular on problems of vertical and horizontal interplay and financing implications. In a second part, it presents and reflects efforts to support the preparation of a science-based River Basin Management Plan as part of the inter- and transdiscplinary research project “Integrated Water Resources Management in Central Asia – Model Region Mongolia” (MoMo) in Mongolia. In a third part, it introduces the transdisciplinary approach and initial experiences of a new project called STEER, which seeks to explore and compare coordination problems in water governance across several countries including Mongolia