Volume 23, Issue 2, 1998 July/August 1998

So What if the Grass Really is Greener in the Neighbor's Garden?

by Marisha Wojciechowska

Human beings have a fascinating tendency to compare themselves with their neighbours. So let us take a look at how some of these neighbours are managing their major river and lake ecosystems.

The first thing we notice is that each managing agency has a unique response to the problem of managing rivers and lakes -- a response that is a function of an equally unique concept of the problem. Each has a different approach to river management, which is a function of culture, values and training. The geomorphologist sees a river as a system fed by streams and other rivers that covers a defined area (the drainage basin), and within which sediment and pollutants are transported. The engineer sees a series of hydraulic problems calling for mathematical and physical solutions (dams, canals, etc.). However, these schematic representations of the ecosystem fail to take into account human beings as individual and collective users of the resources of a river. When it comes to our concept of the river, the social dimension is not immediately given equal consideration with economic and ecosystem-based concerns.

The second thing we notice is that environmental resource management is now being evaluated against the concept of sustainable development. Although the focus of much criticism, this concept has the advantage of bringing together social, economic and ecological imperatives in a single drive toward development. Henceforth, as a result of this concept, society must set new goals. From the perspective of sustainable development, we submit that management of river and lake ecosystems must focus increasingly on use and environment. In our view, this formula sums up the requirements for a balanced management of our ecosystems and their resources.

Let us look now at how ecosystems are managed worldwide. A comparative study was conducted to determine how major rivers are currently being managed on a worldwide basis. This study analysed the various management approaches adopted in 13 different cases (see Table 1).

The study revealed the existence of three main types of management agencies:

• those that are exclusively concerned with water resources (water resource management or development approach);
• those that deal with water as well as a series of other aspects such as agriculture, energy and transport (water resource and aquatic environment management approach); and
• those whose mandate includes other development activities on behalf of member states, in addition to that of water resource management (ecosystem-based and drainage-basin management approach).

It was found that, of the 13 rivers/countries inventoried, only five -- England, the Mekong River, France, Romania and the Great Lakes -- go beyond simple water management in their approach, practising a more "global" management. These five regard river management not only as an opportunity to be taken advantage of or a means of solving a problem involving water as a resource, but also as a way to balance the two sides of the management formula: uses and environment.

In the remaining cases, water is dealt with exclusively as a resource, with the objective being to profit from it by building power dams (the engineer's concept of a river), or to solve the problems, such as drought and flood cycles, that it creates. These approaches can be explained by the unstable socioeconomic realities which prevail in these areas of the world.

Finally, the approaches inherent in these management initiatives may be evaluated according to our management formula for rivers, which calls for an increasing focus on uses and environment (Figure 1). In this way, water resource management and development means a reduced emphasis on the overall use and environment of a river, while an ecosystem-based or drainage-basin management approach displays a greater focus on both of these aspects. With regard to the approach that involves the solution of environmental conflicts, we suspect (despite a lack of sufficient information) that it is more concerned with uses than with environment.

Before closing, let us take one last look at the grass in the neighbor's garden. On a global scale, the following trends are emerging in terms of the management of river and lake ecosystems:

• democratization of decision-making or, in other words, involvement of the public in discussions;
• decentralization of power, with decision-making left to the most local level possible;
• creation of structures that enable the players involved to work together; and
• promotion of solidarity and responsibility among users, for example through common funding and penalty incentives.

To return to our own reality, the population of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence watershed enjoys remarkable prosperity due to the presence of this immense body of water. Furthermore, at times of impending tragedies on a global scale, especially with regard to the availability of fresh water, we in Canada and the United States have a singular responsibility to consider seriously the problems involved in the management of our drainage basin.

Table 1

International overview of river management initiatives

Marisha Wojciechowska is an environmental consultant based in Montreal. For more information, contact the author at marisha@cam.org.