The Multi-Governance of Water : Four Case Studies

Examines the politics of transnational water resource management through case studies of the Aral Sea basin and the Danube, Euphrates, and Mekong river basins.

As the governance of transboundary rivers becomes a subject of growing importance due to the increasing pressure on freshwater resources, this timely collection examines water scarcity and efforts to better manage rivers and river basins. Most specialists agree that states face many institutional inadequacies when dealing with shared resources and that new governance mechanisms are needed to improve water management. Using case studies of the Aral Sea basin and the Danube, Euphrates, and Mekong river basins, the contributors develop a new approach to water governance: the concept of multi-governance, an effort to collectively solve public problems by involving a series of relevant actors from the local to the global level, such as institutions, states, civil society, and business.