The future of water governance in Canterbury

1. The future of water governance in Canterbury Professor Ali Memon Lincoln University

2. Key message I wish to convey • Canterbury faces a water crisis (???) • This crisis is our own creation: how we have interacted with our environment • Big challenge: how to convert this crisis into an opportunity for transformative change. • Focus: how we (humans) should interact with each other and with our environment

3. My talk: • Define the scope of the problem • Reflections on water governance in Canterbury

4. 3 key imperatives for good water governance Design institutions for water governance that: • Protect sustenance functions of water • Manage economic functions of water • And are democratic

5. a. The basic sustenance imperative • There is no substitute for water for survival of all forms of life: human, animal & vegetative. • Arguably, access to clean water for drinking (human and animals) and for recreation are fundamental human as well as environmental rights.

6. Questions • Are these rights adequately protected in our current formal and informal institutions in Canterbury? • Who should pay for protecting water for exercising human/environmental rights? Is the current distribution of cost burden fair between community and the economic sphere?

7. b. Material wealth production and capital accumulation imperative • In the economic sphere, water essential factor of production. Difficult/costly to substitute. Scarcity value. • But hitherto, treated as a “free gift of nature”. • Agriculture in Canterbury a “growth machine” • Economistic values deeply imbedded in our formal and informal institutions.

8. Question • Capital accumulation fundamental economic driver and cause of current water crisis in all parts of the world. The environmental problematique. • In Canterbury, to what extent are we addressing the fundamental causes of water conflicts or merely seeking to remedy adverse impacts of capital accumulation?

9. c. Democratic decision making • Electoral and participatory • Electoral democracy multi-scalar: hierarchical, command and control governance • Now criticised • Risk: throw baby out with the bathwater???

10. Participatory democracy flavour of the month • Shift from government to governance • Collaborative goverance; co-management

11. Question • How democratically robust are our current water institutions in Canterbury? • How well do we marry top-down governance and participatory democracy?

12. Water governance in Canterbury Two key elements of the current governance framework. Not totally congruent with each other • Canterbury Water Management Strategy • Replacement of elected members by central government appointed commissioners with strong mandate (Canterbury Act)

13. Reflections: • Divergent expectations re: zone committee roles • Accountability of zone committees • Sustainability of intensive agriculture in a dry region • Re-configuration of the local government map

14. a. Divergent understandings • Act top-down focus. Replaced electoral democracy with Cabinet appointed members. • Statutory planning instruments: strong powers • Akin to command and control governance • CWMS: Key role assigned to zone committees. Akin to participatory governance model ; bottom-up focus.

15. The HW Zone Committee • Recent Hurunui experience: collision • Loss of trust

16. Possible causes • Possible reasons: deliberate ambivalence in the CWMS? • Thus, divergent understandings/expectations

17. b. Accountability of zone committee members • Ambivalence in the CWMS • Hurunui experience with appointment: trust issue

18. c. Sustainability of intensive agriculture in a dry region • Historically, civilisations based on irrigation in arid regions not resilient to change • Reluctance to debate this issue in Canterbury

19. d. Reconfiguration of future local government map in Canterbury • After the commissioners??? • Unitary authority/supercity/two tier authority scenarios. Permutations of these. • Need robust public debate but reluctance • Seize the opportunity now before Nick Smith comes back ! • Who is going to take the lead???