Leila Harris works on social, cultural and equity dimensions of environment and development issues. Work has focused specifically on feminist political ecology, water access, politics and governance and environmental justice and has focused on Turkey, South Africa, Ghana and the Canadian context.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
Peloso, M, C. Morinville, L. Harris (2018) Water Scarcity Beyond Crisis: Spotlight on Accra. Inte... more Peloso, M, C. Morinville, L. Harris (2018) Water Scarcity Beyond Crisis: Spotlight on Accra. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.
Join Wall Scholar Leila Harris to learn about the socio-political consequences of uneven water ac... more Join Wall Scholar Leila Harris to learn about the socio-political consequences of uneven water access and quality,
9 p.Trends in water governance emphasize devolution to local users and market-oriented policies. ... more 9 p.Trends in water governance emphasize devolution to local users and market-oriented policies. These trends influence how donors, policymakers, and international lending institutions approach water management. This LTC Brief reviews current knowledge of the consequences for gender equity, summarizes how the trends have played out in various locales, and identifies gaps in our understanding
Intersectionality is used in academic and policy circles to show how mutually constitutive axes o... more Intersectionality is used in academic and policy circles to show how mutually constitutive axes of power and social difference intersect to shape lived experiences of inequality. The concept has made inroads in investigations of participatory development to examine people’s engagement, participatory experiences, and outcomes. However, in doing so, there is sometimes a propensity to treat categories of difference as fixed or given. This myopic focus encourages generalizations around how people and groups experience power and difference, and obscures a complex understanding of how these are lived, enacted, and conditioned by diverse subject positions and embodied experiences and practices in participatory development- thus shaping intersectional experiences and project outcome. This ethnographic case study shows how a tribal woman from an ethnic minority- named Purati- experiences, performs, and contests multiple aspects of difference and power in a participatory livelihood project in upland Tripura. Using feminist insights on intersectionality, interpellation, and performativity, and feminist political ecology and resource governance, we show how multiple and shifting categories of differences are constituted in two encounters between Purati and those implementing the project. We highlight how aspects of difference and their intersections, constituted, and enacted in time and place, shape experiences of intersectionality in participatory development, and how navigating and variously responding to these can reassert and rearticulate intersectional categories and relations. This nuanced analysis of intersectionality also provides an in-depth understanding of how the workings of difference and power shape participatory engagement, goals, and outcomes, and is key for debates and implementation regarding participatory development.
Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2021
Work on narrative, story, and storytelling has been on the rise across the humanities and social ... more Work on narrative, story, and storytelling has been on the rise across the humanities and social sciences. Building on significant work on these themes from Indigenous, Black, and Feminist scholarship, and other varied traditions, this piece explores and elaborates the potential regarding the elicitation, sharing, and analysis of stories for nature-society studies. Specifically, the piece examines core contributions along these lines to date, as well as the methodological, analytical, political, and transformative potential of story and storytelling to enrich, broaden, and deepen work in nature-society, political ecology, and environmental justice. All told, focus on story and storytelling, offers a number of relevant and rich openings to understand and engage complex, unequal, and dynamic socio-natures. While these elements have been present in nature-society work from some traditions and lines of inquiry, the time is ripe to broaden and deepen these engagements to more fully imagi...
Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2021
Sameer H. Shah & Leila M. Harris (2021) Beyond Local Case Studies in Political Ecology: Spatializ... more Sameer H. Shah & Leila M. Harris (2021) Beyond Local Case Studies in Political Ecology: Spatializing Agricultural Water Infrastructure in Maharashtra Using a Critical, Multimethods, and Multiscalar Approach, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2021.1941746
Compounding systems of marginalization differentiate and shape water-related risks. Yet, quantita... more Compounding systems of marginalization differentiate and shape water-related risks. Yet, quantitative water security scholarship rarely assesses such risks through intersectionality, a paradigm that conceptualizes and examines racial, gendered, class, and other oppressions as interdependent. Using an intersectionality approach, we analyze the relationships between household head gender and self-reported socio-economic status, and water affordability (proportion of monthly income spent on water) and water insecurity (a composite measure of 11 self-reported experiences) for over 4000 households across 18 low- and middle-income countries in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. Interaction terms and composite categorical variables were included in regression models, adjusting for putative confounders. Among households with a high socio-economic status, the proportion of monthly income spent on water differed by household head gender. In contrast, greater household water insecurity was associated with lower socio-economic status and did not meaningfully vary by the gender of the household head. We contextualize and interpret these experiences through larger systems of power and privilege. Overall, our results provide evidence of broad intersectional patterns from diverse sites, while indicating that their nature and magnitude depend on local contexts. Through a critical reflection on the study’s value and limitations, including the operationalization of social contexts across different sites, we propose methodological approaches to advance multi-sited and quantitative intersectional research on water affordability and water insecurity. These approaches include developing scale-appropriate models, analyzing complementarities and differences between site-specific and multi-sited data, collecting data on gendered power relations, and measuring the impacts of household water insecurity.
Shah, et al. 2021. Water Alternatives, 2021, Vol 14, Issue 2, p573
Soil moisture conservation ('green water') and runoff capture ('blue water') can reduce agricultural risks to rainfall variation. However, little is known about how such conjoined initiatives articulate with social inequity when up-scaled into formal government programmes. In 2014, the Government of Maharashtra institutionalised an integrative green-blue water conservation campaign to make 5000 new villages drought-free each year (2015-2019). This paper analyses the extent to which the campaign, Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, enhanced the capture, equity, and sustainability of water for agricultural risk reduction. We find government interests to demonstrate villages as 'drought-free' affected the character and implementation of this integrative campaign. First, drainage-line and waterbody initiatives were disproportionately implemented over land-based adaptations to redress water scarcity. Second, initiatives were concentrated on public land – and less so on agricultural plots – to achieve drought-free targets. Third, the campaign conflated raising overall village water availability with improvements in water access. These dynamics: 1) limited the potential impact of water conservation; 2) excluded residents, including members of historically disadvantaged groups, who did not possess the key endowments and entitlements needed to acquire the benefits associated with drought-relief initiatives; and 3) fuelled additional groundwater extraction, undermining water conservation efforts. Villages will not be drought-free unless water conservation benefits are widespread, accessible, and long-term.
KEYWORDS: Agriculture, drought, water conservation, inequity, Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, India
Guest editorial Water sharing and the right to water: Refusal, rebellion and everyday resistance ... more Guest editorial Water sharing and the right to water: Refusal, rebellion and everyday resistance Recent newspaper headlines have featured US-based humanitarian groups facing criminal charges. The alleged crime? Placing water canisters on desert routes used by undocumented migrants along the US-Mexico border. Migrant advocates note that this criminalization contradicts the basic moral principle that all people deserve access to water, regardless of legal status or ability to pay, in line with the human right to water doctrine (endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010). Nonetheless, such charges have led to detention, felony and smuggling charges for US citizens, and deportation threats for noncitizens. What is interesting about the stories of water sharing at the border is not just that people provide water to those in need, but that these acts of water sharing are deemed by the state to be subversive, criminal, or even
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
Peloso, M, C. Morinville, L. Harris (2018) Water Scarcity Beyond Crisis: Spotlight on Accra. Inte... more Peloso, M, C. Morinville, L. Harris (2018) Water Scarcity Beyond Crisis: Spotlight on Accra. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.
Join Wall Scholar Leila Harris to learn about the socio-political consequences of uneven water ac... more Join Wall Scholar Leila Harris to learn about the socio-political consequences of uneven water access and quality,
9 p.Trends in water governance emphasize devolution to local users and market-oriented policies. ... more 9 p.Trends in water governance emphasize devolution to local users and market-oriented policies. These trends influence how donors, policymakers, and international lending institutions approach water management. This LTC Brief reviews current knowledge of the consequences for gender equity, summarizes how the trends have played out in various locales, and identifies gaps in our understanding
Intersectionality is used in academic and policy circles to show how mutually constitutive axes o... more Intersectionality is used in academic and policy circles to show how mutually constitutive axes of power and social difference intersect to shape lived experiences of inequality. The concept has made inroads in investigations of participatory development to examine people’s engagement, participatory experiences, and outcomes. However, in doing so, there is sometimes a propensity to treat categories of difference as fixed or given. This myopic focus encourages generalizations around how people and groups experience power and difference, and obscures a complex understanding of how these are lived, enacted, and conditioned by diverse subject positions and embodied experiences and practices in participatory development- thus shaping intersectional experiences and project outcome. This ethnographic case study shows how a tribal woman from an ethnic minority- named Purati- experiences, performs, and contests multiple aspects of difference and power in a participatory livelihood project in upland Tripura. Using feminist insights on intersectionality, interpellation, and performativity, and feminist political ecology and resource governance, we show how multiple and shifting categories of differences are constituted in two encounters between Purati and those implementing the project. We highlight how aspects of difference and their intersections, constituted, and enacted in time and place, shape experiences of intersectionality in participatory development, and how navigating and variously responding to these can reassert and rearticulate intersectional categories and relations. This nuanced analysis of intersectionality also provides an in-depth understanding of how the workings of difference and power shape participatory engagement, goals, and outcomes, and is key for debates and implementation regarding participatory development.
Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2021
Work on narrative, story, and storytelling has been on the rise across the humanities and social ... more Work on narrative, story, and storytelling has been on the rise across the humanities and social sciences. Building on significant work on these themes from Indigenous, Black, and Feminist scholarship, and other varied traditions, this piece explores and elaborates the potential regarding the elicitation, sharing, and analysis of stories for nature-society studies. Specifically, the piece examines core contributions along these lines to date, as well as the methodological, analytical, political, and transformative potential of story and storytelling to enrich, broaden, and deepen work in nature-society, political ecology, and environmental justice. All told, focus on story and storytelling, offers a number of relevant and rich openings to understand and engage complex, unequal, and dynamic socio-natures. While these elements have been present in nature-society work from some traditions and lines of inquiry, the time is ripe to broaden and deepen these engagements to more fully imagi...
Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2021
Sameer H. Shah & Leila M. Harris (2021) Beyond Local Case Studies in Political Ecology: Spatializ... more Sameer H. Shah & Leila M. Harris (2021) Beyond Local Case Studies in Political Ecology: Spatializing Agricultural Water Infrastructure in Maharashtra Using a Critical, Multimethods, and Multiscalar Approach, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2021.1941746
Compounding systems of marginalization differentiate and shape water-related risks. Yet, quantita... more Compounding systems of marginalization differentiate and shape water-related risks. Yet, quantitative water security scholarship rarely assesses such risks through intersectionality, a paradigm that conceptualizes and examines racial, gendered, class, and other oppressions as interdependent. Using an intersectionality approach, we analyze the relationships between household head gender and self-reported socio-economic status, and water affordability (proportion of monthly income spent on water) and water insecurity (a composite measure of 11 self-reported experiences) for over 4000 households across 18 low- and middle-income countries in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. Interaction terms and composite categorical variables were included in regression models, adjusting for putative confounders. Among households with a high socio-economic status, the proportion of monthly income spent on water differed by household head gender. In contrast, greater household water insecurity was associated with lower socio-economic status and did not meaningfully vary by the gender of the household head. We contextualize and interpret these experiences through larger systems of power and privilege. Overall, our results provide evidence of broad intersectional patterns from diverse sites, while indicating that their nature and magnitude depend on local contexts. Through a critical reflection on the study’s value and limitations, including the operationalization of social contexts across different sites, we propose methodological approaches to advance multi-sited and quantitative intersectional research on water affordability and water insecurity. These approaches include developing scale-appropriate models, analyzing complementarities and differences between site-specific and multi-sited data, collecting data on gendered power relations, and measuring the impacts of household water insecurity.
Shah, et al. 2021. Water Alternatives, 2021, Vol 14, Issue 2, p573
Soil moisture conservation ('green water') and runoff capture ('blue water') can reduce agricultural risks to rainfall variation. However, little is known about how such conjoined initiatives articulate with social inequity when up-scaled into formal government programmes. In 2014, the Government of Maharashtra institutionalised an integrative green-blue water conservation campaign to make 5000 new villages drought-free each year (2015-2019). This paper analyses the extent to which the campaign, Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, enhanced the capture, equity, and sustainability of water for agricultural risk reduction. We find government interests to demonstrate villages as 'drought-free' affected the character and implementation of this integrative campaign. First, drainage-line and waterbody initiatives were disproportionately implemented over land-based adaptations to redress water scarcity. Second, initiatives were concentrated on public land – and less so on agricultural plots – to achieve drought-free targets. Third, the campaign conflated raising overall village water availability with improvements in water access. These dynamics: 1) limited the potential impact of water conservation; 2) excluded residents, including members of historically disadvantaged groups, who did not possess the key endowments and entitlements needed to acquire the benefits associated with drought-relief initiatives; and 3) fuelled additional groundwater extraction, undermining water conservation efforts. Villages will not be drought-free unless water conservation benefits are widespread, accessible, and long-term.
KEYWORDS: Agriculture, drought, water conservation, inequity, Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, India
Guest editorial Water sharing and the right to water: Refusal, rebellion and everyday resistance ... more Guest editorial Water sharing and the right to water: Refusal, rebellion and everyday resistance Recent newspaper headlines have featured US-based humanitarian groups facing criminal charges. The alleged crime? Placing water canisters on desert routes used by undocumented migrants along the US-Mexico border. Migrant advocates note that this criminalization contradicts the basic moral principle that all people deserve access to water, regardless of legal status or ability to pay, in line with the human right to water doctrine (endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010). Nonetheless, such charges have led to detention, felony and smuggling charges for US citizens, and deportation threats for noncitizens. What is interesting about the stories of water sharing at the border is not just that people provide water to those in need, but that these acts of water sharing are deemed by the state to be subversive, criminal, or even
South Africa has a complex water governance landscape, both with considerable successes, and ongo... more South Africa has a complex water governance landscape, both with considerable successes, and ongoing challenges, in achieving sustainable, adequate and equitable water access and governance. With a specific focus on Cape Town, this policy brief provides background on the history and institutions of importance for water governance, and also identifies key legislation enacted since 1994. The report includes a diagram of different levels of water authorities and mandates, offering an 'institutional map' of the urban water sector of Cape Town (dated 2015). Water supply and distribution schemes in South Africa were historically created to serve predominantly white populations during colonial and apartheid eras. Capital investments in pipes, dams and other water-related infrastructure were differentially affected during apartheid in different areas, with homelands, townships and informal settlements receiving much less funding and generally lower quality of water services (Goldin 2010). This resulted in highly differentiated access to water services in South Africa, by race and income, as well as a highly fragmented water management system (Herrfahrdt-Pähle 2010) as well as undemocratic participatory engagement—challenges that all persist today. One historical legacy exacerbating this institutional fragmentation was the shift from 6 municipalities into one Unicity of Cape Town in 2000, which created further challenges for equitable and unified service delivery (Smith & Hanson 2003). With the adoption of the first democratic constitution of South Africa (1996), vast political reforms were undertaken, affecting all dimensions of governance across the country. The new democratic government and constitution established national institutional mandates for the provision and governance of water resources, as well as water services (Republic of South Africa (RSA) 1996). In terms of water services, the South African constitution (1996) includes the guarantee for water (and sanitation), stating that " everyone has the right to access sufficient food and water " (Section
South Africa has a complex water governance landscape, both with considerable successes, and ongo... more South Africa has a complex water governance landscape, both with considerable successes, and ongoing challenges, in achieving sustainable, adequate and equitable water access and governance. With a specific focus on Cape Town, this policy brief provides background on the history and institutions of importance for water governance, and also identifies key legislation enacted since 1994. The report includes a diagram of different levels of water authorities and mandates, offering an 'institutional map' of the urban water sector of Cape Town (dated 2015).
An overview of key policies and institutions relevant for Ghana's water sector. Comments and upda... more An overview of key policies and institutions relevant for Ghana's water sector. Comments and updates welcome.
Policy Brief summarizing several publications on participatory urban water governance in Accra, G... more Policy Brief summarizing several publications on participatory urban water governance in Accra, Ghana
The International WaTERS Network (www.international-waters.org), with support of the Peter Wall I... more The International WaTERS Network (www.international-waters.org), with support of the Peter Wall Institute of Advanced Studies (http://pwias.ubc.ca/), the NEPAD Centers for Excellence (http://www.nepad.org/programme/nepad-water-centres-excellence), the Water Research Commission of South Africa, and other partners (see end of report for full list) were proud to host an international workshop on equity and water-related resilience in southern Africa. We successfully collaborated and shared insights from researchers and practitioners focusing on, and based in, southern Africa. Additionally, this workshop focused on goal setting, research dissemination and grant writing for the future of the International WaTERS Network research program.
Thematically, the workshop critically interrogated notions of resilience, highlighted definitions and framings from different disciplinary traditions, and integrated insights from scholars and practitioners with focus on southern Africa. Considerable attention during the first two days was given to case study work in the region.. The third day was made up of small group and plenary discussions of collaborative publications and grant applications to extend this work, looking ahead to future needs and collaborative possibilities.
Please see our website for the detailed workshop agenda, as well as a full participant list and contact information: http://www.waterequity.pwias.ubc.ca/
First Nations in British Columbia (BC), Canada, have historically been—and largely continue to be... more First Nations in British Columbia (BC), Canada, have historically been—and largely continue to be—excluded from colonial governments’ decision-making and management frameworks for fresh water. However, in light of recent legal and legislative changes, and also changes in water governance and policy, there is growing emphasis in scholarship and among legal, policy and advocacy communities on shifting water governance away from a centralized single authority towards an approach that is watershed-based, collaborative, and involves First Nations as central to decision-making processes. Drawing on community-based research, interviews with First Nations natural resource staff and community members, and document review, the paper analyzes the tensions in collaborative water governance, by identifying First Nations’ concerns within the current water governance system and exploring how a move towards collaborative watershed governance may serve to either address, or further entrench, these concerns. This paper concludes with recommendations for collaborative water governance frameworks which are specifically focused on British Columbia, but which have relevance to broader debates over Indigenous water governance.
Canadian Water Resources Journal / Revue canadienne des ressources hydriques, 2015
This paper analyzes the barriers and opportunities that decentralized water governance regimes po... more This paper analyzes the barriers and opportunities that decentralized water governance regimes pose to effective microbial risk assessment and management for drinking and recreational water quality. The paper presents a case study of Canada (a country whose approach to water governance is among the most decentralized in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD]) evaluating microbial governance approaches in British Columbia and Ontario. The analysis is timely for two reasons: (1) relatively little research has been conducted on microbial risk assessment and management from a governance perspective; the literature focuses largely on technical and methodological approaches (such as Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment [QMRA] or Water Safety Plans); (2) 15 years post Walkerton,– little research has examined the implementation of source water protection as a strategy to reduce microbial risk in recreational and drinking water in the context of decentralized water governance. A range of issues are considered, including how decentralized governance might enable or constrain microbial risk assessment and management practices, and how the relationships between decentralized and multi-level governance actors might further deepen the complexity of watershed management, particularly source water protection. The analysis indicates that decentralized water governance in Ontario and BC may contribute to difficulties in effectuating source water protection and other features of a multi-barrier approach. The most significant challenges, as identified by practitioners, relate to the fragmentation of land and water jurisdiction, regulation, institutions and mandates, particularly a lack of coordination (both regulatory and institutional) and limited clarity on roles and responsibilities. Building on this analysis, the paper suggests more effort is required to support proactive institutional arrangements, including: inter- and intra-agency communication across levels of government; master planning and other initiatives to move towards integrated policy development; flexible, responsive policy environments; a governance culture that fosters leadership and collaboration; and holistic problem framing and mobilization of interdisciplinary knowledge.
This policy brief was developed as part of the Applied Metagenomics of the Watershed Microbiome p... more This policy brief was developed as part of the Applied Metagenomics of the Watershed Microbiome project (www.watersheddiscovery.ca). Here, we outline some of the major findings related to the project from a GE3LS perspective (Genomics and its Ethical, Environmental, Economic, Legal and Social Aspects), highlighting several key insights and references that may be of interest to policymakers and stakeholder communities.
Pesticide-related health impacts in Ecuador's banana industry illustrate the need to understand s... more Pesticide-related health impacts in Ecuador's banana industry illustrate the need to understand science's social production in the context of major North-South inequities. This paper explores colonialism's ongoing context-specific relationships to science, and what these imply for population health inquiry and praxis. Themes in postcolonial science and technology studies and critical Latin American scholarship guide this exploration, oriented around an ethnographic case study of bananas, pesticides and health in Ecuador. The challenge of explaining these impacts prompts us to explore discursive and contextual dynamics of pesticide toxicology and phytopathology, two disciplines integral to understanding pesticide-health linkages. The evolution of banana phytopathology reflects patterns of banana production and plant science in settings made accessible to scientists by European colonialism and American military interventions. Similarly, American foreign policy in Cold War-era Latin America created conditions for widespread pesticide exposures and accompanying health science research. Neocolonial representations of the global South interacted with these material realities in fostering generation of scientific knowledge. Implications for health praxis include troubling celebratory portrayals of global interconnectedness in the field of global health, motivating critical political economy and radical community based approaches in their place. Another implication is a challenge to conciliatory corporate engagement approaches in health research, given banana production's symbiosis of scientifically 'productive' military and corporate initiatives. Similarly, the origins and evolution of toxicology should promote humility and precautionary approaches in addressing environmental injustices such as pesticide toxicity, given the role of corporate actors in promoting systematic underestimation of risk to vulnerable populations. Perhaps most unsettlingly, the very structures and processes that drive health inequities in Ecuador's banana industry simultaneously shape production of knowledge about those inequities. Public health scholars should thus move beyond simply carrying out more, or better, studies, and pursue the structural changes needed to redress historical and ongoing injustices. 1. Main text In this paper, we explore the social production of science related to pesticide exposures in banana production on the Ecuadorian coast (la costa), and develop related implications for population health research and praxis. This exploration is motivated by our experiences carrying out research with banana farmers and workers over the past decade, in the face of colonialism's legacies, corporate power and the challenge of mobilizing multiple knowledge systems for environmental health equity. To trace such dynamics, we focus on the contextually-specific Latin American expressions of two sciences, pesticide toxicology and banana phytopathology (phytopathology is the study of plant disease). These two sciences emerged as crucial (albeit problematic) resources in a broader remit of scientific approaches deployed to understand pesticide toxicity in Ecuadorian banana production.
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Papers by Leila Harris
open access here: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89199
Shah, et al. 2021. Water Alternatives, 2021, Vol 14, Issue 2, p573
Soil moisture conservation ('green water') and runoff capture ('blue water') can reduce agricultural risks to rainfall variation. However, little is known about how such conjoined initiatives articulate with social inequity when up-scaled into formal government programmes. In 2014, the Government of Maharashtra institutionalised an integrative green-blue water conservation campaign to make 5000 new villages drought-free each year (2015-2019). This paper analyses the extent to which the campaign, Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, enhanced the capture, equity, and sustainability of water for agricultural risk reduction. We find government interests to demonstrate villages as 'drought-free' affected the character and implementation of this integrative campaign. First, drainage-line and waterbody initiatives were disproportionately implemented over land-based adaptations to redress water scarcity. Second, initiatives were concentrated on public land – and less so on agricultural plots – to achieve drought-free targets. Third, the campaign conflated raising overall village water availability with improvements in water access. These dynamics: 1) limited the potential impact of water conservation; 2) excluded residents, including members of historically disadvantaged groups, who did not possess the key endowments and entitlements needed to acquire the benefits associated with drought-relief initiatives; and 3) fuelled additional groundwater extraction, undermining water conservation efforts. Villages will not be drought-free unless water conservation benefits are widespread, accessible, and long-term.
KEYWORDS: Agriculture, drought, water conservation, inequity, Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, India
open access here: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89199
Shah, et al. 2021. Water Alternatives, 2021, Vol 14, Issue 2, p573
Soil moisture conservation ('green water') and runoff capture ('blue water') can reduce agricultural risks to rainfall variation. However, little is known about how such conjoined initiatives articulate with social inequity when up-scaled into formal government programmes. In 2014, the Government of Maharashtra institutionalised an integrative green-blue water conservation campaign to make 5000 new villages drought-free each year (2015-2019). This paper analyses the extent to which the campaign, Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, enhanced the capture, equity, and sustainability of water for agricultural risk reduction. We find government interests to demonstrate villages as 'drought-free' affected the character and implementation of this integrative campaign. First, drainage-line and waterbody initiatives were disproportionately implemented over land-based adaptations to redress water scarcity. Second, initiatives were concentrated on public land – and less so on agricultural plots – to achieve drought-free targets. Third, the campaign conflated raising overall village water availability with improvements in water access. These dynamics: 1) limited the potential impact of water conservation; 2) excluded residents, including members of historically disadvantaged groups, who did not possess the key endowments and entitlements needed to acquire the benefits associated with drought-relief initiatives; and 3) fuelled additional groundwater extraction, undermining water conservation efforts. Villages will not be drought-free unless water conservation benefits are widespread, accessible, and long-term.
KEYWORDS: Agriculture, drought, water conservation, inequity, Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, India
Thematically, the workshop critically interrogated notions of resilience, highlighted definitions and framings from different disciplinary traditions, and integrated insights from scholars and practitioners with focus on southern Africa. Considerable attention during the first two days was given to case study work in the region.. The third day was made up of small group and plenary discussions of collaborative publications and grant applications to extend this work, looking ahead to future needs and collaborative possibilities.
Please see our website for the detailed workshop agenda, as well as a full participant list and contact information: http://www.waterequity.pwias.ubc.ca/