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Is self-regulation a myth? Case study on Spanish groundwater user associations and the role of higher-level authorities

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Abstract

Self-regulation of groundwater users offers tremendous potential for effective groundwater management. The attributes of higher-level authorities that are more likely to facilitate the beneficial management of groundwater in economic, social and environmental terms are discussed. For this purpose, eight groundwater user associations in Spain have been compared. Factors that support institutional change were analyzed, namely: salience, common understanding, trust and reciprocity, autonomy, prior organizational experience and local leadership. These factors are complemented by features that strengthen actions by higher-level authorities that oversee self-regulation by water users (clear boundaries, legitimate recognition of appropriators, facilitating roles, trust in cross-scale linkages, clear division of responsibilities, institutional culture and co-management model choices). Self-regulation includes the creation of reflexive organizations that are capable of learning, provided first, the administration itself is modernized to meet the challenges of self-regulation, and second, that ‘regulatory capture’ is avoided by external organizations, ensuring that the regulator and the regulated are not so close in their relationship as to be detrimental to effectiveness.

Résumé

L'auto-régulation des utilisateurs d'eau souterraine offre un potentiel formidable pour la gestion efficace de l'eau souterraine. Les attributs des plus hautes autorités qui sont à même de faciliter la gestion bénéfique de l'eau souterraine en terme économique, social et environnemental, est présenté. Pour cela, huit associations d'utilisateurs d'eau souterraine en Espagne ont été comparées. Les facteurs des changements institutionnels ont été analysés: revenus, compréhension commune, confiance et réciprocité, autonomie, expériences organisationnelles majeures, gouvernance locale. Ces facteurs sont complétés par les aspects qui contraignent les actions par les plus hautes autorités couvrant l'auto-régulation par les usagers (frontières nettes, reconnaissance législative des propriétaires, moyens de facilités les rôles, confiance dans les liens croisant diverses échelles organisationnelles, division claire des responsabilités, culture institutionnelle et choix des modèles de cogestion). L'auto-régulation inclut la création d'organisations réfléchies capables d'apprendre, à condition que, premièrement, l'administration elle-même soit modernisée pour rencontrer les défis de l'auto-régulation, et que deuxièmement, la ‘régulation capture’ soit évitée par les organisations externes, là où le régulateur et le régulé sont suffisamment indépendant dans leurs relations de manière à assurer que l'arrangement du travail reste efficace.

Resumen

La autorregulación de usuarios de agua subterránea ofrece un potencial tremendo para la gestión efectiva de agua subterránea. Se discuten los atributos de las autoridades de alto nivel que son más probables de facilitar la gestión benéfica del agua subterránea en términos económicos, sociales y ambientales. Con este objetivo, se han comparado ocho asociaciones de usuarios de agua subterránea en España. Se analizaron factores que apoyan el cambio institucional tal como: prominencia, entendimiento común, confianza y reciprocidad, autonomía, previa experiencia organizacional y liderazgo local. Estos factores se complementan con elementos que fortalecen acciones de autoridades de alto nivel que supervisan autorregulación por usuarios de agua (aclarar límites, legitimar el reconocimiento de apropiadores, medios para facilitar roles, confianza en vínculos de jerarquía cruzada, aclarar división de responsabilidades, cultura institucional y selección de modelos de gestión compartida). La autorregulación incluye primero la creación de organizaciones reflexivas que son capaces de aprender media vez se ha modernizado la administración misma para alcanzar los desafíos de autorregulación, y segundo, que se evite la ‘captura regulatoria’ por organizaciones externas mediante la cual el regulador y el regulado son suficientemente independientes en su relación para asegurar que los convenios alcanzados permanezcan efectivos.

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Notes

  1. For reasons of international convention, this paper generally refers to water user associations although as it will be seen in this paper, this in Spain has a special legal connotation, to be distinguished from other types of organizations, like communities, societies and cooperatives

  2. The groundwater user associations are named according to their main geographical area of operation, e.g. the Asociación de Usuarios de Aguas Subterráneas de Castilla La Mancha becomes AUAS Castilla La-Mancha (or MAN in Fig. 2), the Comunidad de Usuarios del Acuífero del Campo de Montiel becomes CUA Campo de Montiel (or MON in Fig. 2) and so on. For the full names of the associations, refer to Table 1

  3. In Spain, in the case of groundwater, private water rights at present co-exist with public water rights. Those water users that were abstracting groundwater before 1985 had the option to register those rights as private water rights in the Catalogo de Aguas Privadas (or Private Water catalogue) or to register for a permit listed in the Water Register. Those users that started abstracting groundwater after 1985 only have the option of registering their water rights in the (public) Water Register. This co-existence of private and water rights has however proved very difficult to implement in practice and almost 20 years later most private and public water rights are still uncertain.

  4. Note however that this excludes a lot of groundwater being used in Spain since it is registered as private water rights and therefore excluded from this potential water trading

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge useful feedback from reviewers on the content of this article. The authors are also grateful to the oral communications from members of the organizations analyzed here and who wished to remain anonymous.

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Lopez-Gunn, E., Cortina, L.M. Is self-regulation a myth? Case study on Spanish groundwater user associations and the role of higher-level authorities. Hydrogeol J 14, 361–379 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-005-0014-z

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