Meeting urban water needs: exploring water governance and development in Tagbilaran City, the Philippines

Abstract

Water is subject to uncertainty of supply (quantity) and quality, which affects decisions determining allocation, use and management for human and environmental functions. Tensions concerning water and its allocation reflect conflicting ideologies influencing development. Focusing on water governance enables the allocation and management of environmental resources and tensions in development to be explored. ¶ This research has as its central argument the notion that water governance is conceptualised differently at different scales and as discourses become localised, hybrid forms emerge. Place-specific hybrid governance systems which are cognisant of transformations in the local political economy and environmental characteristics can be useful in managing risks and uncertainty about water supply. This is particularly so where local knowledge about formal institutions regulating water governance and environmental conditions is low. This is because hybrid systems are more likely to be responsive to local needs than national or supra-national discourse allows. However, there are limitations with hybrid systems, particularly in terms of allocating responsibility and risk, which require effective coordination. ¶ The aim of this research is to uncover local perspectives and knowledge about water governance and hybridity in urban environments which can be used to shape and influence urban water management. I explore the hybridisation of water governance by considering the problem of ensuring urban water supply in a developing country context. The research was undertaken as an inductive, qualitative inquiry comprising a case study in Tagbilaran City, Bohol, the Philippines. Tagbilaran is a small sized city with a population of approximately 87,000 people. The city is experiencing relatively rapid population growth along with urban development and expansion in which water demand already outstrips water supply. Ethnographic, interpretive techniques were used to distil local perspectives about water governance which are juxtaposed with official policy and discourse. Research methods included participant observation, semi-structured interviews with government employees, government officials and key informants from other organisations. Other methods included structured household surveys and the use of documentary sources. ¶ This research reveals how formal approaches to urban water governance systems have been shaped by international development thinking and discourse. Current strategies to manage water emphasise an integrated approach which encompasses environmental, social and economic domains. At the same time neoliberal discourse exerts a powerful influence over how urban water is conceptualised and managed, and who should be responsible for its provision. The case study allows for the exploration of the ways in which development and water governance discourse have been articulated and the consideration of the local factors which have enabled the emergence of hybrid water supply services embedded in a localised hybrid governance system. ¶ I show how water governance in Tagbilaran is hybrid because of the global-local dialectic that informs policy and practice, public-private engagement in water provision, and inter-jurisdictional water sharing. I also demonstrate how households' experiences of water supply and their physical environment influence decisions about household allocation and perceptions about human-environment interactions and water security. As a consequence, knowledge about water governance held at the household level emerges as localised and specific in which everyday experience shapes ideas around responsibility and agency such that local forms of government and engagement have more meaning for households than national and supra-national discourse. The juxtaposition of formal, bureaucratic governance institutions with household knowledge exposes multiple understandings of water governance and water supply in Tagbilaran. ¶ The findings of this research reveal that household conceptions of water governance are divorced from formal conceptions of water governance. There is a risk, therefore, that an over-emphasis on network expansion without due consideration of water resource management may lead to greater levels of consumption. This will continue to place pressure on resources and may ultimately lead to water insecurity. This is because local knowledge of the formal political, economic, and administrative institutions is limited at the household level. Therefore, this research argues that local perspectives and knowledge need to be incorporated more into management and policy decision making. Alternatively, greater effort needs to be made to communicate formal policy to the household level.