Water security: A complex, messy and wicked business

Abstract

Water management Standing in the centre of the city of Missoula, Montana USA, waste deep in the waters of the Clark Fork River, one can cast a fly-line at very wild trout; you can also drink the water you are standing in. A city and clean water – for many South Africans this is a revelation. Only later do we learn what securing this clean water cost – hundreds of millions of dollars in upstream mine waste rehabilitation. It seems almost inevitable – mix people and water and what do we get – a mess! This, in turn, appears bizarre. On an ongoing and escalating basis we compromise the quality and quantity of a resource upon which we are entirely dependent. People are not stupid so why do we appear to be getting it so wrong and what might we do about it? Through the research of Nobel Prize winner, the late Eleanor Ostrom, and many others we are beginning to appreciate that the issues we are grappling with are not simple; they are complex and are particularly complex when they relate to water and aquatic systems.

Authors

Categories