Developing Purposeful and Adaptive Institutions for Effective Environmental Water Governance

Refashioning the institutions we use to manage and allocate water resources so as to provide for environmental water requirements has been a major element of the National Water Reform agenda in Australia since 1994, and represents a very significant potential innovation in the way water resources are managed. This essay addresses three central components of this institutional innovation: processes to reach an ecologically sustainable allocation of water resources; instruments to provide for and protect environmental water; and the development of management frameworks for rivers with environmental water regimes. The discussion explores the considerable constraints encountered in achieving institutions for effective environmental water allocation in the context of the Murray-Darling Basin, the major river basin in south-eastern Australia. Central to this discussion are fundamental questions of governance: who makes substantive decisions on water allocation and management; on what basis and for what purpose? What tools are developing to move towards desired outcomes? How effective are they within the broader institutional context? Given the incremental and, in many cases, ineffective implementation of environmental reform measures to date; and the additional uncertainties, complexities and urgencies posed by climate scenarios; this essay argues for a re-orientation of the policy agenda and its implementation, towards a more purposeful and adaptive governance model.