Chapter Three Water Quantity and Safety
3.1 Water quantity and supply and water safety are considered in this chapter, which discusses attitudes to reuse, scarcity, conflict, risk, flooding and public health. Fifty-eight texts were reviewed and the most relevant are outlined here.
3.2 Water quantity is defined here as the volume of, and supply available from, a waterbody. Related to this is the need for water reuse, water scarcity, and the possibility of a resultant conflict. Water safety encompasses public health, flooding and risk, where risk is defined as "the interaction between vulnerability and hazard, where hazard is the probability that a phenomenon liable to cause a disaster will occur, and vulnerability the condition whereby a population is exposed" (Surez and Lombardo 2004, 189). One such risk is flooding.
3.3 There are many definitions of "conflict" in the academic literature, many social science ones including the notion of conflict being internalised, where there are two sides knowingly or deliberately opposing one another. In this chapter, "conflict" is appropriated in a more traditional, specific and technical sense: conflict is "goal interference attributed to others" (Manning 2001, 203). While Scotland needs to acknowledge the growing concern over access to water trans-nationally, and the serious conflict, even war, that results in the context of our global responsibilities and sustainable development, conflict has been dealt with here in terms of more national and local scales and the lessons that might be learnt from relevant evidence elsewhere.
Scotland and UK
3.4 Relevant to this topic are Werrity's (2002) flooding study and a Scottish Executive (2005) survey of public attitudes. The former addresses flooding from the perspective of climate change, while the latter examines directly the Scottish public's attitudes to flooding. In the 2002 survey, respondents were asked about their perceptions of the current threat of flooding in Scotland. Overall, 31% of people thought flooding was 'quite a high risk in a few areas of Scotland' and 15% said that it was 'quite a high risk in many areas'. A quarter of respondents thought that it was a 'very high risk' in a few or many areas (23%), and 4% said that flooding was 'not a risk at all' (Scottish Executive, 2005). 4
3.5 From the perspective of resource conflict, Sidaway (2005) deliberates the benefits that can be derived from resolving environmental disputes through conflict resolution. He argues that environmental disputes in Scotland fall into two main categories: (1) developments that fall within the statutory remit of the development control and planning system; and (2) a large range of other issues, including land management, conservation areas, access for recreation, afforestation, species protection, coastal fisheries and fish farming, shipwrecks and pollution. Through Scottish examples, he illustrates that there can be movement from "conflict to consensus", and flags up that, "the definition of conflict and its means of resolution are culturally determined" (Sidaway, 2005, xiv). Despite the potential challenges of cultural context, potential avenues of resolution include eliciting the values of different recreation groups, education and information provision, encouraging stakeholder dialogue and engaging in workshops and consultations. These could be adopted to resolve conflicts over the water environment and water resource.
3.6 Sidaway also recognises the value of generic consensus building 5 as a generic process that can be used to prevent or resolve conflict, as long as its application is tailored to the specific situation and follows a set of key principles of process design. It should start with an assessment of the ways of achieving more effective public participation (op cit, 259). More specifically, consensus building entails a four-stage process: (1) initiation - responding to a current conflict by recognising the opportunity to negotiate and realising the value of mediation; (2) inclusiveness - ensuring that an impartial conflict assessment is undertaken to identify stakeholders and their underlying concerns, and to set out the basic structure of possible negotiations for ratification by stakeholders; (3) information - obtaining relevant information on issues underlying the dispute and circulating information widely; and (4) influence - obtaining a firm commitment in advance from the ultimate decision-makers that they will act on the outcome of the negotiations (261). For Sidaway, mediation is most effective to reduce conflict at an early stage in the conflict process.
3.7 Three UK studies examine risk perception and associated attitudes. Both Baggett et al (2006) and Myatt et al (2003) illustrate that knowledge of risk varies between stakeholder groups involved in water environments. Brouwer et al (2001) offer a comparative study, indicating that public perception of health risks varies according to nationality and country of origin - perhaps because of the nature and ecological quality of the water environment, and people's dependence upon it, in their country of origin.
3.8 Thinking about evidence generated from a policy perspective, a relevant Scottish water use report is by the Scotland and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research ( SNIFFER, 2005). 6 This identified how different sectors of the economy in Scotland and Northern Ireland use water and the benefits of water use for individuals and organisations in these. It was found that the value of water to an individual user depends on a number of features of their water use, including the volume of water used and the nature of use, and water use, clearly, has different economic values for households, agricultural irrigation, aquaculture, salmon angling, industry and hydropower.
3.9 Findings from the public attitudes survey for the Executive, described in Chapter 2 (2006) contains information relevant to Scottish perceptions of water quantity and safety. Drinking water and health were the two most commonly given reasons for the importance of the water environment. However, the quality of coastal waters around urban areas, the risk of flooding and preventing damage to wildlife habitats were considered priorities for improvements by more people than ensuring a reliable water supply for homes and industry. When questioned about water shortages, the majority of people in Scotland (58%) did not consider serious water shortages likely in the next few years; less than a third (28%) said that shortages were likely. It is important to note that the survey was undertaken before a dry summer for Scotland and before high media attention surrounding a drought situation in England and other parts of Europe. Nevertheless, 22% of respondents did think there that serious water shortages would be likely in the next few years, the most commonly given reason for this being climate change/global warming.
3.10 In relation to water supply, another survey commissioned by the Scottish Executive, Braunholtz et al (2005), explored domestic customers' priorities for investment in the water industry over the next ten years, through a quantitative telephone survey of 3,000 respondents conducted in 2004. The survey was supplemented by eight qualitative focus groups with 60 participants in Edinburgh, East Kilbride, Oban and Aberdeen, capturing a range of communities. Eighty-nine percent of people were satisfied with their water supply services, including 40% who were very satisfied. Over half mentioned the quality of coastal and bathing waters (58%) or the quality of river waters (53%) as needing improvement; a significant number of these people said that these required "a great deal" of improvement (57% and 51% respectively). Fifty-six percent of householders thought that current standards should be maintained when preventing homes and gardens from being flooded with sewage. When customers were asked how much, if anything, they would be willing to pay each year to increase spending on maintenance and improvement in water supply services, 54% maintained they would be willing to pay something. The research indicated that Scottish Water customers were happy with their water services, however, the environment is an area where they think improvement is necessary.
3.11 A second UK (England and Wales) water supply study was part of the WaND project (Water Cycle Management for New Developments). 7 The aim of WaND is to support the delivery of integrated, sustainable water management for new developments by the provision of tools and guidelines for project design, implementation and management. Its work packages focus on water supply, along with social issues. Work Package Four of the project looks at social and economic aspects, which includes collection and analysis of the views of various stakeholders (mainly developers) on sustainable water management innovations and on better understanding their decision-making processes for sustainable water management (WaND, 2006).
3.12 Water supply, as used here, is almost synonymous with water quantity. Concerns with public perceptions of water quantity are not well reflected in available UK policy evidence literature. This may change following water shortages in the south-east of England over summer 2006 and the associated media coverage. The BBC news website, for example, considers how the current situation compares to the drought of 1976 and how water can be conserved; and shows that early action to save water can help combat extreme measures like hosepipe bans in the future. The Environment Agency provides details on drought orders and notes that every water company in England and Wales is required by Government to produce a drought plan. Drought plans detail the operational steps that must be taken as a drought progresses. These range from publicity campaigns and communication strategies to customer restrictions and drought orders. A number of water companies, for instance south east water, already have drought orders in place. More importantly for this review, the communications strategy contained within drought orders engage the public with issues surrounding water supply (and hence water quantity). 8 According to the Environment Agency (2003), the communications plan should ensure that key messages are communicated effectively in order to influence customers to use water carefully. Still, more detailed research on public attitudes to water quantity could be usefully elicited by the water companies.
3.13 In terms of flooding and risk research, the Environment Agency (2006) recently commissioned a relevant study in England and Wales. 9 The aims of this were: (1) to help the Agency to understand the social impacts of flooding; (2) to examine how flood risk is distributed in relation to patterns of social deprivation in England; and (3) to make recommendations for the most effective ways of addressing inequalities in relation to flooding. In addition to a review of relevant flood risk and environmental inequalities literature and a two-day workshop with stakeholders, a GIS-based data analysis exercise was undertaken. This examined the deprivation characteristics of populations living within and outside of the delineated risk areas in the English regions. It found that flooding impacts on people's physical and psychological health, possessions and economic assets, on households and communities. Unsurprisingly perhaps, residents in deprived neighbourhoods were likely to be less well prepared to cope in the event of a flood and in its aftermath, and that the most deprived proportions of the population were 62% more likely to be living in areas at high risk of flooding. The Agency (2006) recommended that flood risk management needs to be increasingly responsive to the social distribution and social impacts of flood risk.
Europe
3.14 European studies concerned with quantity and safety again concentrate on perceptions of flooding and risk. Basing his research on the River Thur in eastern Switzerland, Zaugg (2003) discusses flooding and flood prevention. He shows that different stakeholders have different perspectives of flooding, and that conflict is concerned with the territoriality and scale of flood prevention projects. Using a Swedish case study, Sjolander-Lindqvist (2004) discusses the effects of risk and uncertainty on the farming community, including farmers' sense of locality and found that the values farmers hold toward risk differed from those of non-farming local residents.
3.15 A European instance of policy engagement with flooding perception research is provided by the EULIFE project, "The Wise Use of Floodplains". Relevant to public and stakeholder participation in the WFD implementation process, the project includes work on five EU floodplains. It trails a range of stakeholder participation techniques (including questionnaires and training programmes) to generate and appraise diverse management scenarios for integrated floodplain restoration ( EULIFE, 2006). Similarly, the ADVISOR research programme is relevant to both water supply (hydraulic projects in Spain, Portugal and Greece) and flooding (flood protection project in the Netherlands), while the French Cemagref research project includes a consultation with the general public, during 2006-2008, as part of the WFD public participation process, investigating perceptions of water resources, uses and risk.
Global
3.16 The international literature identifies attitudes to both water quantity/supply and water safety, including the sub-topic of water reuse, which is addressed in a number of studies concerned with public participation and perception. Hartley (2006) has identified a number of themes that are crucial in maintaining public confidence in water reuse, for example, promoting communication and public dialogue and managing information for all stakeholders; and, in an Australian case study, Russell and Hampton (2006) discuss the challenges in understanding public responses and providing effective public consultation on water reuse. They argue that current understanding of public reactions to water recycling is insufficient, and there needs to be a broad appraisal of the information needs of the public.
3.17 Another prominent sub-topic in the literature is that of perceptions of water scarcity and the resultant conflict. Water scarcity has been addressed in Indian, US and South African contexts by Mehta (2001), Routhe et al (2005) and Smit and Jacobs (2004) respectively. A consensus amongst these studies is that scarcity is both a biophysical ("real") and a perceived phenomenon. Conflict over water resources may be a consequence of either. These studies demonstrate how perceptions of water scarcity vary with locale and local water-uses.
3.18 Cortese (2003) provides a relevant US study of the conflicting uses of the Arkansas River, in the context of the arid and semi-arid western US, where water has always been a source of conflict. Deploying multiple methods, including a telephone survey and focus groups, the author identified the recurring social, economic and environmental issues voiced by a wide variety of rural and urban interest groups. He derived a set of community values for water: ecological values (abundant wildlife, pristine vegetation, clean water), economic values (impacts on the local economy), recreational values, and social values (quality of life). The range of values varied for different groups, such as local business interests, fishers, government officials, boaters, environmentalists and local residents, between which conflict often arises. Similar findings regarding conflict over water resources were found in a US context by Williams (2001) and in a Middle Eastern context by Vukovic (2004).
3.19 Water safety encapsulates the problems of risk and flooding. Studies of risk were which were reviewed, were, again, from the US (Campbell et al, 2002; and Gregory et al, 2001) and the Middle East (El-Zein et al, 2006). Both indicate that risk knowledge varies according to demographics and interest group. One dimension of risk, flooding, has particularly been studied in great detail and in a number of contexts (see Clark et al (2002) for a US example, and Suarez and Lombardo (2004) for a South African). Jose et al (2001) offer a comparative analysis of the flooding effects on a wetland community in Mexico, while Rashed (2003) studied the attitudes of floodplain residents in Dhaka, India. A common theme in all studies is that attitudes to flood risk and willingness to accept flood prevention schemes vary according to institutional, locational and socio-economic factors.
3.20 Finally, the topic of public health was considered in relation to water safety. For example, Turbow et al (2004) show that the perceptions of swimming-related health risk in Orange County, California differs according to beach area, although 84% of beach visitors surveyed were not highly concerned with swimming-related health risks. But the results suggested that public health impacts are dependent on locality.
3.21 In terms of the evidence for policy-makers' engaging with this topic, three projects were identified during the review search. In Australia, the CSIRO Tropical Ecosystems Research Centre undertakes a number of projects to incorporate social values into environmental policy. One such project is an investigation of the indigenous cultural values of water in the Daly River region of the Northern Territory ( CSIRO, 2006), which seeks to elicit the values associated with water use by Aboriginal land owners, and includes the development of catchment models to resolve conflicts of water use. In New Zealand, the Ministry for the Environment has developed a Water Allocation Programme, enabling sustainable development of water resources by removing unnecessary constraints to water availability and promoting efficiency of use. As part of this programme, a project entitled "Attitudes and Barriers to Water Transfers" involved interviews of water users and regional council staff to assess their issues and attitudes to water transfer. Seventy-five percent of users supported the concept of water transfer (New Zealand Ministry for the Environment, 2001).
3.22 In the Middle East, water scarcity and conflict research is paramount. National policy and research focussing on water scarcity in the area take a regional or national perspective, with emphasis on alternatives to conflict. A number of policy-relevant studies have been conducted to find solutions to water scarcity in the face of increasing demand (for example, Lipchin et al, 2004). These studies show how cultural background, geographic location, gender, income and education influence the way in which people perceive and value water resources in the Middle East.
3.23 The literature exemplifies the differing nature of conflicts over water, for instance, conflict over: water resources and water development (Cortese, 2003; and Lein, 2004); marine reserves and fishing (Eggert and Olsson, 2003); nature protection/conservation and development of water environments (Getzner, 2002); tourism (Tzatzanis and Wrbka, 2002); and recreational activities (Manning, 2001).
Summary
3.24 Although there is wide and varied treatment of issues relating water quantity/supply and water safety in the literature identified for this review, for the Scottish and UK contexts, deeper research into public attitudes and perceptions for quantity would be useful.
3.25 At a global level, increased incidences of water scarcity and supply disruptions (real or perceived or feared) point to increasing likelihood of conflict over the resource, with differential use values further compounding and engendering dispute.
3.26 Although the literature again suggests that perceptions of water quantity and safety vary by social, demographic and geographical variables, conflict resolution is one way by which different perceptions can be converged.