Governance of nonconventional water sources: South Australian urban community views on ownership, trust, and pricing
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2016
Authors
Wu, Z.
Keremane, G.
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Eslamain, S.
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Book chapter
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Source details - Title: Urban water reuse handbook, 2016 / Eslamain, S. (ed./s), pp.949-957
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Rapid urbanization and growing populations have increased pressure on urban water resources and current climate change prediction shave reduced the certainty of traditional supply sources. These have caused a shift in the traditional urban water management regime characterized as being centralized and largely reliant on an engineering approach toward a more sustainable regime that emphasizes the use of new technologies and strategies to increase self-sufficiency by using water sourced from within cities.This means that urban water management now includes services such as water harvesting, water manufacturing, storage, treatment,and distribution, and at times, flood mitigation. However, the integration of these new sources into the urban water supply mix, and the successful implementation of new approaches to urban water management is a multifaceted challenge requiring input beyond the merely technical. Instead, it involves a wide range of factors with varying roles and responsibilities at different levels of administration, generating overlapping concerns among the public agencies managing the resource. Some say that it is apolitical question and calls for new institutions and organizations to manage this complexity and to consider future generations.This chapter examines ownership issues within current urban water management regimes in Australia. A case study based on a mail-out survey of the residents of Salisbury City Council was then done, which is renowned worldwide for its water recycling solutions, and for showcasing best practice urban water management. The study found that under current arrangements,there are challenges in achieving sustainable urban water management. The absence of well-defined entitlements and ownership regimes for accessing the produced water, including storm water, recycled water, and aquifer storage, will require modification of existing legislation and policies in each state, to conform to a nationally consistent framework based on the National Water Initiative principles. It would not be an easy task to accomplish, but a solution may be innovation in governance model as in the case of Salisbury Water.
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Copyright 2016 Taylor and Francis Group