Environmental Flow Policies
Environmental flows are the seasonally and annually varying water flows and levels that support ecosystems and human livelihoods while providing for other uses such as hydropower, irrigation, and water supply. Many governments and river-management agencies around the world have developed policies to protect environmental flows, and more are doing so all the time. Yet implementation of these policies remains weak.
Policy change alone does not result in implementation. At the highest level, political support for environmental flow policy is essential for setting strategic direction, securing resources, working with stakeholders and enforcing the policy.
Environmental flows are inherently interdisciplinary, and may involve agencies that plan and manage hydropower, agriculture, land use, industrial development and natural resources. The conflicts of interest only intensify on transboundary rivers.
As reform efforts from every continent demonstrate, it is one thing to pass ambitious, high-level laws and policies, and quite another to implement the on-the-ground actions that protect and restore …show more content…
Being opportunistic may simply mean finding the right legal instrument. Mexico’s lack of a clear policy regarding water re-allocation to the environment did not deter river advocates in the Colorado River delta, who saw an opportunity in the existing legal framework. Although no precedent exists for stopping irrigation to improve stream flows, moving water rights from one irrigated parcel to another is a well-established practice in Mexico. By changing the locations of irrigation rights from cropland to natural floodplain wetlands, they successfully re-allocated ecological flows to the delta without officially changing the uses associated with their water
Environmental flows are the seasonally and annually varying water flows and levels that support ecosystems and human livelihoods while providing for other uses such as hydropower, irrigation, and water supply. Many governments and river-management agencies around the world have developed policies to protect environmental flows, and more are doing so all the time. Yet implementation of these policies remains weak.
Policy change alone does not result in implementation. At the highest level, political support for environmental flow policy is essential for setting strategic direction, securing resources, working with stakeholders and enforcing the policy.
Environmental flows are inherently interdisciplinary, and may involve agencies that plan and manage hydropower, agriculture, land use, industrial development and natural resources. The conflicts of interest only intensify on transboundary rivers.
As reform efforts from every continent demonstrate, it is one thing to pass ambitious, high-level laws and policies, and quite another to implement the on-the-ground actions that protect and restore …show more content…
Being opportunistic may simply mean finding the right legal instrument. Mexico’s lack of a clear policy regarding water re-allocation to the environment did not deter river advocates in the Colorado River delta, who saw an opportunity in the existing legal framework. Although no precedent exists for stopping irrigation to improve stream flows, moving water rights from one irrigated parcel to another is a well-established practice in Mexico. By changing the locations of irrigation rights from cropland to natural floodplain wetlands, they successfully re-allocated ecological flows to the delta without officially changing the uses associated with their water