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FRESH WATER NEWS

Reflections on the Latest Bulgarian Greek Joint Declaration for the Ardas River: Advancing Transboundary Water Cooperation

Bulgaria and Greece have just signed a Joint Declaration on the use of the waters of the Ardas River. Sharing water between nations is often a vexed issue with both sides usually wanting a greater share of a limited and, at times, uncertain freshwater resource. However, as Maria Karasani and Susanne Schmeier explain here, genuine cooperation on transboundary water can be the foundation of effective regional integration, climate resilience, and shared prosperity.

Environmental DNA to monitor biodiversity and contribute towards global biodiversity targets

Biodiversity is in steep decline around the planet, and this is especially the case for aquatic biodiversity. The Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework seeks to slow and even reverse these declines but a major obstacle to meeting the Framework’s 23 targets is a lack of data on the state and trends of biodiversity. Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis is a key technology to achieve a global measurement network of state and trends in biodiversity, and many of its technical aspects are ready to be implemented. Here, Florian Altermatt discusses the many advantages of eDNA technology and how it can be used to enable the global effort to better protect our precious biodiversity.

New Tools for Old Systems: Policy Options for Aging Water Infrastructure

Aging infrastructure poses challenges to water and wastewater systems worldwide, yet solutions often focus narrowly on capital projects. Here, Robert Sowby argues for a broader approach, emphasizing the role of classic policy tools—authority, incentives, symbolism, capacity building, and learning. With such tools, governments and organizations can influence management practices and user behavior, thereby extending the lifespan of existing infrastructure.

Quo Vadis Indus Water Treaty?

Following a terrorist attack in disputed territories between India and Pakistan, India has suspended the Indus Water Treaty, one of the world’s most long running and important transboundary water agreements. Established 65 years ago in 1960, the Treaty outlines India’s and Pakistan’s obligations with respect to the use of the Indus River System’s waters. The Indus River basin commands an area of about 20 million hectares and an annual irrigation capability of over 12 million hectares. Today, more than 300 million people rely on the Indus River Basin for their survival. Suspending the Treaty comes with enormous potential consequences. Here, Asit Biswas and Cecilia Tortajada discuss the current situation with the Indus Water Treaty and why the agreement needs changing. Indeed, they argue, the Treaty has not been fit for purpose for many years.

Using water walks in social water research

When we do research, we have to select an appropriate method, or a suite of methods, to examine the object of our study. We might use interviews, surveys, or a model to understand complex water systems. But what happens when researchers walk with research participants along the very rivers, canals, and coastlines they study? That’s the essence of the “water walk,” a creative and participatory research method explored in a recent article published in WIREs Water by Kirsty Holstead and colleagues. Here, Kirsty discusses how, through this method, walking becomes a way of listening, learning, and connecting people, place, and water.

Climate Change & Corrosion: How Environmental Factors Are Accelerating the Degradation of our Water Infrastructure

It’s often said the water brings climate change right up to our front doors; a reference to rising sea levels, storms and floods. While this is true, climate change is also having less visible impacts on our water infrastructure, impacts that if not managed appropriately will have enormous consequences for society. Here, Ellie Gabel describes some of these threats and the measures we can take to counter them.

High-resolution satellite soil moisture offers the possibility of estimating groundwater recharge

Groundwater is a major component of globally-available freshwater, often being the main source of water for agricultural and civil uses. This resource is only sustainable if depletion is prevented (ie, if abstractions do not exceed recharge at seasonal scales). Both monitoring and modelling of groundwater recharge can be problematic due to several factors including the uncertainty in the characterization of soil properties, the availability of labour to do the work, and limitations in the spatial scope. Here, Jacopo Dari and colleagues discuss a novel methodology to estimate groundwater recharge by leveraging high-resolution satellite soil moisture. The work has been recently published in Journal of Hydrology.

Exploring governance for wastewater reuse across contexts – have your say in an international survey

Eighty percent of the world’s wastewater is discharged into the environment without being reused at a time when freshwater resources are under increasing pressure. Surely we can make more of this resource. A team of European researchers is investigating the governance surrounding the use of wastewater in the hope that more can be made of wastewater. They would like to hear from you if you have experience with a wastewater reuse project. Their survey is open till the 10 May.

The benefits and costs of urban park designs: A water perspective

Urban parks are a valued part of city life, providing spaces for recreation, social interaction, and relief from the built environment. But in water-scarce regions like Perth, Australia, traditional park designs dominated by lush, irrigated grass are increasingly difficult to maintain. A recent study published in the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics combines public preferences for alternative urban park designs with the cost of their maintenance, to assess which designs yield the greatest net benefits to society. As Claire Doll and colleagues discuss here, the study found that the most beneficial design featured 60% native vegetation and 40% watered grass. This mix provided the best balance between reducing costs and retaining the qualities people value in urban parks.

Learning about water valuation with incentivized bargaining games

Valuation methods from environmental economics may face several challenges when used in rural areas of developing countries. To explore how water is being valued in these situations, César Mantilla and Margarita Gáfaro studied how rural workers played a bargaining game involving land and water. Specifically, they introduced an incentivized bargaining game in which two players negotiate the division of a land plot, consisting of both irrigated and non-irrigated land tiles. Here they present the results for a sample of 128 Colombian rural workers who played this bargaining game. By comparing different allocations of the irrigated tiles in the agreed division and the corresponding transfer, they found that participants in the study pay more than three times the induced value of irrigation. Moreover, this valuation discrepancy is driven by participants from municipalities with limited water supply.

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