Call for contributions: SI "Unpacking the hydropolitical layer cake – the changing politics of multilevel water governance"

In arid and semi-arid regions, water is a salient and at times explosive issue. At state-to-state level, but also regionally and locally, tensions can run high, and while wars over water do not really happen, water is also not necessarily a peacemaker. Although often treated like a techno-managerial issue rather than overtly politicised, tensions over water are quick to arise. Upstream infrastructural interventions are easily seen by downstream actors as intentionally damaging or even framed as acts of hydro-terrorism. Many conflicts are not even about water, really, but due to their high visibility and connectivity, water can easily become instrumentalised or targeted in other standoffs. It has become increasingly accepted that there is no linear road from conflict to cooperation between interested parties, and that conflict and cooperation may even coincide.

Water politics plays out at multiple levels which almost inevitably influence and shape each other – it is noteworthy when it doesn’t. Since the political scientist David Putnam coined his two-level (domestic and international) games in an American context, more levels and dynamics have been added and the model has been applied in non-western, nondemocratic contexts. The overlay of the new Great Game for global hegemony, the role of regional groupings such of the EU and SADC and the increasing paradiplomatic role of substate actors (breakaway regions, global cities, MNCs and INGOs) further complicates the picture. Others have even proposed to do away with the concept of hierarchy of levels and scales and propose a ‘waterscape’ approach to understanding hydropolitics.

Although power relations become institutionalised and at times fossilised in enduring hegemony, they may change, and crises may be windows of opportunity for a drastic change of scene. The changing environment has become a key political factor in the political dynamics. The ‘politics of time’, such as Day Zero, can invoke such a pressure cooker even before it happens. 

In a two-day hybrid conference, held in Pretoria, South AFrica on 2 and 3 September, organised by the SI Editors and hosted by UNISA’s College of Human Sciences, experts from different academic disciplines and professional backgrounds will engage with the multilevel politics of water governance, in South Africa and further afield.

If you would like to present your ideas, and/or contribute an article or viewpoint to the IJWG Special Issue contact the co-organisers, Prof Richard Meissner (meissr@unisa.ac.co.za) and Prof Jeroen Warner about this (jeroen.warner@wur.nl).