Global Water Forum Q&A with Jesper Svensson

In this episode, Dr. Emilie Dupuits joins GWF’s Jesper Svensson to share her insights about how local communities engage in transnational mobilisations to defend their rights and what impact it has on local commons in Latin America.

Latin America has a number of distinct features. It is home to more than 800 indigenous groups with a combined population of approximately 42 million. Latin America is also a region with significant inequality where eight countries are among the 20 countries with the highest income inequality worldwide. At the same time, the region exhibits one of the highest rates of biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES) loss worldwide with high asymmetry in access to ecosystem services benefits. Over the last two decades, environmental protests have been on the rise ranging from Bolivia and Peru to Ecuador and Chile around water and infrastructure projects. However, significant variation exists in the region in terms of what drives grassroots struggles and how they are scaled up to the transnational level.

Dr. Dupuits says that in the context of globalizing transboundary environmental challenges, strategies to protect and secure the local commons such as water resources have been increasingly scaled up. Consequently, local communities have started to engage in transnational mobilisations to defend their rights and express their concerns. This often implies the adoption and institutionalisation of emerging global norms, principles and modes of framing and claiming – such as the Human Right to Water or the Rights of Nature – which will interfere with and may even go against local understandings, meaning, and rooted struggles or initial claims made by grassroots movements. The appropriation of expert knowledge and technical idiom may improve their recognition and access to political and financial support. However, transnational involvement may also (re)produce misrecognition or exclusion on the ground for community-based organisations.

Interview Q&A

1. What is the relationship between neoliberalism and social resistance movements in Latin America over the last two decades? (2:08)

2. How have governments, market-led institutions and local communities interacted in global environmental arenas over the last two decades? (8:25)

3. When, where and how have grassroots movements developed strategies to scale up their activities in order to improve their access and representation in global arenas and transnational processes? (14:55)

4. Are there examples and patterns in Latin America where governments, markets and local communities can co-exist in desirable outcomes? (23:48)

5. What about the role of women? (30:57)

5. When a mobilization occurs and is scaled up to the international level, what is the effect back on the local ground? (32:47)

6. Which institutional and actor configurations contribute to protect and secure local commons such as water resources? (40:52)

7. What can states outside of Latin-America do to address Bolsonaro’s violations of indigenous people’s lives and livelihoods? (43:40)

In this episode, Dr. Sam Geall joins GWF:s Jesper Svensson to discuss how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) shapes the development of the Mekong River.
Dr. Geall says that China’s Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Initiative is primarily driven by money and security but he hopes that inter-governmental organizations like the Mekong River Commission (RMC) and the Chinese LMC will not lead to a zero-sum game in the basin and region.
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How is hydropower dam construction and other development practices converging and forming a death of a thousands cuts of the longest river in Southeast Asia shared between China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam? How long can the system hold on? Brian Eyler, author of the book ”The Last Days of the Mighty Mekong” shares his perspectives and insights with GWF:s Jesper Svensson in this episode.

Dr. Marina Povitkina joins GWF’s Jesper Svensson to discuss democracy, quality of government and water provision. She also talks about her experience in the Republic of Moldova and the mechanisms at play there.
Interview Q&A
What is, and is not, democratization? (1:22)
What is the relationship between democracy, Quality of Government and water provision in the world? (4:35)
Which countries fall into which institutional configurations? (7:20)
What do we know (and don’t know) about the provision of safe drinking water in authoritarian regimes? (10:49)
Why does the case of Moldova matter? (15:23)
What lessons can be learned from Moldova at a time when more democracies than ever before are in decline? (26:24)
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In this episode, Bo Rothstein joins Global Water Forum for a colorful discussion of topics including quality of government, access to safe water, Jamaica, the paradox of China, gender equality, and much more.
How did you get involved in working on corruption and why did you decide to leave Oxford University in 2017? (1:00)
What is corruption and how do we measure it? (7:30)
How does Quality of Government shape access to safe drinking water? (10:40)
In one of your books you mentioned “the tale of two countries: Democratic Jamaica versus High Quality of Government Singapore”. What is that? (14:35)
The paradox of China: what explains why authoritarian China provides more superior urban drinking water than does liberal democratic India? (20:20)
What will happen with China’s administrative River Chief System if China democratize? (25:55)
How should we combat corruption? Does gender equality matter in preventing societies from self-destructing? (28:05)
How to reverse the assault on science? (38:59)
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In this edition of Water Chat, Jesper Svensson interviews Professor Jia Shaofeng about the myths and realities of Beijing’s water supply and demand situation.

Interview Q&A
 How has the natural hydrological cycle evolved over the last 70 years in Beijing? 2:39
How has the nature of human demands for water evolved from 1949 until today? 4:47
What have been the key transitions in science, technology and institutional factors for managing Beijing’s water systems the last 70 years? 11:15
What political leaders and policy entrepreneurs drove the change? What drove them? 12:30
What would you say are the most important misconceptions about the water reforms in Beijing and the North China Plain? 17:40
Beijing rely on distant water transfers to meet their needs. What type of agreement governs the water reallocation from Shanxi and Hebei provinces to Beijing? 26:24
What is the goal of the South to North Water Diversion Project to respond to Beijing’s water situation? 32:27
So what about climate change? What is the effect of climate change on the natural hydrological cycle? 39:32
What lessons can be learned from Beijing’s transitions to freshwater sustainability (1949-2019)? 43:00

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