Mixed land use and equity in water governance in peri-urban Bangkok

Abstract

This article addresses a dearth in the literature on environmental equity in water governance in the desakota, the extended metropolitan region of the great cities of Southeast Asia. Through a case study, the authors describe how, in an intensive mixed land use situation, the actions of new urban users of irrigation canals have degraded the water, unfairly prejudicing low-income farmers' entitlement to irrigation water of appropriate quality and harming their livelihood. It is argued that certain characteristics of existing land- and water-sector-related management institutions in Thailand encourage a disproportionate shift of the environmental burden to small farmers. This phenomenon also involves the violation of procedural equity - the farmers' right to be informed, to be able to assert a right to and negotiate for appropriate water, and to participate meaningfully in strategic decisions related to water governance in the peri-urban area. The problem is mediated by administrative separatism, ambiguity and multiplicity in the functional jurisdiction of water-related government bodies, and the general lack of a participatory culture in the bureaucracy. The authors further argue that, without state acknowledgement of this form of injustice, establishing appropriate mechanisms and public institutions that will purposively address concerns of environmental equity is a remote possibility, and that this inequity will likely continue to be patterned and inscribed in the peri-urban geography of the mega-cities of Southeast Asia. © 2007 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2007 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.