10 years of <i>World Water Policy Journal</i>: The past, present and future

We have entered very proudly in 2024, the year that counts one decade since we started publishing our journal. Originally called New Water Policy and Practice, since 2014, the aim has always been to provide a platform for the world's emerging water leaders and thinkers. Initially published by Westphalia Press, an imprint of the Policy Studies Organization (PSO), our first steps were made with great support from many of our young students who were publishing for the first time. The name World Water Policy Journal was adopted in 2019, along with a shift to publication by Wiley on behalf of PSO, and we started planning for broader audiences. One honored word is due upfront. From the very first moment, no matter what we did, how we shifted, or what new ideas we essayed, we always had the most enthusiastic and confident support of our dear Paul Rich and of all his team at PSO. It was Paul who invited us to create a Journal in 2014, and in every moment since then, he has given us all the openness, opportunities, and incentive to go forward. Thank you dearly, Paul! We also extend great thanks to Daniel Gutierrez-Sandoval, Executive Director of PSO, who has been our guardian and guide through any moments of stress, doubt, and celebration! Not forgetting so many others who have been working with us over the last 10 years in publishing. Yingjie Wu who coordinates our translations, Noelito Valdivia and Sarah Ritchie and their predecessors at Wiley, and more recently our wonderful Managing Editor Icyimpaye Adeline. To the many others, including the hundreds of authors and thousands of peer reviewers who were also critical actors, contributors, and witnesses of our enjoyable journey of the past 10 years, we thank you all! From the beginning, we have also been very fortunate to count on the inspirational advice of an extended International Advisory Board (IAB) of nine members from six world regions. Changing slightly along this decade, with one or two more members added, we profoundly miss our dear mentor and friend, the late Mark Pascoe. Originally published twice per year, in 2023, we dared jump into four issues per year, with the aim of two of those being regional or thematic Special Issues. Indeed, in 2024, we published our first two Special Issues, one focused on South Asia and the other on Africa. This is the first Special Issue of 2024, the year we celebrate 10 years, and it begins with a Laudatory Welcome from Prof Paul Rich, followed by two parts. The first part has seven Guest Editorials from the honorable members of our International Advisory Board. The second part has a selection of articles that illustrate innovative approaches addressing challenges in water policy and practice from different regions of the world. The world has changed dramatically since 2014, and this journal has changed as well, adapting to new challenges and opportunities. Climate change, water stress, WASH challenges, increasing extreme events, and growing problems of water scarcity (physical, social, and economic) have driven many examinations of traditional approaches, discussion on new paradigms, and adoption of better principles such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Declaration on Human Rights to Water and Sanitation. In 2024, after dealing with a terrible pandemic since early 2020, none of us were prepared for more worldwide problems. But here we are. War in Ukraine, war in Gaza, war in Sudan, and many other conflicts around the world. Sadly, water has been used also as a weapon, and we need to make a deep mental effort to remind ourselves every day of all the principles that were agreed upon by all countries since the very first United Nations water gatherings in the 1970s. Last year, the 2023 United Nations Water Conference reflected its resolutions 73/226 of 20 December and 75/212 of 21 December 2020 regarding the Midterm Comprehensive Reviews of the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development,” 2018–2028, respectively. In the presentation of the agenda of the UN Water Conference in March last year, it was noted with concern that the world is not on track to achieve water-related Sustainable Development Goals and targets at the global level by 2030 at the current rate of progress, which has a tremendous impact on human well-being and the three dimensions of sustainable development. This event was undoubtedly a great opportunity to reflect on the reasons for those failures and to discuss ways to get back on track. But as we highlighted in our Editorial 2023: A year of success in the climate change battle or a missed opportunity in World Water Policy Issue 10.1, no single action is enough to match the huge and intrinsically interconnected challenges; water-related issues can no longer be ignored in any context. The water cycle, its territorial links, the environment, economic uses and resources, and governance—in a word—require competence and strategic vision. Both are not abundant, unfortunately, which demands multiplied efforts from the real agents for change (Neto & Camkin, 2024). Some of those agents for change feature in this issue. The first Guest Editorial is from IAB Member, Dr. Zafar Adeel, who is, among other roles, the Executive Director of the Pacific Water Research Centre at Simon Fraser University (Canada). Adeel brings acute reflections exactly on what was not done with the 2023 UN event opportunity. In his Guest Editorial Lost Expectations from a Watershed Moment—The 2023 UN Water Conference, he addresses the anticipation and optimism surrounding the 2023 UN Water Conference and led to high expectations for addressing the global water challenges. However, he concludes that the international community gathered in New York did not take some of the key opportunities to create robust water institutions and implementation mechanisms. Adeel identifies the need for a drastic change in financial mobilization for global water challenges that must be matched by significant institutional enhancements. There is a need to consider the water crisis as a stand-alone issue while creating meaningful engagements with other sectors of the economy. In the second Guest Editorial, Professor Mike Muller, Visiting Adjunct Professor at the School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, offers his thoughts on The rise and fall of water policy entrepreneurs in an unequal world. He discusses the role of the policy entrepreneurs from the “North” and their influence over water policy in the “South” in past decades, arguing that policy entrepreneurship in water must be centered in, rather than targeted at, the societies concerned. Among other critical points, Mike highlights that “Southern” countries have gained greater autonomy over their water policies in a multi-polar world and continue to offer opportunities for the international water industry. In that sense, he considers that political leaders, administrators, and civil society in the South must now take responsibility and accountability for the outcomes. Mike also defends that new infrastructure is essential to help mitigate and adapt to climate change and that hydropower is an energy transition ally, not a climate change enemy. The third Guest Editorial, by Professor Gabrielle Bammer from the Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University, Australia, presents a very relevant reflection on Why tools are as important as results and what to do about it. Gabrielle discusses how addressing complex problems requires concepts, methods, processes, and other tools that are still evolving and not yet firmly embedded in research practice. She defends the need for a new discipline—Integration and Implementation Sciences (I2S)—which provides a framework to connect existing fields of scholarship, as well as the efforts of individual research teams, to support better application of these tools. In the related Integration and Implementation Insights (I2Insights) blog and repository, there is a potential for further dissemination of those tools. Gabriele also refers to the possibility of the World Water Policy Journal providing an outlet for publishing the detailed concepts, methods, and other tools that researchers develop and use, which we welcome with great interest. This would have benefits for building researcher expertise and advancing effectiveness of tackling water policy and practice challenges. The fourth Guest Editorial is by Professor Shahbaz Khan, the Director of the UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia, who shares his thoughts on the topic of Good Water Governance through Cultural Evolution along River Basins: The Role of UNESCO Heritage Sites and Intangible Cultural Heritage. In this Guest Editorial, effective water governance is presented as essential for sustainable management of water resources, particularly within river basins where diverse stakeholders intersect. By recognizing and learning from UNESCO sites, Shahbaz considers that we can enhance contemporary water governance strategies, particularly if we also recognize, as water experts, that the preservation of cultural heritage is inseparable from effective water governance. He raises the profound influence of cultural evolution on water governance practices along river systems and how UNESCO heritage sites and intangible cultural heritage play a pivotal role in preserving traditional knowledge and practices related to water management. He calls for the continued celebration and protection of these invaluable resources. The fifth Guest Editorial, from Professor Wilson Cabral de Sousa Júnior, Full Professor at the Aeronautics Institute of Technology (Brazil), is developed around the challenging topic IWRM: challenge or utopia? Reflections on integration in water management in Brazil. Wilson addresses the state of the art of IWRM and the advances and gaps of IWRM in Brazil. He revisits the criticism of IWRM, considering its breadth and perspectives, and questions the very viability of IWRM in Brazil based on a practical case. Finally, he presents topics he considers essential for effective integration in water management in Brazil. The sixth Guest Editorial, by Eng. Jaime Melo Baptista, founder and strategic advisor of LIS-Water, Lisbon International Centre for Water, Portugal, explores the topic Relevant aspects to be included in a national strategic plan for water services. Jaime advocates the responsibility of governments to develop a sustainable and inclusive public policy for water services. He also supports the importance of an adequate vision toward a global and integrated public policy of water services. He also stresses the importance of a systemic and holistic approach to public policy, paying great attention to the emerging challenges of the sector and the need to combine the national strategic plan with the strategic plans of water utilities at the local level. In the final Guest Editorial, Dr. Pilar Cornejo, from the Polytechnic University, Pacific International Center for Disaster Risk Reduction, Ecuador, discusses Building Up climate Resilience: The Duran Case Study. Pilar highlights, in the context of climate extremes and change, the relevance of integrating water management into urban planning to mitigate flooding risks. From this study, she concludes that local authorities are increasingly receptive to partnering with local academia, recognizing the value of evidence-based approaches to building resilient cities. Pilar advises that early warning systems proved invaluable during the 2023–2024 El Niño/Southern Oscillation event, aiding in both planning and response efforts. She emphasizes the need for collaborative approaches to ensure swift action in response to potential threats, as well as the need for communities and local authorities to work together to safeguard against disasters. In the second part of this Special Issue, we have the pleasure of presenting to our readers a group of eight selected articles that illustrate relevant aspects and innovative approaches in water governance from different regions of the world. In the first article, “Measuring water poverty based on SDG 6,” Nicolás Acosta-González and Pablo Chafla discuss how “water poverty” is assessed basing on four dimensions: (i) safety, (ii) sanitation, (iii) hygiene, and (iv) quality, concluding that water poverty measures are signs of poverty and deprivation in a broader sense. The second article by Kyoo-Man Ha, “Emergency mitigation of drought worldwide: Qualitative descriptive design,” describes how human societies could improve emergency mitigation of drought, concluding that droughts must be addressed through multiple alternatives and include a strategic vision. Based on the effectiveness of long-term emergency mitigation, the author concludes that droughts must be addressed through multiple alternatives to include a strategic vision. Prashant Vadikar presents the third article, “Community-based rainwater harvesting management: A lesson from best rural practices,” in which he traces rural community-based best practices in water harvesting to reveal how water problems have been solved through community participation, resulting in cost efficiency and revenue benefits from cooperative strategies. In the fourth article, “Institutional arrangements for improving WATSAN services in the rural villages of India: A systems thinking approach,” Martin Kofi Kanyagui and coauthors examine the impact of institutional arrangements on water and sanitation services (WATSAN) in a village context in India. The authors advocate for setting up a local WATSAN fund to ensure sustainable service delivery and a better understanding of the broader governance environment for sustainable WATSAN delivery in rural communities. Edith Malemba and coauthors present the fifth article, “Enabling policy environment for water operator partnerships in enabling the Southern African Development Community.” The authors evaluate the enabling policy environment for water operator partnerships in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, finding that it is crucial for policy and legislation to clearly define roles and responsibilities, as well as empower relevant agencies. “The role of water safety plans (WSP) to enhance the compatibility in water sector, Egypt” is the sixth article by Ahmed G. Yehia and coauthors. The authors discuss the decision of the Egyptian Government, which is seeking to achieve comprehensive development through Megaprojects, highlighting the role of WSPs in creating and reinforcing resilience in the water sector. In the seventh article, “Transboundary water resource management and food security: an Indonesian perspective,” Chay Asdak and Yulizar Yulizar use the Cimanuk watershed in Indonesia to discuss the importance of transboundary water resource management as one of the key components of ensuring that water is managed appropriately in Indonesia and evaluates long-term government policies, plans, and initiatives based on their responsibility. Finally, and to close with a golden key in this second section of our celebratory Special Issue, Supryia Joshi and Ramesh Ghimire present important conclusions in “Women in water resource management: a review of water policies of Nepal.” The authors show that despite being a major stakeholder, women's voices are often absent in water management decisions. Importantly, they conclude that in the case of Nepal, at least, the recent water policies of Nepal are more gender inclusive and are increasingly recognizing the role of women as major stakeholders. Surely some good news to finish on! A big thank you to all our authors and peer reviewers who contributed so much to this issue. We hope this Special Issue is read with interest and that it supports reflection about the recent challenges and the future of water policy and practice in the complex global context we are all facing today. Our very best wishes. Susana Neto, Jeff Camkin Hemos entrado con mucho orgullo en 2024, año en a en Westphalia Press, de The Policy Studies Organization (PSO), con de de El World Water Policy Journal en 2019, con a de Wiley en de a de ideas con de Paul Rich de en PSO. Paul a en 2014, en Paul! mucho a Daniel Director de PSO, en de a con 10 en sector Yingjie Noelito Valdivia Sarah Ritchie en Wiley, en Icyimpaye Adeline. 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