Institutional issues in river basin management: Stasis and change in England and Wales

IWRM and IRBM are vehicles for sustainable river basin management and will inevitably be delivered through institutional and organisational structures; in this chapter we refer mainly to the agencies which are set up specifically to manage river basins. Agenda 21 states (Chapter 18.21) that, ‘Although water is managed at various levels in the socio-political system, demanddriven management requires the development of water-related institutions at appropriate levels, taking into account the need for integration with land-use management.’ Figure 7.1 illustrates the range of society’s groupings deemed by the Agenda to have key roles in sustainable development. Underlying their involvement are the basic human institutions of finance, education, law, etc. As Delli Priscoli (1989) puts it, ‘Institutions are the embodiment of values in regularized patterns of behaviour. The institutions and organizations that supply and distribute water resources reflect society’s values towards equity, freedom and justice’ (pp. 33, 34).