Water governance PESTEL/SWOT-TOWS analysis in the Andean Community of Nations (ACN)

Abstract

Water management and the control of anthropogenic effects as well as climate change pressures are critical pillars supporting the development of countries. Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, countries of the Andean Community of Nations (ACN) share similar geographic and climatological environments but face challenges in water management due to the increased demand of the resource and the lack of integral governance strategies oriented to the conjunctive use of surface water (SW) and groundwater (GW). The objective of this article is to analyse the regulatory frameworks and priority uses in ACN by applying the Political-Economic-Social-Technological-Ecological-Legal (PESTEL) and Strengths-Opportunities-Weaknesses-Threats (SWOT-TOWS) methods for the proposal of strategic guidelines for integrated water management. The methodology comprises (i) characterization of the study area, (ii) a literature review of regulatory frameworks and water resources data of the ACN, (iii) an analysis of external factors (PESTEL) with a group of experts and internal-external factors (SWOT-TOWS), and (iv) preparation of a water management matrix. Water management in ACN is a significant challenge of the 21st century that requires new public policies, generated through the interaction between government and communities, that consider the integration of engineering knowledge, the technical component, ancestral knowledge, and the integral-participatory approach to the joint use of SW, GW, and wastewater. This study selected the PESTEL factors using the criteria of six experts in water management, identifying that environmental and technological factors had the highest weight of importance (100 %), followed by economic, political, and legal aspects with high importance (75 %). With the integrated SWOT-TOWS analysis, resource management guidelines were established, mainly oriented towards (i) Regulations for the protection of surface and groundwater bodies, (ii) Multidisciplinary technical cooperation for watershed management, and (iii) Public databases of watershed systems. Finally, consider the optimisation of Water-Energy-Food (WEF) resources and the Ministry of Water as the highest level institution in water management.