Rivers, policies, and interests

Chapter 13 examines the determinants of river-related policies and considers ways of making further progress toward the Ecological and Open approaches to rivers. It shows that there are broadly two types of obstacles impeding adoption of the Ecological and Open approaches. These are, first, paucity of required knowledge, and, second, vested interests favoring the Commercial and Cordon approaches. External influence from developed countries, until now, has mostly favored the Commercial and Cordon approaches in developing countries. Informing and engaging the public is the main way in which both the obstacles of paucity of knowledge and vested interests can be overcome. Moving the discussion of river policies to the public arena is therefore important.