A classmate who participated in the group project we did for the
Conflict, democracy and facilitation course is now in Berlin as an Erasmus student. She is doing her assignment on risk management, and she will be focusing on, as she called him: “our old friend” Habermas, and communicative rationality. Because our group field research in Gotland was focused on trust and collaboration in water management, she wanted to integrate our findings in her assignment too.
Interestingly enough, while doing her research, she found current documents describing the situation in Gotland very differently than a year ago:
“The water resources are exposed to various threats and risks. At the same time, there is a risk of conflict situations between different areas of use. This can, for example, be about the influence of individual sewage, agriculture, the lime industry, but also the nature conservation interest is an opposite interest to the water supply. Water protection areas are perhaps the most important measure in a long-term perspective to ensure the quality of water supplies. The protection of public water resources is currently insufficient on Gotland, and extensive work on establishing and reviewing water protection areas will have to be done in the coming years.
Regional water supply plan for Gotland County
– Goolge translation from the original:
Vattenresurserna är utsatta för olika hot och risker. Samtidigt finns det risk för konfliktsituationer mellan olika användningsområden. Det kan till exempel handla om påverkan från enskilda avlopp, jordbruket, kalkindustrin, men även naturvårdsintresset är ett motstående intresse till vattenförsörjningen. Vattenskyddsområden är den kanske viktigaste åtgärden i ett långsiktigt perspektiv för att säkerställa kvaliteten i vattentäkterna. Skyddet av allmänna vattentäkter är idag otillräckligt på Gotland, och ett omfattande arbete med inrättande och översyn av vattenskyddsområden kommer att behöva göras under de närmaste åren.” Regional vattenförsörjningsplan för Gotlands län. 18/12/2018
As she put it: one year ago no one wanted to call it “a shortage” and now not only they do, but they acknowledged the need of preventing a risk of “conflict”, which they didn’t really see at the time”
