It is accompanied by a list of useful web sites focusing on water research. News, conference announcements, calls for papers, discussion of research and theory, and other related topics are welcomed and encouraged. Fresh water is increasingly in short supply. The message is clear. Without better management of scarce freshwater resources, sustainable development and environmental security will be impossible.
Experts point to several principal weaknesses in developing water management plans.
These points of weakness might serve as points for applied anthropological research and policy recommendations. Water management is fragmented among individual property owners, sectors, institutions and even nations. Anthropological research might focus on those aspects of the institutional cultures of competing actors that inhibit or enhance cooperation in water management. Recently, farmers in Van Zant County in East Texas took the Ozarka Spring Water Co. to court, arguing that Ozarka was drawing down so much water from the aquifer that their wells had gone dry. The Texas Supreme Court in a split decision found for the Ozarka Water Co. which had argued that the wells went dry because of the drought.