Chapter 5
Sequity (Sustainable Equity)
The idea of equity is related to development, which is “a process of expanding the
real freedoms that people enjoy.” (Sen, Development as Freedom 1999) Furthermore,
“Freedom can be distinguished both from the means that sustain it and from the
achievements that it sustains.” (Sen, Inequality Reexamined 1992) In this book,
we focus on water as a means with the understanding that it is not a recipe for
“equality of well-being achieved” (Sen, Inequality Reexamined 1992), nor a complete
implementation of social justice theories presented by distinguished people, such as,
Rawls (A Theory of Justice 1999) and Sen (The Idea of Justice 2009).
For the purposes of this book, sustainable water equity “means a fair share considering the water needs and the ability to use the water efficiently” (Dellapenna 2001).
These two requirements, i.e., need and efficiency, have degrees (i.e., they are not
binary) and correspond to two principles of (water) equity: distributive and aggregative, respectively (FIW5c). Many authors and entities in trying to define and explain
sustainable water use stress the two requirements or principles (Loucks and Van Beek
2005; International Law Association 2004). Before continuing with these two, it is
highly significant that they should operate in an environment of fairness, as the above
quote emphasizes. Here, it is sufficient to reiterate that the concepts and procedures
set forth in this book are in accordance with fairness, which promotes transparency
(FIW1), reasonable actions (FIW5) and impartiality (FIW1 and FIW5).
The distributive principle is about members, such as individuals, stakeholders,
groups and zones, and their ‘need’, which is defined as the “essential or very important, not just because you would like to have them” (Oxford Dictionary 2019). This
definition conveys some kind of conditionality, meaning that (water) ‘need’ must be
above a minimum as will be developed in the next subsection.
Chapter 4 is about systems as a whole, more specifically WUSs and their aggregative behaviour, which is presented in this book as Sefficiency. The focus of the current
chapter is about the performance of a system from the point of view of both the
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
N. Haie, Transparent Water Management Theory,
Water Resources Development and Management,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6284-6_5
71
Sequity (Sustainable Equity)
The idea of equity is related to development, which is “a process of expanding the
real freedoms that people enjoy.” (Sen, Development as Freedom 1999) Furthermore,
“Freedom can be distinguished both from the means that sustain it and from the
achievements that it sustains.” (Sen, Inequality Reexamined 1992) In this book,
we focus on water as a means with the understanding that it is not a recipe for
“equality of well-being achieved” (Sen, Inequality Reexamined 1992), nor a complete
implementation of social justice theories presented by distinguished people, such as,
Rawls (A Theory of Justice 1999) and Sen (The Idea of Justice 2009).
For the purposes of this book, sustainable water equity “means a fair share considering the water needs and the ability to use the water efficiently” (Dellapenna 2001).
These two requirements, i.e., need and efficiency, have degrees (i.e., they are not
binary) and correspond to two principles of (water) equity: distributive and aggregative, respectively (FIW5c). Many authors and entities in trying to define and explain
sustainable water use stress the two requirements or principles (Loucks and Van Beek
2005; International Law Association 2004). Before continuing with these two, it is
highly significant that they should operate in an environment of fairness, as the above
quote emphasizes. Here, it is sufficient to reiterate that the concepts and procedures
set forth in this book are in accordance with fairness, which promotes transparency
(FIW1), reasonable actions (FIW5) and impartiality (FIW1 and FIW5).
The distributive principle is about members, such as individuals, stakeholders,
groups and zones, and their ‘need’, which is defined as the “essential or very important, not just because you would like to have them” (Oxford Dictionary 2019). This
definition conveys some kind of conditionality, meaning that (water) ‘need’ must be
above a minimum as will be developed in the next subsection.
Chapter 4 is about systems as a whole, more specifically WUSs and their aggregative behaviour, which is presented in this book as Sefficiency. The focus of the current
chapter is about the performance of a system from the point of view of both the
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
N. Haie, Transparent Water Management Theory,
Water Resources Development and Management,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6284-6_5
71