The Policy Implementation Gap: Revisiting Water Governance in the Swan Canning River System

Abstract

Water quality decline has become a serious problem in urban areas around the world recently. Comparable to other cities, Perth is especially susceptible to water challenges. In Perth, the variability of the climate coupled with socio-economic pressures from urbanisation has made water stress a growing concern. Besides the threats of climate change and water stress, the urban waterways of Perth are contending serious water quality decline issues. This is the case of the Swan Canning River system - Perth’s most prominent waterway flowing through the heart of the city. Since the 1940s, the Swan Canning River system has experienced high levels of environmental degradation, resulting in the declining quality of the river’s waters. Over the years various laws and policies aimed to sustainably manage the river system have been enacted. The implementation of the laws and policies however have been ineffective. Scholarly evidence suggests that these frameworks have not achieved the purposes for which they were legislated. What accounts for the disparity between water quality policies and their actual implementation on the ground remains however poorly understood. This thesis consequently investigates the factors underpinning policy-implementation gaps in the Swan Canning. Using an everyday governance approach, this thesis focusses on the actual governance practices on the ground, specifically, the roles that actors play in mediating policy implementation outcomes at various governance scales through their actions, practices, imaginaries, and interactions. The findings of this research show that policy-implementation gaps exist because of the persistence of governance challenges at the micro, meso and macro scales respectively. At the micro scale, the discursive framings of both government and non-government actors have negatively influenced the urgency people attach to water quality problems as well as how they engage in policy supportive behaviours. Evidence suggests that at the meso-scale, water quality management strategies and policies are not entirely effective in tackling specific on-the-ground environmental threats because government actors have excluded local stakeholders and their local knowledge from water governance decision making processes. Lastly, the findings reveal that at the macro level, successful policy outcomes is hindered because present-day management practices of government actors have been layered on top of unresolved bureaucratic problems. These problems prevent government actors from effectively executing their implementation mandates.