Exploring Resilience of Water Management in Slovakia

Abstract: Water resource management in Slovakia is characterized by a ‘command-and-control’ paradigm. The main feature of this approach is in a view that is based on the predictability of the future water situation. People rarely think about water as an issue in Slovakia - the rivers flow, it rains, the taps run. However, after severe floods in 2010, more attention has been given to flood control and prevention. This research aims at revealing unsustainable water management practices in Slovakia through analyzing effects of this management on the municipal level. For this purpose, I conducted a series of interviews as well as distributed and collected questionnaires. The main focus of this study is on the evaluation of adaptability of the water management in Slovakia to respond to future unknown challenges through the use of the theory of resilient thinking. Furthermore, the concept of adaptive (co-) management is applied with four institutional prescriptions: polycentric governance system, public participation, experimentation, and the bioregional perspective. They are linked to the overall idea of resilient thinking where the limits of the prevalent technocratic approach to water management are put under critical scrutiny. The emphasis is on the recognition of the complexity, uncertainty and dynamics of this world. The results of the findings point to the most problematic areas of the water management in Slovakia, within each of the institutional prescriptions, from the municipal perspective. Overall, water management in Slovakia proved to be rigid and incapable of generating sufficient responses to unknown changes and challenges in socio-natural systems. If the water management remains without any adjustments, the difficulties people and mayors face in regards to floods will continue.