The State may choose to inform citizens about the system values associated
with selected interventions and engage civil society in a public discussion
about alternative water development paths. However, in most countries it
is rare for civil society to participate in a serious, reflective public discourse
about the behavior of complex hydrological systems, the consequences of
different policy interventions, and the choice between alternative water
development paths. States themselves struggle to understand complex
hydrological systems and how interventions will affect people across time
and space, and facilitating such a public discourse is itself challenging (and
risky from the State’s perspective).