Abstrack:
“Governance” within Integrated Water Management (IWM) can be defined more inclusively as a gradual, continuous and holistic process of short, medium and long-term decision making that takes into consideration the on-going conflicts, competition and resolutions between various groups that has a stake on a watershed . A key element within this inclusive approach of governance is its increasing recognition in dealing with Heartware (stakeholder and community willingness to cooperate) – in addition to the ?hardware? (science and technology) and ?software? (policy) aspects of governance. Some have even argued that any hardware and software would not be sustainable without enough heartware to drive its development. Although inspiring, available lessons in incorporating elements of heartware in the governance of IWM are mostly derived from the experience of other countries and its usefulness may be dependent to the countries? respective contexts. Historical context, economic priorities, political culture, religious beliefs and socio cultural diversity are some of the characteristics that may differentiate the potential responses of the different society in dealing with Heartware. Therefore, although one can take inspiration from the experience of others, it is still very important to explore the extent to which the heartware approach in IWM is useful when applied within the local context. Based on these reasons, a study has been conducted by the researchers to explore elements of shared local values in the context of a watershed village community in the State of Selangor, Malaysia. We hope that the findings can provide preliminary insights on how far the heartware approach can be useful within a local context.
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