291 complement basin-level institutions, reduce governance gaps, and support more resilient and sustainable water management in mining-influenced contexts. KEYWORDS Water governance, multi-stakeholder participation, mining, local water institutions, river basin governance, National Water Authority, Local Water Administration Authorities, River Basin Council. 1. BACKGROUND AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY In 2008, the National Water Authority (ANA) was established as the governing body for water management and for the SNGRH. One year later, the Water Resources Law (Law No. 29338) was enacted, establishing fundamental principles oriented toward multisectoral and participatory water management at the hydrographic unit level through the creation of River Basin Water Resources Councils (CRHCs). These councils are mandated to coordinate, plan, and build consensus around water resources management. However, significant water governance challenges persist, due to weak institutional arrangements and incipient participation processes, particularly within smaller hydrographic units. According to the OECD, such governance gaps hinder the effective implementation of the SNGRH at the territorial level (2017), primarily as a result of overlapping and poorly coordinated spatial scales (actors and functions at national, regional, and local levels), weak horizontal and vertical interactions, and the misalignment of different water-related temporal dynamics (normal conditions versus crisis situations) (Castro-Salvador, 2023). The implementation of the CRHCs received a major boost in 2010 through the Water Resources Management Modernization Project (PMGRH), which involved an investment of USD 43 million financed by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (ANA, 2010). This initiative promoted the establishment of CRHCs in six pilot basins: Chira-Piura, Chancay-Lambayeque, Santa, Ica-Alto Pampas, Chili-Quilca, and Tacna. More than a decade later, nationwide implementation remains incomplete, and the fifteen CRHCs created to date have gradually lost prominence, as well as the technical and financial support required to promote effective water management capable of addressing the main gaps identified in basin water resources management plans. These gaps include limited technical and financial resources, deficient hydraulic infrastructure, inadequate or non-existent population water treatment systems, insufficient instrumentation for generating updated hydrological information, and limited participation by basin water users, among others. As a result, CRHCs have become consultative mechanisms with constrained decision-making capacity, insufficient technical and financial resources, low levels of representativeness and legitimacy, and increasing questions regarding their effectiveness. In practice, their operational technical arm has often been reduced to a minimal secretariat role. At the same time, perceived water scarcity combined with competition among users for access to water constitutes one of the current challenges facing the mining sector. In high-
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