27 results on '"water policy reform"'
Search Results
2. World Bank and urban water supply reforms in India : a case study on Karnataka
- Author
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Ghosh Mitra, Susanna, Burch, Martin, and Gains, Francesca
- Subjects
320 ,water policy reform ,political economy ,policy transfer - Abstract
In 2002, the Indian government initiated a broad range of programmes that proposed market-based reforms for water. Inspired by World Bank’s policy ideas, the processes have often led to conflicts in India. The conventional wisdom on water sector policies in developing countries insists that international structures constrain and determine state behavior in initiating policy change. However, I argue that changes in urban water policies in India is, primarily, not a case of sole dominance of international financial institutions and imposition of external preferences; rather they also reflect the new global realities of transformed ‘state interests and institutions’ emerging in India. My argument is, while external engagement in water sector continues, the developments of the federal state in an globalised era of political and economic interchanges has led to new equations in the central-local relations. Within the new governance structures emerging in the decentralized context, the sub-national units emerge as significant influences on the speed, pace, and extent of enactment and implementation of global water policies in India. The adoption of national and State water policies, since 2002, and implementation of 24/7 water supply programme illustrates my argument. To support my argument I draw on the policy transfer literature to explain global policy initiatives in water in India. I develop a framework based on theories of policy transfer and political economy of policy reform for a critical and systematic analysis on global policy transfer in the context of World Bank programmes in India. Using case study evidence of transfer to a single sub-national-state in India, and drawing out comparisons on design and implementation of two water supply projects, I provide critical insights on implementation of global policy ideas within local settings, undertaken by the sub-national political and policy elite in India. My findings highlight a coincidence of interests between sub-national policy elite and global actors in introducing market mechanisms in water, and thereby link global neoliberal restructuring of water to transformed state power and interests at domestic levels. The ‘political economy of policy transfer’ in water therefore contributes to the theoretical and empirical literature on water policy-making in an era of increased global exchanges.
- Published
- 2010
3. Is there public desire for a federal takeover of water resource management in Australia?
- Author
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Wheeler, Sarah Ann, Owens, Katherine, and Zuo, Alec
- Subjects
- *
WATER management , *MAJORITIES , *EVAPOTRANSPIRATION , *WATER supply , *TRANSBOUNDARY waters - Abstract
• Investigated Australian's preferences for Federal takeover of water management. • Only a majority of ACT and SA respondents supported takeover. • Investigated public's characteristics associated with water management views. • Location, age, education, children and trust all important influences of views. • Insights offered into other areas where increasing Federal governance is warranted. Multi-jurisdictional water governance issues remain an ongoing challenge in transboundary and other water resource areas. Achieving coordinated and effective governance at the local, state, federal and international levels remains critical for good water governance. Under Australia's 1901 Constitution, states have the power to allocate water resources. To date, water resources in numerous areas have been overallocated to consumptive use, causing increasing environmental sustainability challenges. This is particularly prevalent in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), which spans four states and one territory, posing significant governance challenges. Due to the difficulties of changing and coordinating water management across multiple states, a growing number of Australians are calling for a complete Federal takeover of water resources through constitutional amendment. To change the Constitution, a double majority vote would be required, namely from both the Australian public nationally and from a majority of voters in a majority of the states. This study investigates the Australian public's desire for a Commonwealth takeover of water resources, focussing specifically on the MDB. It finds only lukewarm support for a Commonwealth takeover of water resources, with less than four in ten participants supporting the proposal. Overall, the ACT and South Australia are the only areas with a slight majority in favour of the takeover. One of the strongest predictors of support was location (such as living in a MDB state, and especially South Australia), but other significant factors included age, education, children, home ownership and trust in the Federal government and university researchers. We conclude that a complete water resource takeover by Federal government is highly unlikely to occur, but offer insights into other areas where increasing Federal intervention is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. A role for legitimacy metrics in advancing and sustaining environmental water reforms?
- Author
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Marshall, Graham R. and Lobry De Bruyn, Lisa A.
- Subjects
- *
ENVIRONMENTAL management , *REFORMS , *WATER management , *WATER , *KEY performance indicators (Management) - Abstract
Legitimacy deficits have been identified as central to the ongoing challenges encountered in implementing the policy reforms introduced to reduce the environmental impacts of over-allocating water in the Murray-Darling Basin. In closing the special issue on Building and Maintaining Trust and Legitimacy in Environmental Water Management, this article draws on the preceding articles in responding to a call for the focus of evaluations of environmental water reforms to be broadened to assess their performance against metrics of legitimacy. The first aim is to consider some analytical issues to be encountered in developing legitimacy metrics for MDB environmental water reform contexts. The other aim is to explore the role of legitimacy metrics in empirical research designed to strengthen the evidence available for deciding whether and how to invest in establishing and sustaining the legitimacy of the MDB reforms. Particular reference is made to empirical studies of the consequences and antecedents of legitimacy in U.S. contexts of the law and its policing. Furnishing policy makers with reliable evidence to guide their decisions on whether and how to invest in the legitimacy of the MDB environmental water reforms will require studies of this kind that are adapted to the unique contexts of these reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. Sustaining Reforms in Water Service Delivery: the Role of Service Quality, Salience, Trust and Financial Viability.
- Author
-
Jensen, Olivia and Chindarkar, Namrata
- Subjects
WATER supply ,QUALITY of service ,REVENUE management ,ACQUISITION of data ,MUNICIPAL water supply - Abstract
The long-term success of water service reforms depends on sufficient revenues being collected from users to allow access to be extended and quality of service to be maintained, given constraints on the availability of other sources of funding. Financial sustainability will be undermined if a large proportion of users do not pay their water bills. Using household survey data collected around a unique water supply intervention to provide universal piped connections with continuous supply in the city of Nagpur in India, this paper explores the determinants of household water bill payment. We consider the importance of global service improvements and service extension, coping behaviours, specific service quality measures, and behavioural factors affecting decisions, including salience, trust and social norms, as well as external constraints. We find that global service improvements and extensions are strongly associated with bill payment, alongside salience and trust in the utility. Our findings highlight the advantages of integrated, area-wise reform programmes in improving service and achieving financial sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
6. Integrated Water Management in Tunisia: Meeting the Climate Change Challenges
- Author
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Omrani, N., Ouessar, M., Choukr-Allah, Redouane, editor, Ragab, Ragab, editor, and Rodriguez-Clemente, Rafael, editor
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
7. Evolving Governance and Contested Water Reforms in Australia's Murray Darling Basin.
- Author
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Alexandra, Jason
- Subjects
WATER supply ,WATER supply management ,SOCIAL values ,RATIONALISM ,ENVIRONMENTALISM - Abstract
This paper explores the ways water governance adapts to changing social values and political imperatives by examining the case of water policy reforms in Australia's Murray Darling Basin. Over more than two decades, Australia's water reforms have explicitly aimed to promote ecological sustainability and economic efficiency, attempting to balance pro-market, micro-economic reforms with broader social and sustainability goals. Despite the formality of Australia's intergovernmental agreements, water reforms have been expensive and heavily contested, experiencing many implementation challenges. However, water market reforms have generally been regarded as successful, enabling the reallocation of water for environmental and extractive uses, contributing to flexibility and adaptive capacity. Recognising that discursive contestation is central to policy development, the paper documents the way the reform processes have attempted to broker compromises between three competing policy paradigms--national development, economic rationalism and environmentalism. These inherent tensions resulted in prolonged contests for influence over policy directions long after formal statements of policy intent by Governments. Given that climate change is driving the need for water governance reforms, the paper looks to what lessons can be learnt about the redesigns of meta-governance arrangements, including through structured commitments to independent audits and evaluations that can provide the feedback needed for adaptive governance and policy learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
8. The city as nature and the nature of the city - climate adaptation using living infrastructure: governance and integration challenges.
- Author
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Alexandra, Jason
- Abstract
The successful twenty-first-century cities are likely to be based on new visions and new imaginings of the city as nature and the nature of the city. Water is an integral part of our cities’ evolution with understanding of its values and relationships changing along with the technologies and governance regimes used for managing it. Green or living infrastructure is emerging as a paradigm based on integrating ecological elements to enhance cities and their adaptive capacity. Water is involved in almost all living infrastructure due to its ubiquitous nature and centrality in urban and living systems, for example, in the cooling nature of urban trees. This paper summarises the key water-related findings of the Canberra Urban and Regional Futures project on living infrastructure. The wider application of living infrastructure could generate multiple social and environmental benefits but these are constrained by substantive integration and governance challenges within the intrinsically politicalised processes shaping cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
9. Water policy debate in Australia: Understanding the tenets of stakeholders’ social trust.
- Author
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Wheeler, Sarah Ann, Hatton MacDonald, Darla, and Boxall, Peter
- Subjects
STAKEHOLDERS ,WATER management ,ENVIRONMENTAL economics ,CLIMATE change ,REGRESSION analysis - Abstract
The increasing physical and economic scarcity of water due to increasing societal demands and climate change will require worldwide water policy reform. Water reform is an area of public policy fraught with polarised positions regarding community and environmental welfare. As opposition to water policy reform becomes entrenched, transaction costs increase. Nowhere is this more evident than the controversy surrounding, and irrigators’ opposition to, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in Australia. This study sought to understand irrigators’ trust issues and why they feel the way they do towards water reform, though a best-worst survey methodology and regression analysis. The results suggest that irrigators believe they are shouldering a fair share of the water reform burden. Lack of trust in the national water agency and the federal government is associated with irrigator location, age and climate change disbelief. Findings support the recent push for more localised water decision-making to promote social trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
10. Evolving Governance and Contested Water Reforms in Australia’s Murray Darling Basin
- Author
-
Jason Alexandra
- Subjects
water policy reform ,irrigation ,water markets ,institutional re-design ,enforcement innovation ,climate adaptation ,adaptive water governance ,Murray Darling Basin ,Australia ,Hydraulic engineering ,TC1-978 ,Water supply for domestic and industrial purposes ,TD201-500 - Abstract
This paper explores the ways water governance adapts to changing social values and political imperatives by examining the case of water policy reforms in Australia’s Murray Darling Basin. Over more than two decades, Australia’s water reforms have explicitly aimed to promote ecological sustainability and economic efficiency, attempting to balance pro-market, micro-economic reforms with broader social and sustainability goals. Despite the formality of Australia’s intergovernmental agreements, water reforms have been expensive and heavily contested, experiencing many implementation challenges. However, water market reforms have generally been regarded as successful, enabling the reallocation of water for environmental and extractive uses, contributing to flexibility and adaptive capacity. Recognising that discursive contestation is central to policy development, the paper documents the way the reform processes have attempted to broker compromises between three competing policy paradigms—national development, economic rationalism and environmentalism. These inherent tensions resulted in prolonged contests for influence over policy directions long after formal statements of policy intent by Governments. Given that climate change is driving the need for water governance reforms, the paper looks to what lessons can be learnt about the redesigns of meta-governance arrangements, including through structured commitments to independent audits and evaluations that can provide the feedback needed for adaptive governance and policy learning.
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
11. Investing in recovering water for the environment in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin.
- Author
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Banerjee, Onil
- Subjects
- *
COMPUTABLE general equilibrium models , *IRRIGATION efficiency , *REGULATORY reform , *WATER consumption , *ECONOMICS ,MURRAY-Darling Basin (Canberra, A.C.T.) -- Environmental conditions - Abstract
Irrigated agriculture makes an important contribution to the economy of Australia's Murray-Darling Basin. Competing water demand, recurring drought and climate change have ushered in an era of water policy reform. To recover water for the environment, surface water extraction is capped and investment in irrigation infrastructure is prioritized. This article applies a computable general equilibrium model to evaluate the economic impacts of investment in irrigation in a case study of the Murrumbidgee subcatchment. Results indicate an increase in regional output, income and employment, while at the national level there is a small negative impact resulting from the transfer of resources to the basin and the crowding out of private investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
12. Water allocation reform: what makes it so difficult?
- Author
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Hellegers, Petra and Leflaive, Xavier
- Subjects
- *
WATER rights , *FOOD security , *ENERGY security , *CLIMATE change , *WATER demand management - Abstract
The increasingly urgent reform of water allocation is challenged by the complexity of the political dimension, in particular the need to reconcile often competing objectives such as food and energy security and green growth. Moreover, these objectives are unstable, and allocation regimes have to adjust to shifting priorities and circumstances at the lowest cost to society. Climate change generates additional uncertainty in water availability and demand. This calls for robust allocation regimes that can adjust, reallocate and reduce water allocation in an organized way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
13. Impacts of supply duration on the design and performance of intermittent water distribution systems in the West Bank.
- Author
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Abu-Madi, Maher and Trifunovic, Nemanja
- Subjects
- *
CONTINUOUS distributions , *PROBABILITY theory , *COST , *HYDRAULICS , *WATER , *GOVERNMENT policy - Abstract
This paper analyzes the intermittent water distribution system in the West Bank, Palestine. It quantifies the impacts of reduced supply duration on the hydraulics and costs of water distribution. It shows that designing systems based on intermittent supply criteria implies increasing the diameters of pipes significantly, which is expensive and infeasible. The paper recommends that studying the local conditions should precede the design of new systems to avoid reduced supply duration and related negative impacts. In addition, improving governance, revising tariffs, reducing leakage, saving water, involving the private sector, and improving water diplomacy should be considered in any water policy reform. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2013
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
14. A community in the Orange: the development of a multi-level water governance framework in the Orange-Senqu River basin in Southern Africa.
- Author
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Jacobs, Inga
- Subjects
WATER management ,COOPERATIVE management of natural resources ,MULTI-level governance (Theory) - Abstract
An ensemble of normative codes of conduct in the form of global, regional and domestic norms, principles of best practice and laws have developed over time providing standards of appropriate behaviour in the governance of transboundary rivers in an attempt to eradicate or minimise real or perceived conflicts. Through a multi-levelled analysis of water governance in the Orange-Senqu River basin in Southern Africa, this paper investigates the relationships between co-operative management norms constructed at different levels of scale, and the ways in which both norm and context are transformed as a result of the other. At the basin level, legal and institutional processes symbolise a movement towards norm convergence in the basin. However, norm drivers (such as technical co-operation, personalised politics, trust and confidence building) and norm barriers (such as skills flight and the lack of trust) to the development of a 'community of interest' in the Orange-Senqu River basin have also been significant in shaping the legal and normative landscape. An analysis of global, regional, basin-wide and local norms is therefore useful because it illustrates the interconnectedness of their interactions as well as how their content is affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
15. A Fragile Hegemon, a Fragile Hegemonic Discourse: A Critical Engagement with the Hydropolitical Complex and Implications of South Africa's Hydropolitical Environment for Southern Africa.
- Author
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Jacobs, Inga
- Subjects
HEGEMONY ,WATER security ,WATER supply management ,KNOWLEDGE transfer - Abstract
As a result of the water security dilemma in southern Africa and the relative scarcity of the resource in the region, several scholars have referred to southern Africa as a hydropolitical complex. Using a constructivist ontology, this paper attempts to illustrate the hydropolitical complex's strengths and weaknesses in both helping and hindering an understanding of transboundary water resources by emphasising that while state-centric and/or system level analyses may lend themselves to basin-wide cooperative strategies due to the manner in which water is prioritised as a strategic resource within a river basin and beyond a basin, it displays a limited utility in explaining subnational configurations. Using South Africa as a case study, and thereby opening up the black box of the region's most powerful state, the hydropolitical complex unveils its numerous weaknesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2010
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
16. Mainstreaming the Participatory Approach in Water Resource Governance: The 2002 water law in Kenya.
- Author
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K'akumu, O. A.
- Subjects
- *
WATER laws , *MANAGEMENT , *PUBLIC welfare , *WATER power , *NATURAL resources , *WATER quality , *WATER utilities , *WATER activity of food - Abstract
O.A. K'Akumu examines reforms that have been put in place by the Water Act of 2002 in Kenya. He shows that the government remains an active and powerful player in the management of water while local institutions need to be strengthened for effective water resource governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2008
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
17. Water policy reform in Australia: lessons from the Victorian seasonal water market.
- Author
-
Brennan, Donna
- Subjects
WATER supply ,SEASONAL industries ,MARKETS ,INVESTMENTS ,ECONOMIC seasonal variations - Abstract
The nature of the seasonal water market is examined using a theoretical model and empirical evidence from the Victorian market. Drivers of the seasonal opportunity cost of water include the underlying nature of investment in the industry made in the context of risky entitlement yields; and the timing and nature of information regarding seasonal water availability and rainfall. Seasonal water markets facilitate the re-allocation of water availability according to this short-run opportunity cost. Evidence from the market suggests that transactions costs are low and most of the existing constraints to trade in seasonal allocations are the result of hydrological conditions. Analysis of market data suggests that the price response of the market to water availability is much more pronounced in years of low rainfall. The implications of the paper for wider policy reform are that attention should be paid to improving property rights for the management of intertemporal risk before other reforms, such as broadening of permanent water markets and institutionalising environmental flows, are implemented. This is because these other reforms will change the spatial and temporal pattern of water use and thus affect reliability, which underpins the value of water in irrigated agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2006
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
18. Water policy debate in Australia: Understanding the tenets of stakeholders’ social trust
- Author
-
Darla Hatton MacDonald, Peter C. Boxall, Sarah Ann Wheeler, Wheeler, Sarah Ann, Hatton, MacDonald Darla, and Boxall, Peter
- Subjects
Economic growth ,water policy reform ,media_common.quotation_subject ,0208 environmental biotechnology ,Geography, Planning and Development ,0211 other engineering and technologies ,Opposition (politics) ,Public policy ,Climate change ,social trust ,02 engineering and technology ,Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law ,Murray-Darling basin ,Scarcity ,Survey methodology ,Economics ,best-worst scaling ,Nature and Landscape Conservation ,media_common ,Transaction cost ,applied economics ,Applied economics ,021107 urban & regional planning ,Forestry ,020801 environmental engineering ,Political economy ,Welfare - Abstract
The increasing physical and economic scarcity of water due to increasing societal demands and climate change will require worldwide water policy reform. Water reform is an area of public policy fraught with polarised positions regarding community and environmental welfare. As opposition to water policy reform becomes entrenched, transaction costs increase. Nowhere is this more evident than the controversy surrounding, and irrigators’ opposition to, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in Australia. This study sought to understand irrigators’ trust issues and why they feel the way they do towards water reform, though a best-worst survey methodology and regression analysis. The results suggest that irrigators believe they are shouldering a fair share of the water reform burden. Lack of trust in the national water agency and the federal government is associated with irrigator location, age and climate change disbelief. Findings support the recent push for more localised water decision-making to promote social trust. Refereed/Peer-reviewed
- Published
- 2017
19. Water policy reform and Indigenous governance.
- Author
-
von der Portena, Suzanne and de Loë, Rob C.
- Subjects
- *
WATER laws , *WATER , *INDIGENOUS self-determination , *ECONOMIC reform , *ECONOMIC development , *ECONOMIC change , *GOVERNMENT policy - Abstract
Concerns related to the governance of water that have emerged at the global scale have created pressure for, and an increase in, water policy reform in many countries. Simultaneously, Indigenous governance movements related to self-determination are undergoing an immense period of growth and change worldwide; the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has been a milestone of this growth. These movements are significant because of Indigenous peoples' asserted rights to lands, waters, and natural resources. In this paper, we explore the extent to which water policy reform efforts recognize concepts of Indigenous governance and self-determination. The extent to which these concepts are recognized is critical because water policy reform often occurs in the asserted traditional territories of Indigenous peoples. Using an empirical case study of water policy reform in British Columbia (BC), Canada, we demonstrate why in Indigenous traditional homelands, water policy reform efforts should have regard for the main tenets of Indigenous governance. The findings indicate that, problematic assumptions exist regarding the role of First Nations. These assumptions have the potential to undermine the prospects for water policy reform. Revisiting these assumptions may be the basis for more effective, enduring policy changes. Implications for water reform processes around the world are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
20. Water policy development and governance in the Caribbean: an overview of regional progress.
- Author
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Cashman, Adrian C.
- Subjects
- *
WATER management , *GOVERNMENT policy , *WATER supply , *WATER quality , *WATER utilities - Abstract
Water management institutions and arrangements in many Caribbean states have not, until recently, altered substantially for some sixty years with the current arrangements reflecting the predominant governance paradigm of a transitional colonial era. This is most obvious in the continuance of a sectoral approach to what might be referred to as the business of government. This, however, is beginning to change such that the water sector in the Caribbean region exhibits varying stages of institutional re-ordering as it seeks to respond to challenges of increasing demand on and for water. This paper reviews the institutional status of water management and water policy developments in the Caribbean through examples from fifteen English-speaking Caribbean states. The trends and influences that are contributing to policy change and governance responses are examined and critiqued, in order to explore where and what potential tensions the re-ordering might give rise to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
21. Designing tradeable rights to manage aquifer recharge according to robust separation principles.
- Author
-
Ward, John, Dillon, Peter, and Grandgirard, Agnes
- Subjects
AQUIFER storage recovery ,WATER storage ,WATER quality management ,SEPARATION (Technology) ,FILTERS & filtration ,WATER supply ,WATER reuse ,HYDROLOGIC cycle ,AQUIFERS - Abstract
Many cities are experiencing mature urban water economies, characterised by limited opportunities for future water impoundments, rising incremental supply and infrastructure costs, intensified competition and increased interdependencies between diverse water uses. Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) is currently promoted as one option to augment existing supplies and in many jurisdictions is assuming increasing importance in the portfolio of urban water management strategies. Consistent with trends in international water policy development, Australian water reform has emphasised institutional and governance approaches promoting voluntary transfers of water through market exchange. The reform process has made substantial advances in addressing the constraints and tensions associated with mature rural water economies, with limited influence in urban water systems. What remains unclear is the degree of alignment of new water management technologies such as ASR operations with explicit water reform directives of market development and the capacity of subsequent urban water legislation to provide consistent and coherent ASR guidelines. The paper describes a systematic approach to align the hydrological characteristics of an aquifer with economic and policy interpretations central to the development and management of ASR. The paper introduces a schema to identify the elements of the urban terrestrial water cycle specific to ASR, the development of a typology to characterise the aquifer potential for ASR, and identify and determine the nature of property rights for each system element according to the principles of robust separation of water rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2008
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
22. Development of the water trading market in Australia : teachings to Japan
- Author
-
Kondo, Manabu
- Subjects
Water Resource Economics ,Water Trading Market ,Water Demand Management ,Integrated Catchment Management ,Water Policy Reform ,Integrated Water Resource Management - Abstract
The new approaches to water resources management that have replaceddam construction have been investigated after the 1980s in the world. Reflectingon the conventional dam development policy having brought about thedisruption of ecosystem and serious government deficits, especially this beingapplied to Japan, there is a new approach that is known as the “bottom-up”approach. As some of the concrete results of this new approach, we can point to“integrated water resource (or catchment) management” (IWRM or ICM) and“water trading market” being used as an incentive mechanism.Water trading is the most excellent re-distribution system for water atpresent in the stage to which the water resource development based on dams (Iname this type of water development system as “New Deal”-type approach.) hascompleted the adjustment of fundamental infrastructures and marginal cost ofnew water resources development came to invite government deficits andenvironmental destructions. In order to show this, the dam construction policyand water trading market were compared and analyzed theoretically.Next, ICM is a new management system based on the “bottom-up”approach aiming to integrate ecosystem preservation and economicdevelopment.Both systems were mutually related through approval process of waterdealings, and it was shown clearly that water trading serves as one componentpart of ICM, especially in Australia.Australia introduced these two systems promptly and has developed themeven into a world's largest scale today. We can point out the developmentfactors which brought about such a big change in the field of water trading asfollows.(1) Introduction of the CAP system 1(2) Neo-liberal reform to ”Big Government”, and “Corporatization” of publicservices(3) Introduction and improvement of experience of the internationalmarket-based management techniques(4) Peculiarity of the irrigation agriculture of Australia(5) Powerful support as one of the national competition policy by Governments.The experience of Australia is teaching us that the new water resourcesmanagement approach that does not depend on dams can be feasible andrealistic by both the introduction of ICM and the foundation of water tradingmarket. Furthermore, if this “bottom-up” approach (that is, market-based anddecentralized approach) can be established and extended into Japan, a “too biggovernment” for economic growth and the bureaucratic rigidity in Japan will berationalized to some extent, and a new possibility and vitality could be inspiredinto Japanese society.
- Published
- 2007
23. Comparative analysis of agricultural water pricing between Azarbaijan Provinces in Iran and the state of California in the US: A hydro-economic approach.
- Author
-
Momeni, Marzieh, Zakeri, Zahra, Esfandiari, Mojtaba, Behzadian, Kourosh, Zahedi, Sina, and Razavi, Vahid
- Subjects
- *
AGRICULTURAL prices , *ONIONS , *WATERMELONS , *PURCHASING power parity , *CROPS , *WATER in agriculture , *WATER analysis - Abstract
• Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) index compared the amount of water consumed for producing selected crops in the Case Study to that in California. • Slight difference was found between price of water used for selected crops in the case study and that in California when PPP Index was applied. • Using PPP index, one may argue that institutional reforms are more effective to reduce water demand compared to policy of raising water charges. • Such an approach promotes water policy makers in developing countries to apply this method in their local water resources management. Iranian water authority has recently announced that one of the effective ways to avoid unprecedented high water consumption in Iran's agriculture sector is to increase water price. This paper analyzes the feasibility of this policy by using a hydro-economic approach with the aim to consider the role of water pricing in agricultural water management. Such an analysis was conducted through comparing price of water consumed for producing selected agricultural crops (i.e. wheat, sugar beets, onion, tomato, barley, potato, corn, alfalfa hay and watermelon) in a case study on two provinces (East Azarbaijan and West Azarbaijan) in Iran to that in the state of California (CA) in the USA. According to the paper, the method uses the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) Index for the first time to analyze the water prices of agricultural crops in the case study due to the specific regional circumstances in the Case Study (i.e. severe fluctuations and continuously changing currency) that prevent using the norm of Nominal Exchange Rate Index (NERI). The results show there is no significant difference between the water price for producing the selected crops in West Azarbaijan (W.AZ) and East Azarbaijan (E.AZ) provinces and that in the state of California if PPP Index is applied. Water price for producing each kilogram of some crops such as wheat, sugar beet, onion and watermelon (except potato and barley) is estimated to be between 60–80 percent of that in the state of California. However, this ratio is ironically equal to 116% for alfalfa hay and 105% for corn. As a result, considering the obtained results, one may realize that the whole problem can be hardly attributed to the low price of agricultural water in our case study and raising agricultural water price would never be effective for reducing water consumption in the studied area unless price adjustment accompanies developing necessary infrastructures. Unlike the views that advocate raising water prices, there are two distinct views: The first declares that agricultural water should be free of charge to the farmers because it returns to the hydrological cycle. The second view stipulates that instead of raising water prices in agriculture sector, the cost of water supply for agriculture should be reduced by new technologies. It is advised that before adjusting agricultural water price, institutional reforms are required based on the experiences of other countries and establishing local water distribution cooperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
24. Water allocation reform : what makes it so difficult?
- Author
-
Xavier Leflaive and Petra Hellegers
- Subjects
Natural resource economics ,business.industry ,water policy reform ,Environmental resource management ,Climate change ,WASS ,Energy security ,Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law ,Water Resources Management ,green growth ,Water resources ,Politics ,Green growth ,Economics ,robust water allocation regimes ,Dimension (data warehouse) ,business ,Water Science and Technology - Abstract
The increasingly urgent reform of water allocation is challenged by the complexity of the political dimension, in particular the need to reconcile often competing objectives such as food and energy security and green growth. Moreover, these objectives are unstable, and allocation regimes have to adjust to shifting priorities and circumstances at the lowest cost to society. Climate change generates additional uncertainty in water availability and demand. This calls for robust allocation regimes that can adjust, reallocate and reduce water allocation in an organized way.
- Published
- 2015
25. A New Institutional Economics Approach to Water Resource Management
- Author
-
Sharma, Dhruv
- Subjects
Institutional economics ,Water policy reform ,Murray Darling Basin ,Institutions ,Water resource management - Abstract
Water policy makers around the world currently face the Sisyphean task of managing water resources that have deteriorated due to overuse and mismanagement. This thesis focuses on water resource management and places emphasis on the water policy reform process, with particular reference to Australia’s most important, yet most problematic, water resource – the Murray-Darling Basin. It emphasises the importance of institutions in dealing with effective water management and the water policy reform process. The neo-classical economics approach is limited in its approach to water resource management. There is scope for alternative, multidimensional approaches. The new institutional economics tradition offers one such alternative. It is argued that a new institutional economics approach, combined with recognition of the challenges of governance, can provide an alternative and more holistic approach to water resource management. Using a levels of institutions approach this thesis identifies aspects of the current approach to management of the Murray Darling Basin that could be improved. It identifies the potential for transaction cost reduction in water markets and successful policy implementation by emphasising the need to focus, alongside economic and political institutions, on social institutions such as cultural norms and behavioural attitudes towards water resources. A new institutional economics analytical framework is used to re-contextualise the water policy debate by centralising the environment within the policy reform process.
- Published
- 2012
26. Water policy reform in Australia: lessons from the Victorian seasonal water market
- Author
-
Brennan, Donna C.
- Subjects
water markets ,Resource /Energy Economics and Policy ,water policy reform ,irrigation - Abstract
The nature of the seasonal water market is examined using a theoretical model and empirical evidence from the Victorian market. Drivers of the seasonal opportunity cost of water include the underlying nature of investment in the industry made in the context of risky entitlement yields; and the timing and nature of information regarding seasonal water availability and rainfall. Seasonal water markets facilitate the reallocation of water availability according to this short-run opportunity cost. Evidence from the market suggests that transactions costs are low and most of the existing constraints to trade in seasonal allocations are the result of hydrological conditions. Analysis of market data suggests that the price response of the market to water availability is much more pronounced in years of low rainfall. The implications of the paper for wider policy reform are that attention should be paid to improving property rights for the management of intertemporal risk before other reforms, such as broadening of permanent water markets and institutionalising environmental flows, are implemented. This is because these other reforms will change the spatial and temporal pattern of water use and thus affect reliability, which underpins the value of water in irrigated agriculture.
- Published
- 2006
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
27. Irrigation management institutions in transition: a look back, a look forward
- Author
-
Meinzen-Dick, R. and Svendsen, M.
- Subjects
IRRIGATION ,WATER management ,DEVELOPING countries - Abstract
The paper explores current dissatisfaction with past irrigation improvement approaches and examines reasons such dissatisfaction is so widespread. It reviews past and current efforts to improve irrigation management in developing countries and deduces themes with implications for the future. Finally it builds on these themes to speculate on directions in which both public irrigation agencies and local level management institutions will evolve in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1997
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