Scarce Water And Institutional Change

The authors assess alternative approaches to meeting long-term water needs and resolving conflicts among competing water users in five areas: the Columbia River Basin; Kern County, California; south California; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and northeastern Colorado. This book argues that America's water supply problems are caused largely by bad habits and poor policies-especially policies that price water far under its true value. Originally published in 1986

Physical limits to fresh water expansion—an emerging reality in many parts of the world—make absolute water scarcity inevitable. The inability of the already developed water supply to meet an ever-growing demand for fresh water also makes the emergence of relative water scarcity unavoidable. Water scarcity—both in its absolute and relative forms—gets accentuated further by an increasing premium attached to water quality and ecological sustainability.The water sector has undergone remarkable changes in recent years. While past achievements were associated mainly with investment in new physical structures, recent developments in the water sector are associated to a greater extent with improved management and institutional changes. Although both the nature and direction of these institutional changes vary by country-specific economic, political, cultural and resource realities, there are clearly identifiable trends and patterns.This report suggests a new methodology to shed light on the process of institution-performance interaction. It demonstrates the use of the methodology by applying it to an extensive cross-country data set, and by deriving policy guidance based on the results. The authors aim to stimulate thought and debate about methodologies and strategies to be used in order to evaluate institutional change and institution-performance interactions in the water sector.

This publication examines issues of water sector reform and performance from the perspectives of institutional economics and political economic studies. The authors develop an alternative quantitative assessment methodology based on the principle of 'institutional ecology', as well as data collected from 127 water experts from 43 countries and regions around the world using a cross-country review of recent water sector reforms within an institutional transaction cost framework.

The authors assess alternative approaches to meeting long-term water needs and resolving conflicts among competing water users in five areas: the Columbia River Basin; Kern County, California; south California; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and northeastern Colorado. This book argues that America's water supply problems are caused largely by bad habits and poor policies-especially policies that price water far under its true value. Originally published in 1986

Despite massive infrastructure investments, countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continue to face unprecedented water scarcity due to climate change, population growth, and socioeconomic development. Current policy regimes for managing water across competing needs are primarily determined by state control of large infrastructure. Policy makers across the region understand the unsustainability of water allocations and that increasing investments in new infrastructure and technologies to increase water supply place a growing financial burden on governments. However, standard solutions for demand management—reallocating water to higher value uses, reducing waste, and increasing tariffs—pose difficult political dilemmas that, more often than not, are left unresolved. Without institutional reform, the region will likely remain in water distress even with increased financing for water sector infrastructure.The Economics of Water Scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa: Institutional Solutions confronts the persistence and severity of water scarcity in MENA. The report draws on the tools of public economics to address two crucial challenges facing states in MENA: lack of legitimacy and trust. Evidence from the World Values Survey shows that people in the region believe that a key role of government is to keep prices down and that governments are reluctant to raise tariffs because of the risk of widespread protests. Instead of avoiding the “politically sensitive†? issue of water scarcity, this report argues that reform leaders and their external partners can reform national water institutions and draw on local political contestation to establish a new social contract. The crisis and emotive power of water in the region can be used to bolster legitimacy and trust and build a sustainable, inclusive, thriving economy that is resilient to climate change.

Water is becoming an increasingly scarce commodity in many parts of the world. Population growth plus a growing appetite for larger quantities of cheap water quality as a result of urban, industrial, and agricultural pollution coupled with increasing environmental demands have further reduced usable suppliers. This book brings together thirty of the best economic articles addressing water scarcity issues within the US and Mexico. By touching on a number of different issues, this volume clearly articulates the need for improving existing institutional arrangements as well as for developing new arrangements to address growing water scarcity problems.

International Water Scarcity and Variability considers international water management challenges created by water scarcity and environmental change. Although media coverage and some scholars tend to cast natural resource shortages as leading inexorably toward armed conflict and war, Shlomi Dinar and Ariel Dinar demonstrate that there are many examples of and mechanisms for more peaceful dispute resolution regarding natural resources, even in the face of water paucity and climate change. The authors base these arguments on both global empirical analyses and case studies. Using numerous examples that focus on North America, Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East, this book considers strategies and incentives that help lessen conflict and motivate cooperation under scarcity and increased variability of water resources. Ê

Water is becoming an increasingly scarce commodity in many parts of the world. Population growth plus a growing appetite for larger quantities of cheap water quality as a result of urban, industrial, and agricultural pollution coupled with increasing environmental demands have further reduced usable suppliers. This book brings together thirty of the best economic articles addressing water scarcity issues within the US and Mexico. By touching on a number of different issues, this volume clearly articulates the need for improving existing institutional arrangements as well as for developing new arrangements to address growing water scarcity problems.