Content uploaded by Gershon Feder
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Gershon Feder on Aug 22, 2016
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Water resources management. World Bank policy paper
Abstract
Water resources have been one of the most important areas of World Bank lending during the past three decades. Through its support for sector work and investments in irrigation, water supply, sanitation, flood control, and hydropower, the Bank has contributed to the development of many countries and helped provide essential services to many communities. Moreover, the Bank and governments have not taken sufficient account of environmental concerns in the management of water resources. (Copyright (c) 1993 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank.)
... Multilateral organisms like the World Bank, the OECD, and the European Council (Easter et al., 1993;European Council, 2000;OECD, 1999) defend the total recovery of costs as a reference for determining sanitation rates. Unnerstall (2007) argues that total cost recuperation of sanitation through rates charged to users is based on the polluter pays principle, which establishes that polluters ought to be responsible for the costs of repairing environmental damage. ...
This article aims to show how changes in the model for financing basic sanitation affect social inequality and urban segregation, and to discuss alternatives that minimise the impact these changes have on low-income populations. The investigation focuses on mediations between sanitation policy and general urban policies in the more ample process of valorising capital, involving different scales of geography and forms of state action. Widespread privatisation and public–private partnerships have altered the role that rates charged to users play in financing sanitation systems. This, in turn, has an impact on low-income populations’ access to these systems. The study concludes that new models of financing tend to privilege spaces in the city that are attractive to private capital, and that investments in sanitation are supported by financial innovations that depend on the collective force of remunerating shareholders and maintaining investors’ expectations. Finally, the article approaches solutions that ensure low-income families’ access to public services, with special emphasis on subsidised rate systems based on the stratification of urban areas adopted in Colombia. The article concludes that this experiment presents both positive and negative aspects that may serve as starting points toward potential solutions for Brazil.
Drawing insight and inspiration from our comrade Aziz Choudry, in this paper, we explore the role of political education and knowledge making in social movement struggles to contest the state and capital around access to water and other public services. Drawing on a decade of organising work in the city of Cape Town and at wider scales, we highlight the importance of learning and knowledge generation in social movements and the everyday strategies of organising movements use to overcome divisions based on ‘race’, gender, class and nationality, and to confront those obstacles presented or exacerbated by exclusionary governance arrangements, commodified service delivery and the coercive apparatus of the state. Rejecting elite led organising in favour of working-class self-organisation, these strategies seek to build individual and organisational solidarity across the diverse and fragmented experiences of those living on the margins of capitalist society.
One of the most significant impacts of climate change is that extreme weather events such as heatwaves and heavy precipitation are occurring more frequently. In turn, social-ecological systems are affected in adverse ways making adaptation to climate change vital, unavoidable, and increasingly urgent. This chapter suggests three types of adaptation discourses based on O’Brien et al. (Climate Policy 7:73–88, 2007): technical-fix, socio-political change, and behavioural/cultural change. In addition, Pelling’s (Adaptation to climate change. Routledge, From resilience to transformation, 2011) three forms of adaptation by the degree of change are introduced to enable a more comprehensive understanding of adaptation policy. This section also describes climate change impacts on water, which is the focus of this book. In many parts of the world, flood magnitude and frequency are increasing, while the level of low flows is decreasing (IPCC, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, 2021; IPCC, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Volume 2, Regional Aspects. Working Group II Contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. Cambridge University Press, 2014a). In relation to flood control measures, this study identifies three main discourses which, for the purpose of simplification, are called: engineering-development, participation-equity, and conservation-ecosystem service discourses. A discursive space created by those discourses is also introduced. Finally, a historical overview of institutional changes in the field of water management is presented.KeywordsClimate change adaptationWater managementAdaptation discoursesWater management discourses
In a survey of 1,500 households in Zaragoza (Spain), we found that respondents did not accurately know what the price of water was, and what the characteristics of the water tariff were, how much water they consumed, or how much it cost them; they thought they consumed less water than they actually did, and thought that their consumption level was normal; they believed they paid more than they really did, and considered the payments to be appropriate or expensive. Based on this sample of households, this paper analyses what determines the level of accuracy in the perception of consumers about their water tariff, their water consumption, and their total water cost, or, in other words, what determines the closeness between their perception and reality. The methodology applied is based on maximum likelihood estimates using various probit/logit models. The results obtained allow to identify the collectives to whom an information policy should be directed in order to approximate their perceptions closer to the real tariff, consumption and cost of water in households, and to point out the kind of information that should be transmitted in order to contribute to the preservation of water resources.
Since the 1980s, Morocco’s irrigation policies have displayed a puzzling combination of multiple reforms and of deep policy continuity. To make sense of these contradictory patterns, we start by reconceptualising four decades of change as the successive layering of three distinct policy regimes (laissez-faire, delegation, and integration) on top of the older modernisation regime dating back to the colonial era. We show that layering had the – partly unexpected – effect of sustaining the legitimacy of modernisation policies in the face of multiple pressures for change. It did so through three distinct mechanisms: the co-optation of international donors; the blurring of responsibility for socially harmful outcomes; and the opportunistic re-legitimisation of modernisation policies enabled by this blurring. Our case study thus contributes to emerging theorisations of the conservative effects of policy layering. It also has implications for broader understandings of regime-wide transformism, of which sector-specific conservative layering might well be a key modality.
This study analyses the industrial demand for urban water using a panel dataset of firms operating in the city of Zaragoza (Spain) and looking at three sectors (manufacturing, construction and services) disaggregated on 24 subsectors. Evidence in favour of using the marginal price rather than the average price is obtained, and the selection of the price is found to influence the value of the elasticities. Based on a translog cost function, the direct price elasticity of water (−0.86), the output elasticity (0.73) and the cross-price elasticities between water and capital, labour and supplies (being all of them substitutes) were estimated. By subsectors, the influence of price is only significant in those with a higher share of water in the total production cost. These results indicate that pricing can be used as a tool for managing water demand by promoting conservation of the resource. However, these results also indicate that the simultaneous use of other instruments is advisable to reinforce the impact of pricing policy on water consumption. HIGHLIGHTS
The determinants of industrial water demand are analysed using firms’ microdata.;
Manufacturing, construction and services activities are considered.;
The marginal water price is a more suitable specification than the average one.;
The price of water can be effective for managing water demand.;
Price effectiveness is conditioned by the water share in the total production cost.;
Asia is one of the largest and most populated continents of the world as more than half of the world population live here. A large number of water resources mainly transboundary rivers, Ganges, Brahmaputra and Indus of South Asian countries, have a large impact on economic growth, food production, ecological stability and sustainable development in these regions. But during the last few decades, these water resources are facing tremendous pressure due to fast-growing population, developmental projects and increased production. Along with some anthropogenic activities like poor wastewater management techniques, increased pollution in water bodies, some natural disasters like dramatic change in climatic conditions and uneven rainfall pattern have induced problems of droughts and floods. Most of the water resources in Asian countries are contaminated due to domestic, industrial and agricultural waste, which affect the health of human as well as the quality of water resources. Recently, problems of weed infestation and eutrophication have also been prominent in most of these countries which affect the normal ecological functioning of these freshwater bodies. Both developed and developing nations are facing the problems of the water crisis and water pollution. Water scarcity in Asian countries has become a major challenging issue. There is a high need for implementation of strict acts or laws to check pollution in receiving water bodies. Also improved and effective wastewater treatment techniques are highly required to overcome the present conditions of water shortage. The present study reveals the present situation of water and water-related problems in Asian countries and future perspectives. New water policies of the Asian countries to conserve water resources and their effective use have been discussed. Due to unsustainable use and poor management of water in developing nations, the water crisis is becoming more complex.
Groundwater resources are being increasingly exploited around the world and patterns of overexploitation are widely observed. Long seen as the remit of hydrologists, groundwater is now understood as a key and politically disputed resource that supports domestic use, livelihoods, and high‐value commercial farming, as well as many wetlands and other groundwater‐dependant ecosystems. The governance of groundwater is complex due to its invisible and elusive nature, its fluctuating exchanges with surface water bodies, the diffuse nature of abstraction points, and the lack of state control over the individual initiatives that often arise in response to water shortages. Governance based on community‐, state‐, or market‐centered arrangements has tended to perform poorly. Comanagement shows some potential but is so far limited to specific physical‐cum‐political environments.
A contingent valuation survey was conducted in Kumasi, Ghana, to estimate households' willingness to pay for two types of improved sanitation services: improved ventilated pit latrines and water closets connected to a sewer system. Over 1200 randomly selected households throughout the city were interviewed. Most households were willing to pay more for improved sanitation service than they were currently paying for their existing sanitation system (mostly public and bucket latrines), but in absolute terms the potential revenues from households are not large, of the order of US $1.40 per household per month (about 1-2% of household income). The results of the study confirm the conventional wisdom that conventional sewerage is not affordable to the vast majority of households without massive government subsidies. On the other hand, it appears that only modest subsidies are required to achieve relatively high levels of coverage with on-site sanitation (improved ventilated pit latrines). This is because improved ventilated pit latrines are much cheaper than conventional sewerage and because most households are willing to pay about as much for a ventilated pit latrine as for a water closet connected to a sewer. Several tests were conducted to check the accuracy of respondents' answers to contingent valuation questions. The findings indicate that contingent valuation surveys can be successfully carried out in cities in developing countries for public services such as sanitation and that reasonably reliable information can be obtained on household demand for different sanitation technologies.
104 citations in Google Scholar. Book presents integrated framework for water resources planning.
Participation is something to be "optimized" rather than "maximized" without regard to benefits or costs. This article examines in theoretical and empirical terms the incentives for water users to take more responsibility for the operation and maintenance of irrigation systems. Extensive survey data from a study covering nearly 500 farmers in the Gal Oya irrigation scheme in Sri Lanka support the proposition that farmers will be more willing to manage and maintain systems where water supply is relatively scarce rather than absolutely scarce or abundant. In fact, when farmer organizations were introduced in Gal Oya, this proposition was confirmed, though the field experience (as always) was less orderly than hypotheses presumed. Of particular significance are reasons why free riding may not be so important a deterrent to collective action in irrigation management within a "middle range" of water availability. Farmers who avoid contributing resources and who fail to cooperate in water distribution are likely to have less voice in collective decisions about water and other resource allocations. This creates an incentive for broader participation than predicted from the logical schemes of Mancur Olson and Garret Hardin which offer pessimistic scenarios about the possibilities for collective action and equitable natural resource management.
Participation is something to be "optimized" rather than "maximized" without regard to benefits or costs. This article examines in theoretical and empirical terms the incentives for water users to take more responsibility for the operation and maintenance of irrigation systems. Extensive survey data from a study covering nearly 500 farmers in the Gal Oya irrigation scheme in Sri Lanka support the proposition that farmers will be more willing to manage and maintain systems where water supply is relatively scarce rather than absolutely scarce or abundant. In fact, when farmer organizations were introduced in Gal Oya, this proposition was confirmed, though the field experience (as always) was less orderly than hypotheses presumed. Of particular significance are reasons why free riding may not be so important a deterrent to collective action in irrigation management within a "middle range" of water availability. Farmers who avoid contributing resources and who fail to cooperate in water distribution are likely to have less voice in collective decisions about water and other resource allocations. This creates an incentive for broader participation than predicted from the logical schemes of Mancur Olson and Garret Hardin which offer pessimistic scenarios about the possibilities for collective action and equitable natural resource management.
The report provides an analytical framework for assessing the organization of the water and sanitation (W S) sector and uses the framework to develop case studies of Paraguay, Chile, Tunisia, Malaysia, and Zimbabwe. The analytical framework covers four areas: (1) the primary factors influencing sectoral organization, including historical background, political system, level of economic development, land area and population, and availability of water resources; (2) the division of roles and responsibilities among sectoral agencies; (3) the adequacy of institutional arrangements for setting policies and standards, and planning, financing, and implementing projects; and (4) the sector's ability to address the issues of cost recovery, community management, health and hygiene education, and operations and maintenance. A final section details the lessons learned from the case studies.
The rapid expansion of tubewell irrigation for rice production in 1980s Bangladesh led to intense debate on the economic, social and environmental impacts. Dominant concerns included inefficient, uneconomic tubewell operation, and groundwater depletion. Socially, the coinage "waterlordism" summed up a focus on the interactions between well operators and farmers. This paper uses field data and standard micro-economics of the industry to demonstrate that this debate ignored the rapid development of a highly competitive market in irrigation services; a market through which ordinary Bangladeshis adapted a new technology swiftly and effectively to the resource endowment, and to their existing institutions. The largest inefficiencies in this market were not the result of farmer incompetence or social power. They sprang instead from subsidies on tubewell equipment, and from misguided attempts to anticipate groundwater depletion and adverse social impacts: based on advice from consultants and aid agencies.
The International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade has focused attention on the urgent need for water and sanitation in the developing world. However, an alarming number of existing systems, in some countries one third to one half, are broken down or not working. Non‐participation by the users has been singled out as a major cause of this high rate of project failure, and increasingly donor agencies and local governments are insisting that the intended beneficiaries be involved in projects. This study analyses user participation in a variety of water supply and sani‐tation projects in Africa, Asia and Central America. The common key factors which have resulted in some very successful projects are identified and suggestions made on how to implement a user participatory project.
Earth in the Balance is a lucid, scientifically grounded treatise on the global environments. The author's description of the world's water, air, and land use problems is clear, lively, and knowledgable. A major section of the book explores the psychological dimensions of global environmental problems. He attempts to synthesize ideas across many fields of thought. Gore offers a Global Marshall Plan - a worldwide strategic environment initiative that would help phase out older technologies and disseminate benign substitutes, change accounting methods so environmental costs are considered, and use education as a tool.