Inter-sectoral Competition for Water Allocation in Rural South Africa : Analysing a Case Study Through a Standard Environmental Economics Approach

South Africa has adopted an ambitious new water legislation that promotes equity, sustainability, representativity and economic performance through water management decentralization, new local and regional management institutions, water users' licensing, and the possible emergence of water rights' markets. This paper addresses the diversity of water users and uses that currently exists in rural areas, and especially focuses on the competition for water that may result from such a diversity in a context of water scarcity, and from the diversity of objectives formulated by the public authorities. The paper first briefly describes the current institutional arrangements regarding access to water. It also presents the situation in rural areas where farming communities and the mining sector are interacting on water- and labour-related matters. The paper then presents a case study whereby these two sectors have embarked into a negotiation process on water rights transfer, under the auspices of several public role players. It proposes an analysis of the case study through a standard environmental economics model. The model considers the marginal net private benefit (MNPB) generated by mining activities and the associated marginal returns to water (MRW). The transfer of water from farmers to mines results in a loss in crop production potential by the fanners and the subsequent loss of income and potential for development. Such a loss can be considered the opportunity cost of water for smallholders. If not compensated, it represents a proxy of the externality associated with the water transfer. The model first highlights the difference in terms of water productivity in the two sectors, and its consequences if a system of transferable licenses is adopted. Then, some policy options (taxes, standards, subsidies) are tested and discussed. (Résumé d'auteur

Improving water use efficiency under worsening scarcity: Evidence from the Middle Olifants sub-basin in South Africa

With the political changes in South Africa in the early 1990s, the South African government introduced a reform process in the entire water sector with the goal of a more enhanced and equitable water management system. This paper analyzes existing water allocation situations and applies a nonlinear optimization model to investigate the optimal intra- and inter-regional allocations in the Middle Olifants sub-basin of South Africa. Results show higher benefit from inter-regional water allocation. Reducing water supply levels to conform to the sustainable water supply policy, it can be shown that although water supply is reduced by approximately 50%, total benefits from water are only reduced by 5% and 11% for inter- and intra-regional allocation regimes respectively. These results indicate that alternative water allocation mechanisms can serve as instruments to offset for the effects of water scarcity.Water allocation, IWRM, Olifants basin, South Africa, Africa, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Data Mining to Uncover Heterogeneous Water Use Behaviors From Smart Meter Data

Knowledge on the determinants and patterns of water demand for different consumers supports the design of customized demand management strategies. Smart meters coupled with big data analytics tools create a unique opportunity to support such strategies. Yet, at present, the information content of smart meter data is not fully mined and usually needs to be complemented with water fixture inventory and survey data to achieve detailed customer segmentation based on end use water usage. In this paper, we developed a data‐driven approach that extracts information on heterogeneous water end use routines, main end use components, and temporal characteristics, only via data mining existing smart meter readings at the scale of individual households. We tested our approach on data from 327 households in Australia, each monitored with smart meters logging water use readings every 5 s. As part of the approach, we first disaggregated the household‐level water use time series into different end uses via Autoflow. We then adapted a customer segmentation based on eigenbehavior analysis to discriminate among heterogeneous water end use routines and identify clusters of consumers presenting similar routines. Results revealed three main water end use profile clusters, each characterized by a primary end use: shower, clothes washing, and irrigation. Time‐of‐use and intensity‐of‐use differences exist within each class, as well as different characteristics of regularity and periodicity over time. Our customer segmentation analysis approach provides utilities with a concise snapshot of recurrent water use routines from smart meter data and can be used to support customized demand management strategies.TU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel - 201

Evaluation of historic, current and future water demand in the Olifants River Catchment, South Africa

Poverty / Mapping

Hydrological Foundation as a Basis for a Holistic Environmental Flow Assessment of Tropical Highland Rivers in Ethiopia

The sustainable development of water resources includes retaining some amount of the natural flow regime in water bodies to protect and maintain aquatic ecosystem health and the human livelihoods and wellbeing dependent upon them. Although assessment of environmental flows is now occurring globally, limited studies have been carried out in the Ethiopian highlands, especially studies to understand flow-ecological response relationships. This paper establishes a hydrological foundation of Gumara River from an ecological perspective. The data analysis followed three steps: first, determination of the current flow regime flow indices and ecologically relevant flow regime; second, naturalization of the current flow regime looking at how flow regime is changing; and, finally, an initial exploration of flow linkages with ecological processes. Flow data of Gumara River from 1973 to 2018 are used for the analysis. Monthly low flow occurred from December to June; the lowest being in March, with a median flow of 4.0 m(3) s(-1). Monthly high flow occurred from July to November; the highest being in August, with a median flow of 236 m(3) s(-1). 1-Day low flows decreased from 1.55 m(3) s(-1) in 1973 to 0.16 m(3) s(-1) in 2018, and 90-Day (seasonal) low flow decreased from 4.9 m(3) s(-1) in 1973 to 2.04 m(3) s(-1) in 2018. The Mann-Kendall trend test indicated that the decrease in low flow was significant for both durations at alpha = 0.05. A similar trend is indicated for both durations of high flow. The decrease in both low flows and high flows is attributed to the expansion of pump irrigation by 29 km(2) and expansion of plantations, which resulted in an increase of NDVI from 0.25 in 2000 to 0.29 in 2019. In addition, an analysis of environmental flow components revealed that only four "large floods" appeared in the last 46 years; no "large flood" occurred after 1988. Lacking "large floods" which inundate floodplain wetlands has resulted in early disconnection of floodplain wetlands from the river and the lake; which has impacts on breeding and nursery habitat shrinkage for migratory fish species in Lake Tana. On the other hand, the extreme decrease in "low flow" components has impacts on pin smaller pools. These results serve as the hydrological foundation for continued studies in the Gumara catchment, with the eventual goal of quantifying environmental flow requirements.redators, reducing their mobility and ability to access prey concentrate

INTER-SECTORAL COMPETITION FOR WATER ALLOCATION IN RURAL SOUTH AFRICA: ANALYSING A CASE STUDY THROUGH A STANDARD ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS APPROACH

South Africa has adopted an ambitious new water legislation that promotes equity, sustainability, representativity and economic performance through water management decentralization, new local and regional management institutions, water users' licensing, and the possible emergence of water rights' markets. This paper addresses the diversity of water users and uses that currently exists in rural areas, and especially focuses on the competition for water that may result from such a diversity in a context of water scarcity, and from the diversity of objectives formulated by the public authorities. The paper first briefly describes the current institutional arrangements regarding access to water. It also presents the situation in rural areas where farming communities and the mining sector are interacting on water- and labour-related matters. The paper then presents a case study whereby these two sectors have embarked into a negotiation process on water rights transfer, under the auspices of several public role players. It proposes an analysis of the case study through a standard environmental economics model. The model considers the marginal net private benefit (MNPB) generated by mining activities and the associated marginal returns to water (MRW). The transfer of water from farmers to mines results in a loss in crop production potential by the farmers and the subsequent loss of income and potential for development. Such a loss can be considered the opportunity cost of water for smallholders. If not compensated, it represents a proxy of the externality associated with water transfer. The model first highlights the difference in terms of water productivity in the two sectors, and its consequences if a system of transferable licenses is adopted. Then, some policy options (taxes, standards, subsidies) are tested and discussed.Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Water Use Trends in the United States

Since 1950, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has collected and released data on national water use every five years for each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In November 2014, the USGS released water-use estimates for 2010. These data are collected from a variety of sources, including from national data sets, state agencies, questionnaires, and local contacts (Maupin et al. 2014). They include estimates of withdrawals of freshwater and saline water from groundwater and surface-water sources and water use by sector. Using these data and historic data from several other sources, this paper reviews national water-use trends, going as far back as 1900 in some cases. For this analysis, we use the term "water use" to refer to the amount of water withdrawn from the ground or diverted from a surface-water source for use. Our analysis finds that we have made considerable progress in managing the nation's water, with total water use less than it was in 1970, despite continued population and economic growth. Indeed, every sector, from agriculture to thermoelectric power generation, shows reductions in water use. National water use, however, remains high, and many freshwater systems are under stress from overuse. Moreover, climate change will exacerbate existing water resource challenges, affecting the supply, demand, and quality of the nation's water resources. In order to address these challenges, we must continue and even expand efforts to improve water-use efficiency in our homes, businesses, industries, and on our nation's farms

Applying the Gini Coefficient to measure inequality of water use in the Olifants River water management area, South Africa

River basin management / Water stress / Water use / Indicators / Households / Rural areas / Irrigation programs / South Africa / Olifants River

Water footprint of bio-energy and other primary energy carriers

Freshwater is essential for life on earth, not only for basic human needs such as food, fibre and drinking water, but also for a healthy environment. In the near future, important challenges are to meet basic needs and to ensure that the extraction of water does not affect freshwater ecosystems. At present, humanity already uses 26 percent of the total terrestrial evapotranspiration and 54 percent of accessible runoff. If the world population increases further, there is concern in several regions and countries with limited water resources if food and fibre needs of future generations can be met. In general, global change is often considered in relation to climate change caused by emissions of greenhouse gasses, such as CO2 from fossil energy carriers. A shift towards CO2-neutral energy carriers, such as biomass, is heavily promoted. Nowadays, the production of biomass for food and fibre in agriculture requires about 86% of the worldwide freshwater use often competing with other uses such as urban supply and industrial activities. A shift from fossil energy towards energy from biomass puts additional pressure on freshwater resources. This report assesses the water footprint (WF) of bio-energy and other primary energy carriers. It focuses on primary energy carriers and expresses the WF as the amount of water consumed to produce a unit of energy (m3/GJ). The report observes large differences among the WF’s for specific types of primary energy carriers. For the fossil energy carriers, the WF increases in the following order: uranium (0.09 m3/GJ), natural gas (0.11 m3/GJ), coal (0.16 m3/GJ), and finally crude oil (1.06 m3/GJ). Renewable energy carriers show large differences in their WF. The WF for wind energy is negligible, for solar thermal energy 0.30 m3/GJ, but for hydropower 22.3 m3/GJ. For biomass, the WF depends on crop type, agricultural production system and climate. The WF of average biomass grown in the Netherlands is 24 m3/GJ, in the US 58 m3/GJ, in Brazil 61 m3/GJ, and in Zimbabwe 143 m3/GJ. Based on the average per capita energy use in western societies (100 GJ/capita/year), a mix from coal, crude oil, natural gas and uranium requires about 35 m3/capita/year. If the same amount of energy is generated through the growth of biomass in a high productive agricultural system, as applied in the Netherlands, the WF is 2420 m3. The WF of biomass is 70 to 400 times larger than the WF of the other primary energy carriers (excluding hydropower). The trend towards larger energy use in combination with increasing contribution of energy from biomass to supply will bring with it a need for more water. This causes competition with other claims, such as water for food crops