Strategic planning for water security in developing countries

Water security is an increasing problem in many areas of the world, exacerbated by population growth, economic development and climate change. Infrastructure such as reservoirs may be used to increase water security, and this requires planning over an extended period for approval and construction before new infrastructure can be operational. Long term planning is sensitive however to uncertainty about the future, including for example on local impacts of climate change. This paper proposes a strategic planning approach to water security with a 15 – 40 years’ time horizon, consideration of various scenarios and a focus on “no-regrets” actions which would strengthen resilience and bring benefits in all scenarios. Examples of these are actions to reduce water losses and to manage demand for water. The paper draws on research conducted for the EU SWITCH project in the city of Alexandria, Egypt, and on other studies in south and south-east Asia

Using economic instruments for water resources management in the city of the future: case studies from Spain and Uganda

Rapid increase in global population coupled with escalating climate change has led to a serious water scarcity in the world. The pressure on the water resources is higher in urban areas, where, according to UN Habitat, over 50% of the world’s population have lived since 2007. Hence, urban water managers and policy makers need to adopt water efficiency measures to cope with the increasing water demand and manage available water resources in a sustainable manner. This paper reports on findings of water demand management studies conducted under the EU-funded SWITCH research project on ‘sustainable water management for the city of the future’. Using the case of Zaragoza City (Spain), the paper shows how a tariff structure and other economic instruments have been used to encourage water use efficiency at the endusers’ premises, resulting into a 14% reduction in the city’s water demand between 1996 and 2004, although the population increased by 6.3% in the same period. The study also used 2006/07 billing data from the Uganda’s main urban utility to model a water conserving tariff for domestic consumers in Kampala City. Results from the model show that using a demandresponsive tariff structure, 15% of water produced in Kampala could be conserved, and the utility’s revenue increased by 8%. Water conservation tariffs will have greater social equity benefits in cities of developing countries where water services may be under-priced, intermittent and unfairly distributed in favour of higher income households. Water conserved could be redistributed to the poorer settlements of the cities

Productivity and equity of different irrigation schedules under limited water supply

Some irrigation schemes with limited water supply in Central and Southern India follow the area proportionate water distribution based on assumed uniform characteristics of the command area (planned schedule). However in most cases, this planned schedule is overridden by the practice in which users at head draw more than their share of water (actual schedule) due to human factors and technical limitations of the planned schedule. This practice is highly inequitable as users at tail end do not get any water. This paper considers alternative schedules based on full irrigation or deficit irrigation within the framework of area proportionate water distribution in such irrigation schemes and presents the simulation-optimisation technique to develop the corresponding land area and water allocation plan for different allocation units by considering the heterogeneity of the irrigation scheme. This paper further demonstrates the utility of proposed alternative schedules by comparing the productivity and equity of these schedules with planned and actual schedules for one irrigation scheme in Central India. The results show that the actual schedule reduces both productivity and equity greatly and the productivity and equity with the alternative schedules are higher than with the planned schedule. The results also show that deficit irrigation has great potential to increase both productivity and equity of irrigation schemes

Water loss management for utilities in low income countries: case studies from four African water utilities

The rapid increase in global population coupled with escalating climate change has led to a serious water scarcity in the world. The problem is more pronounced in urban areas and UN Habitat estimates that the proportion of the world’s population living in urban areas had grown to at least 50% by early 2007. Therefore, instead of focusing on supply management, urban water managers need to also adopt demand management. Water loss management in the distribution network will not only reduce demand, but has other important benefits. This paper describes a project by Water Utility Partnership (WUP) of Africa whose objective was to reduce non-revenue water (NRW) in four water utilities in sub-Saharan Africa. The project’s approach was based on the premise that NRW is only a consequence of deep-seated utility management challenges. Hence, through capacitybuilding partnerships, key staff in the participating utilities were facilitated to develop performance improvement plans (PIPs), which included establishment of pilot District Meter Areas (DMAs) for effective water loss management (WLM). The results of this project show that iterative and incremental pilot WLM projects could be an effective way of convincing uncertain senior managers of cash-trapped utilities in low income countries to allocate more resources for water loss management

Multicriteria decision making (compromise programming) for integrated water resources management in an irrigation scheme

The performance objectives of an irrigation scheme are productivity, equity, adequacy, reliability, surety index and frequency index. These objectives conflict with each other so multiple objectives need to be considered when making decisions. An approach based on multi criteria decision making (MCDM) technique of compromise programming is presented in this paper. It consists of identifying different performance objectives (POs) (for example, productivity, equity etc.) that contribute to “overall performance index” (OPI) of irrigation management. Weights are assigned to each PO that reflects its relative importance. The values of the indicators are obtained from simulation-optimization modeling and weights are obtained by analytical hierarchical process (AHP). OPIs are obtained for different alternatives and the preferred alternative is the one that is nearest to the ideal point. The applicability of the developed approach is demonstrated with the help of case study from Maharashtra State, India, using the “AWAM” model to estimate the values of POs for different irrigation strategies or alternatives and comparison of POs obtained from the survey of head, middle and tail reach farmers. The results indicated that MCDM generated the same irrigation strategy for head and middle reach farmers; but a different strategy for tail reach farmers, based on their expressed PO weights

Water demand management: a key building block for sustainable urban water management.

It is becoming clearer, even to non-members of the scientific community that the rapidly increasing global population, coupled with the impacts of climatic change are major contributors to the looming water scarcity. Water scarcity is acknowledged to be a key barrier to attainment of MDGs in low-income countries. Currently, about 30 countries are considered to be water stressed, of which 20 are absolutely water scarce. It is projected that by 2050, about one-third of the population in the developing world will face severe shortage The water scarcity situation will get worse in the world’s urban areas, which have grown to the extent that since early 2007, urban areas account for over half of the world’s population. The alarming rate of water scarcity, coupled with widespread environmental degradation has brought into focus the need for planned action to manage water resources in a more effective and sustainable manner. The dwindling water resources need to be optimally managed while minimising the negative impact on the environment. The EU-funded SWITCH project was conceived arising out of a realisation that continued application of the conventional urban water management (UWM) concept will not deliver the required results in the future. The main objective of the SWITCH project is “the development, application and demonstration of a range of tested scientific, technological and socio-economic solutions and approaches that contribute to the achievement of the sustainable and effective UWM schemes in ‘The City of the future’”. The SWITCH project is a multi-disciplinary integrated research project that aims at creating a paradigm shift in urban water management. This paper highlights limitations of the conventional urban water management, and explains the concepts of the more robust integrated resource planning and demand management (DM) approaches, that need to be adopted to respond to the rapidly changing environmental conditions. DM is a central theme of the SWITCH project. Specific activities contributing to DM include (i) developing and testing holistic demand management tools, in order to reduce water wastage on the side of the service provider and the consumer; and (ii) providing capacity building to service providers on DM. The paper will describe how these activities are being carried out in the City of Zarogoza, Spain, one of the SWITCH Project demonstration cities

Improving allocation of irrigation water in southwest India

Irrigation schemes in southwest India are heterogeneous in crops, area of irrigation units, soils and climate. The areas planned for irrigation each year under different crops and the scheduled duration of irrigation to each farmer are estimated, however, based on assumed uniform characteristics (planned schedule). In practice the schedules are not followed and users mostly over-irrigate their fields (the actual schedule). In this paper a simulation–optimisation model is used to develop two alternative (proposed) schedules based on full irrigation and on optimised deficit irrigation within the framework of area-proportionate water distribution, taking heterogeneity into account. As a case study, the allocation and water delivery plans were obtained for one irrigation scheme for the actual, planned and proposed schedules and compared using the simulation–optimisation technique. This showed that the proposed schedule for deficit irrigation had the maximum monetary productivity (total net benefits) and area productivity (irrigated area) and that the equity of both proposed schedules was much higher than those for either the planned or actual schedules. The proposed schedules can be adopted within the framework of the existing system of water distribution, which shows that there is considerable scope for improvement in the performance of existing irrigation schemes without major capital investment

Model for performance based land area and water allocation within irrigation schemes

This paper focuses on irrigation schemes under rotational water supply in arid and semiarid regions. It presents a methodology for developing plans for optimum allocation of land area and water, considering performance measures such as productivity, equity and adequacy. These irrigation schemes are characterized by limited water supply and heterogeneity in soils, crops, climate and water distribution network, etc. The methodology proposed in this paper, therefore, uses a previously developed simulation– optimization model (Area and Water Allocation Model, AWAM) that considers the heterogeneity of the irrigation scheme in the allocation process, and modifies this to take account of equity and adequacy of supply to irrigated areas. The AWAM model has four phases to be executed separately for each set of irrigation interval over the irrigation season: 1. generation of irrigation strategies for each crop–soil–region combination (CSR unit), 2. preparation of irrigation programmes for each irrigation strategy, 3. selection of specified number of irrigation programmes for each CSR unit and 4. optimum allocation of land area and water to different parts of the irrigation scheme (allocation units) for maximizing productivity. In the modified AWAM model, the adequacy is included at Phase-2 (by including only the irrigation programmes for full irrigation of each CSR unit) and equity is included at Phase-4 (by including the constraints for equity). The paper briefly discusses the applicability of the modified AWAM model for a case study of Nazare medium irrigation scheme in Southern India. The results of the case study indicated that the performance measures of productivity, equity and adequacy conflict with each other

AWAM-A model for optimal land and water resources allocation

The planning for irrigation water management in an irrigation scheme consists of the preparation of an allocation plan for distribution of land and water resources to different crops up to tertiary or farm level, and water delivery schedules in terms of timing and amount of water delivery for this allocation plan according to the set objectives/targets. It is necessary to consider the heterogeneity in soils and climate, and complexity of the water distribution network, while developing the allocation plans. Further, there is a need to allocate water both efficiently and equitably. Preparation of the allocation plan becomes a complex process when the water availability is less than the demand for water for adequate irrigation of the culturable command area of the irrigation scheme. In the past, several methodologies have been developed to prepare allocation plans but these models do not consider the above-mentioned requirements together. This paper presents the developed model, AWAM (Area and Water Allocation Model) that addresses the heterogeneity in an irrigation scheme and includes the performance measures of productivity and equity while developing the allocation plans. The AWAM model has four phases to be executed separately for each set of irrigation interval over the irrigation season. The paper briefly discusses the applicability of the AWAM model by producing land and water allocation plans and water delivery schedules for case study of Nazare medium irrigation scheme in southern India

Tariff structures and incentives for water demand management

Urban water managers need to adopt water demand management (WDM) as one of the ways to provide for the needs and demands of escalating urban populations, amidst the negative impacts of increased pollution loads and climate change on finite water resources. This paper reviews how urban water tariff structures could be designed to promote water conservation in households while also ensuring revenue sufficiency for the service providers and affordability for low-income households. As an example, the paper describes the case of Zaragoza (Spain), a city where implementation of a water-conserving tariff and providing economic incentives largely contributed to a 27% reduction in overall water consumption between 1996 and 2008, although the population of the city increased by 12%. Similar principles were adapted to model a water-saving, socially equitable tariff for the city of Kampala (Uganda). The proposed tariff for Kampala can save over 2·5 million m3 of water and generate an extra US$ 0·68 million of revenue per year, which could be used to extend water services to currently unserved households in low-income settlements. If implemented, the tariff could enhance economic efficiency, revenue sufficiency, social equity and service coverage