The Competition for Water: Striking a Balance among Social, Environmental, and Economic Needs

With many water resources overcommitted and suffering environmental degradation, it is becoming urgent to find ways to reallocate increasingly scarce water supplies to meet rising demand and growing environmental concerns. In Canada, this challenge is nowhere better illustrated than in Alberta. The province is home to 60 percent of all irrigation in Canada and has a fast-growing population and economy. These pressures helped prompt the province to halt the issuance of new licences for taking water from the Bow, Oldman and South Saskatchewan River subbasins in 2006, bringing into focus the need to fulfill rising demand for industrial, urban, and environmental water use. Without a reliable mechanism for transferring water access rights from prior holders to new users, Alberta’s continued economic development and its ecosystems could be threatened.Governance and Public Institutions, Alberta, South Saskatchewan River basin, water resources management

Recent and Emerging Water Policy Reforms in Australia

In the past, the water industry met new demand by increasing supply. In many instances governments provided excessive and free supply in pursuit of political objectives such as settlement of remote land. These policies generated inefficient and low-value use and in many instances created environmental problems. Sometime during the 1970s, community concern over the environmental impact and rising marginal costs of increasing supply caused the emergence of a shift in policy paradigms towards demand management, under which increased demand can only be satisfied through a reallocation of existing scarce resources between competing users. Australia is one of the countries in the world that has most comprehensively pursued this new policy paradigm, and provides an excellent case study of the policy change process within the context of a developed country. This article analyzes the Australian policy process from a broad policy-making perspective, as well as from a community-based perspective, with emphasis on the period since 1990.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Water Exchanges—Australian Experiences [abstract]

2 pages

The role of water markets in climate change adaptation

Abstract Water markets were first introduced in Australia in the 1980s, and water entitlement and allocation trade have been increasingly adopted by both private individuals and government.Irrigators turned to water markets (particularly for allocation water) to manage water scarcity and Governments to acquire water for the environment (particularly water entitlements. It is expected that further adoption of water markets will be essential for coping with future climate change impacts. This report reviews the available literature related to the relationship between southern Murray-Darling Basin (sMDB) water markets and anticipated climate change effects; the economic, social and environmental impacts of water reallocation through markets; and future development requirements to enhance positive outcomes in these areas. The use of water markets by irrigators can involve both transformational (selling all water entitlements and relocating or switching to dryland) and incremental (e.g. buying water allocations/entitlements, using carry-over, changing water management techniques) adaptation to climate change. Barriers to both adaptations include: current and future climate uncertainty; poor (or non-existent) market signals; financial constraints; information barriers; mental processing limits; inherent attitudes toward or beliefs about climate change; institutional barriers and disincentives to adapt. A better understanding of trade behaviour, especially strategic trade issues that can lead to market failures, will improve the economic advantages of water trade. There remains community concerns about the impacts of transfers away from regional areas such as reduced community spending and reinvestment; population losses; loss of jobs; declining taxation base, loss of local services and businesses, regional production changes; and legacy issues for remaining farmers. However, it is hard to disentangle these impacts from those caused by ongoing structural change in agriculture. Rural communities that are most vulnerable to water scarcity under climate change and water trade adjustment include smaller irrigation-dependent towns. Communities less dependent on irrigation are better able to adapt. Further, where environmental managers use water markets to deal with water variability and to ensure ecological benefits, irrigators are concerned about its impact on their traditional use of markets to manage scarcity. Climate change and water scarcity management are intertwined, suggesting that policy, institutional and governance arrangements to deal with such issues should be similarly structured. Water users will adapt, either out of necessity or opportunity. The cost of that adaptation at individual, regional and national levels—particularly to future water supply variability—can be mitigated by the consideration of the existing advantages from future opportunities for water marketing in Australia

Exploring the productivity and profitability of small-scale communal irrigation systems in Sub-Saharan Africa

This special issue explores the challenges associated with increasing the productivity and profitability of small-scale communal irrigation systems in a world with growing demand for food and scarce water supplies. Case studies from Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe in south-eastern Africa are used to detail the challenges, opportunities and possible solutions. At six irrigation schemes, two in each country, the project provided simple tools to farmers to enable them to measure soil water and fertility to develop their own, more efficient agronomic practices (Stirzaker, Mbakwe, & Mziray, 2017). The project also facilitated Agricultural Innovation Platforms for discussion among stakeholders, to identify barriers and opportunities, and to develop solutions for more profitable farming (van Rooyen, Ramshaw, Moyo, Stirzaker, & Bjornlund, 2017). The articles in this special issue focus on initial research findings from the project Increasing Irrigation Water Productivity in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe through On-Farm Monitoring, Adaptive Management and Agricultural Innovation Platforms. The project was primarily supported by AUD 3.2 million in 2013–17 from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (Project FSC/2013/006) to identify means of improving the environmental and socio-economic sustainability of smallholder irrigation communities. The project is a partnership of eight African and Australian research and governmental organizations led by the Australian National University and including the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Australia), University of South Australia, National Institute for Irrigation (Mozambique), Ardhi University (Tanzania), International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Zimbabwe), University of Pretoria and the Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Policy Analysis Network. Particularly in Africa, great reliance has been placed on irrigation to meet food security. Significant investments were made in irrigation infrastructure in the 1970s and 1980s. However, these schemes have had limited success and largely resulted in decaying infrastructure, financial failures, low productivity and low utilization of land (Mutiro & Lautze, 2015; Stirzaker & Pittock, 2014). Most attempts to overcome these issues have focused on hard solutions, that is infrastructural refurbishment or rejuvenation (Inocencio et al., 2007)

Alberta's Water for Life Strategy: Some early indications of its acceptance by the irrigation industry in Southern Alberta

Water is essential for sustainable agricultural development - for irrigation of crops, livestock watering, processing, and sustaining farm families. Agriculture uses 71 percent of all water diverted for consumptive use in Canada (Environment Canada, 2004), and is by far the greatest water consumer in Canada. In the absence of a Canadian national water strategy, Alberta has developed a long-term water management plan called the Water for Life Strategy. Its successful implementation will depend largely on the participation of irrigators. This study explores the reaction of irrigators to one of the strategy's main goals - a 30 percent increase in water use efficiency and productivity by 2015 over 2005 levels. The study reveals that irrigators vary significantly in their views as to the extent to which this goal can be reached, and the means by which it should be achieved within agriculture. Further, these responses reflect differences among irrigation districts relating to the extent of water stress, on-farm irrigation water efficiency and natural factors that limit crop diversity in some areas. Ultimately the government may have to revise its 30 percent target and tailor the strategy to irrigation districts as opposed to a broad-based approach.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Social Justice Aspects of Water Allocation Mechanisms

Water is scarce in southern Alberta, and climate change predictions suggest that water might be even scarcer. There is increasing pressure to leave more water in rivers for environmental purposes, which will further increase water scarcity for extractive users. There is also an urgent need to find mechanisms to allocate and reallocate water among competing uses, such as water for the environment and for extractive uses. Achieving these objectives within current water dependent communities will involve different socioeconmic impacts. The level of impact will depend on the policy choices made, the acceptability of such policies among stakeholders, water users reactions to such policies, and the ability of current water users to cope with less water. These issues are examined in this project

Aspects des mécanismes de répartition de l’eau relevant de la justice sociale

L’eau est rare dans le sud de l’Alberta, et pourrait le devenir encore plus selon les prévisions relatives aux changements climatiques. Il existe une pression croissante pour laisser plus d’eau dans les cours d’eau à des fins environnementales, ce qui aura pour effet d’accroître la rareté de l’eau pour les utilisateurs de l’industrie extractive. Il est également urgent de trouver des mécanismes d’attribution et de réattribution de l’eau entre utilisations concurrentes, à savoir l’environnement et l’industrie extractive. L’atteinte de ces objectifs au sein des collectivités actuelles tributaires de l’eau ne se fera pas sans diverses répercussions socioéconomiques. L’ampleur des répercussions dépendra des choix politiques, de l’acceptabilité de ces politiques pour les intervenants, des réactions à ces politiques des utilisateurs de l’eau et de la capacité des utilisateurs actuels à se satisfaire d’une moins grande quantité d’eau. Le projet étudie ces questions

Price elasticity of water allocations demand in the Goulburn–Murray Irrigation District

Bid prices for the demand and supply of water allocations between 2001 and 2007, and average monthly prices paid for water allocations from 1997 to 2007 in the Goulburn– Murray Irrigation District are analysed to estimate price elasticities. Based on bid prices, the price elasticity of demand for water allocations appears highly elastic, with elasticities strongly influenced by the season and drought. The price elasticity of supply for water allocations is also elastic, albeit less elastic than demand. Using actual prices paid, water demand is negatively related to price and is inelastic, and appears to be most influenced by demand the previous month, drought and seasonality factors.water allocations demand, water allocations supply, price elasticity, water markets, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,