Water distribution to contain soil degradation: sustainability and equity implications

Abstract

Externalities associated with irrigation, such as soil salinization, are causing losses in agricultural productivity around the world. Often water authorities can neither price water on a volumetric basis nor deliver exact volumes of water to individual users. Using a dynamic model of farmers in an environment where salinity problems can occur, a set of feasible water allocation policies is evaluated. On the basis of sustainable returns, short and long term equity, no policy is a clear winner. Often, policies which rank high for short term equity perform poorly on both sustainable returns and long term equity.