Water Allocation Mechanisms Research Articles

Ontological Collisions in the Northern Territory's Aboriginal Water Rights Policy

ABSTRACTAmid a renewed push to extract water for agriculture and mining, Indigenous advocacy in northern Australia has resulted in the introduction of a new water allocation mechanism: a reserve of water to be retained for the use and benefit of Indigenous communities. Our socio‐legal analysis of the Oolloo Water Allocation Plan shows that the Strategic Aboriginal Water Reserves carry essential hallmarks of neoliberal property relations and are founded in the modernist mode of regulating extracted water as a commodity divisible from land, amenable to partitioning and disarticulated from socio‐cultural relations. Informed by ethnographic material from the Daly River region gathered over almost a century, we describe the hydro‐social relations that are created through customary traditions and practices, water planning and licencing, and the interaction between different scales of water movement and decision‐making by both the state and Traditional Owners. The paper contributes in several ways to research that has identified ontological conflicts as central to disagreements over water and pointed to the difficulty of articulating theoretical framings of ontological difference with the practical work of water negotiations. It shows how the new Indigenous water rights discourse that coincided with the commodification of water in wider Australia shaped the way in which Aboriginal people of this region have more recently articulated their relationships to the Daly River and the limits to state recognition of those relationships. We find that the Reserve model is unable to recognize the capacity of water to connect and unify people and other beings, as well as to define boundaries between them. Within a regime that facilitates resource extraction, a limited opening has been created for Aboriginal people to benefit from this model of economic development, yet we argue that there is reason to fear that the divisions the Aboriginal Water Reserve enacts between waters and land presents significant socio‐cultural risks.

Patterns of injustices in water allocation mechanisms in the Brazilian Amazon: Palm oil expansion and the reshaping of hydrosocial territories

This study examines how state mechanisms for water allocation and enforcement shape patterns of injustice in water management among various actors in the Brazilian state of Pará, particularly in the context of palm oil production expansion. Our aim is to broaden the analysis of agribusiness expansion and its impact on water resources beyond agricultural practices and socioeconomic impacts. Therefore, we analyze water injustices by mapping water governance, analyzing the distribution of water resource permits, verifying the recognition of local communities’ ways of relating to rivers and water bodies, and analyzing political representation in decision-making processes regarding water governance. Our results reveal that weak water governance and the distribution of water use permits are reconfiguring hydrosocial territories, reinforcing power asymmetry relationships, and benefiting agribusiness interests at the expense of local communities. This, in turn, has adverse effects on water pollution. Our study demonstrates how the absence of recognition and representation of diverse ways of water usage and existence in the territory in state water governance, combined with the presence of multiple actors and overlapping hydrosocial projects, can lead to conflicts and injustices.

Water trading by Aboriginal organisations in NSW, Australia

Markets are a contentious way to manage demand for water because they can produce or exacerbate inequities for small and more vulnerable water holders, including Indigenous peoples. In Australia, which has the world's largest water market in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), settler-colonial governments have transformed water law and policy to enable water trading with negligible consideration of the effects on Aboriginal peoples. We present the first Australian study of Aboriginal peoples' interactions with rural water markets, the possibilities, and pitfalls of market participation, enabling and limiting factors, and the power relations underpinning the establishment and ongoing operation of this water allocation mechanism. From interviews with representatives of 13 Aboriginal organisations who held water entitlements, including ten that participated in MDB water markets during 2004–2018, we found that water trade activity and the number of individual Aboriginal water sales generally increased. Organisations traded as sellers on the (temporary) allocation market, generating revenue that was valued because it was relatively easy to obtain, with fewer external restrictions than income from government grants. Aboriginal organisations aspired to use their water on their own estates and for their own purposes, however, due to what we term a ‘water trading trap’, this was rarely feasible. In addition to increasing the water holdings of Aboriginal organisations, water rights restitution programs and policies need to address the lack of capital (including productive land and infrastructure) and capacity that prevents Aboriginal organisations from using their water to pursue wider aspirations, including building an asset base or using water for environmental and cultural purposes.

Market-based groundwater resources allocation mechanism: An inter-sectoral water exchanges programming analysis

This study aims to analyze the effects of local water market formation in a limited region of the Gavkhuni Basin, located in the center of Iran. An economic optimization mathematical model, called ‘inter-sectoral water exchanges programming’ (IWEP), is developed to address the study objectives. The proposed model seeks to maximize the net benefit of participating agents in the water market mechanism. This model can determine the scope of production activities and the monthly volume of water exchange through different technical methods of water transfer. Results demonstrate that the agriculture sector contributes to an increase in the productions of the agriculture industries and building industries through selling its surplus water. Although farm agents sell only 1% of their groundwater permits to industrial agents, the total net benefit of the agents is increased by more than 30%, compared to when the water market is not implemented. The shared aquifer method, based on common pool groundwater resources, is identified as a suitable technical method for water transfer in the groundwater markets. Finally, the socio-hydrological analysis of groundwater exchanges reveals that the inter-sectoral water market at the local scale can increase the region's employment rate by 45% and mitigate more pressure on the aquifer to meet water demands in the industry sector. These results clarify the efficient role of market-based groundwater allocation approach under water scarcity conditions. • Inter-sectoral water exchanges programming (IWEP) model is developed to analyze the economic impacts of the groundwater exchanges. • The IWEP model determines the optimal production amount of different agricultural and industrial products under techno-economic simulations. • The superiority of the market-based water allocation mechanism is confirmed in the face of water scarcity. • The shared aquifer method is proposed as a suitable technical method for water transfer in local groundwater markets. • The positive role of the inter-sectoral water market mechanism in socio-hydrological issues are clarified by adopting adaptive control policies.

Addressing Social Inequality and Improper Water Distribution in Cities: A Case Study of Karachi, Pakistan

Inhabited by almost 20 million people, Karachi, also known as the “city of lights”, houses almost 60 percent of the industries in Pakistan and is considered as the financial and industrial center of the country. The city contributes almost 12–15 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP), showing its significance in Pakistan’s economy. Unfortunately, with the increase in population, the city is facing a serious shortage of water supply. The current allocation of water among the city’s districts is not equitable, which has caused water scarcity and even riots in some areas. Surface water and ground water are the two primary sources of water supply in the city. The water supply provided by Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) is approximately 650 million gallons per day (MGD) against a demand of 480–866 million gallons per day (MGD), resulting in a serious shortfall. Keeping a holistic view in mind, this paper focuses specifically on proposing measures to address the gap in proposing concrete solutions to manage Karachi’s increasing water woes. It also proposes a water allocation mechanism and uses Nash bargaining theory to address the inefficient and unequal water distribution. Results indicate that our suggested policies and water allocation mechanism have the potential to simultaneously resolve the supply–demand mismatch and water shortage problems of the city.

The Piancó-Piranhas-Açu Hydrographic Basin Face to the 2012-2020 Drought Event / A Bacia Hidrográfica dos Rios Piancó-Piranhas-Açu Frente ao Evento de Seca 2012-2020

The semiarid region of Northeast Brazil experienced during the years 2012 to 2020 one of its worst periods of severe drought. This was largely due to the conditions of the El Niño phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean and the oceanographic and atmospheric conditions of the Atlantic Ocean. In this article, it was intended to address the aspects of water management due to this extreme drought, both from the supply and demand side, in a typical hydrographic basin in the Brazilian semiarid, the Piancó-Piranhas-Açu river basin. With the reduction of rainfall and the consequent tax flow to the main reservoirs in the region, the operation of the reservoirs responsible for the main uses of the region's water resources is shown to be of fundamental importance: irrigated agriculture (with an estimated area of around 50 hectares in the basin); aquaculture; human and industrial supply, among others. Actions aimed at the rational use of water, monitoring and negotiated water allocation mechanisms, as well as communication were also carried out.

Water Allocation and Integrative Management of Precision Irrigation: A Systematic Review

Precision irrigation, defined as an efficient water allocation technique characterized by the optimal management and best collaboration of various factors of the irrigation process, attracts considerable attention in agricultural production and crop cultivation. This paper reviews the latest research developments in water allocation mechanism and integrative management effectiveness of precision irrigation, and highlights how irrigation water allocation and integrative management contribute to the high-efficiency performance of precision irrigation techniques; the irrigation models, irrigation infrastructure, and management strategies currently being used are emphasized. Thereafter, the future development prospects in water allocation and integrative management could be systematically analyzed and subsequently explored. Some frontier techniques such as data-oriented irrigation management, performance-proven water allocation, and cloud-based irrigation control are among the critical technologies capable of building a sustainable, integrative, and evolutionary irrigation system while providing the higher quality and efficiency needed for a full application of precision irrigation. This review could be used as an effective reference to study the complicated correlations between precision irrigation and its constructive influences in different environmental conditions, and to facilitate the practical promotion of irrigation productivity with higher accuracy and increased reliability of returns.

Securing supply: governing drinking water in the Northern Territory

ABSTRACT This article considers the spatial and material implications of drinking water regulation in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia. Responding to water contamination and scarcity events in remote NT communities, we argue that the politico-bureaucratic edifice of uniform drinking water governance and service provision across the NT is a state-curated fiction. The article outlines the available legislative protections for drinking water supply in the NT, which include minimum quality standards, water allocation mechanisms, testing regimes, and so on. These are shown to vary significantly between geographic locations and we argue that this produces a racialised ‘archipelago’ of differentiated islands of drinking water governance (Bakker 2003. “Archipelagos and Networks: Urbanization and Water Privatization in the South.” The Geographical Journal 169 (4): 328–341). Using the Gulf country town of Borroloola as a case study, the article then examines the colonial and land rights bases of this spatial variegation, and its significance for drinking water infrastructure provision and remediation. In doing so, we consider how the entropic materialities of ageing infrastructures work to further confound effective drinking water regulations and their practical enactments. The article argues that it is crucial to understand the limits of drinking water regulation in the NT, in order to elucidate the racialised distribution of potential environmental harms, and to mitigate further toxic inheritances.

An Overview of Water Markets in Southern Africa: An Option for Water Management in Times of Scarcity

Southern Africa faces acute water scarcity challenges due to drought recurrence, degradation of surface water resources, and the increasing demand of water from agriculture, which has to meet the growing food demands of an increasing population. These stressors require innovative solutions that ensure the sustainability of water resources, without which the consequences could be dire for a region exposed to a host of vulnerabilities, including climate change. This review outlines the role of water markets in water management in times of water scarcity, highlighting the drivers of water markets in southern Africa, such as water scarcity, transboundary nature of water resources, and their uneven distribution. The review further discusses the role of water markets in climate change adaptation. Related institutional and legal frameworks as well as water allocation mechanisms are explored, aiming at improving water markets governance. The impact of adaptation to new water regimes in the face of scarcity are assessed by considering characteristics of current markets as related to future opportunities. In a diverse region such as southern Africa with unevenly distributed water resources, advancing the concept of water markets could play an important role in mitigating water scarcity challenges and promoting regional integration through coordinated transboundary water transfers. The emergence of water markets in the region is influenced by the continued depletion of water resources, which is resulting in the adoption of innovative water marketing strategies, such as inter-farm sharing or farm joint venture systems and inter-basin and intra-basin water transfers. As the concept is new in the region, it still has challenges that include general market inefficiencies, high transaction costs, market information asymmetries, imperfect competition, and weak or absent robust institutional frameworks that can facilitate market development.

The future of domestic water law: trends and developments revisited, and where reform is headed

ABSTRACTA re-visitation of trends and developments in water legislation in the light of experience and new legislation from selected countries confirms the findings of prior stocktaking, while bearing out advances in many areas: achieving adaptability of regulatory water-allocation mechanisms; blending efficiency and equity of allocation; ‘greening’ of water laws; bridging the land–water divide; and giving customary and de minimis water rights their due. The human right to water, and access to justice, are emerging new trends. These, and the advances listed earlier, show the likely direction of future water law reform.

Managing Drought Risk in the Okanagan: A Role for Dry-Year Option Contracts?

Although markets have proven effective at moving scarce water to high-value uses, the potential economic efficiency gains are often insufficient to convince water users to accept more market-oriented water allocation mechanisms. Water users in the semi-arid areas of British Columbia, including the Okanagan basin, are deeply concerned about the potential negative impacts of water markets. With drought risk rather than chronic water scarcity as the primary water management challenge, water users' concerns are reasonable. Dry-year option contracts may capture some of the benefits of market-based instruments without the risk implications of conventional water markets. Dry-year water option contracts are financial instruments that water-sensitive users can use to hedge themselves against drought impacts, and if appropriately managed through a water supplier, they may be an efficiency-enhancing alternative to crop insurance. We argue that with appropriate support, dry-year option contracts can be a useful low-cost tool to mitigate drought impacts in semi-arid regions of British Columbia. Such contracts may enable the innovative local water management solutions envisioned in British Columbia's recently enacted Water Sustainability Act.

Monotonic Bargaining Solution for Allocating Critically Scarce Transboundary Water

As much as transboundary river basins can be niches for regional cooperation, they could also be causes for interstate water disputes. The risk of water conflict in these river basins is much higher during water scarcity. As a result, establishing a fair and efficient water allocation mechanism is key for the sustainable sharing of these river basins’ water. In this paper, the authors propose a monotonic water allocation mechanism for transboundary river basins under water scarcity by coupling the bankruptcy theory with the Asymmetric Kalai-Smorodinsky bargaining solution concept. The allocation framework takes into account the aspiration water claims of the sharing countries. Additionally, as a case study, the allocation solution was used to allot the contested water of the Nile among the basin countries. For the medium term water demands the framework allocated 61.67%, 89.80%,91.82% and 61.67% of their water claims to Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt and to the assumed coalition countries on the White Nile referred in this paper as equatorial states (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, and Democratic Republic of Congo) respectively. On the other hand, for the long term demands, the allocation scheme allocated 63.65%, 69.36%, 71.42% and 60.41% of their water demands to the riparian countries in the same order. In general, the authors hope that the water allocation scheme applied in this article can contribute to the ongoing efforts to design river sharing solutions to river sharing problems in transboundary river basins by understanding the strategic interaction among riparian countries.

English

Mechanism for water allocation in the irrigated agriculture has been subject of conflict and challenges in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) due to higher input in rice farming and increasing water shortage. How satisfactory is the allocation mechanism by the stakeholders (the providers, policy-makers and the farmers) and how do farmers perceive equity objective on the existing water allocation mechanism in Nigeria? This paper examines constraints confronting water distribution, farmers’ level of satisfaction and their perception on equity in the process of water distribution to farmlands in the Upper Niger River Basin Development Authority (UNRBDA) in Northern Nigeria. This study employs semi-structured interview and validated questionnaires survey approaches with stakeholders. Data collected were analysed using thematic approach based on themes generation and simple descriptive statistics. Findings show that weak institutions, legal framework incapacity and aging infrastructures majorly hinder equitable water allocation in the irrigated agriculture. Varied opinions were observed on the level of satisfaction among the stakeholders. While 77.7% of farmers reported that equity objective is observed, 22.2% declined that there is equity in the allocation policy. Institutional reform and adequate funding for maintenance of facilities is recommended for justice and equity in water allocation. Key words: Constraint, equity, irrigated agriculture, satisfaction, stakeholders, water allocation.

Economic Insight from Utah’s Water Efficiency Supply Curve

Across the western US, growing populations and urbanization along with environmental demands and a changing climate have strained water allocation mechanisms originally designed to provide water to agriculture. This paper provides a methodology, using Utah as an example, for examining the options for new water supply via conservation, interpretable by policymakers, water agencies, and water users. Findings indicate that the largest potential water savings, at the lowest cost, are in agriculture and outdoor residential water use, where more efficient applications can maintain the acreage of crops and lawns at current levels while dramatically reducing use.

Climate change, water management and stakeholder analysis in the Dongjiang River basin in South China

This article proposes a systematic analysis of water management and allocation on the scale of a river basin, considering climate impacts and stakeholder networks in the Dongjiang River basin in South China. Specific approaches are integrated to explore various subtopics. Findings indicate a slight increase of precipitation in the basin and strong fluctuations in this century due to climate extremes, which may lead to seasonal or quality-related water shortages. It is highlighted that alternative options for holistic water management are needed in the basin, and participatory water allocation mechanisms and establishment of a basin-wide management framework could be helpful.

Modeling the Agricultural Water–Energy–Food Nexus in the Indus River Basin, Pakistan

AbstractNexus thinking is critical to jointly address growing water, energy, and food security challenges. This paper evaluates the water, energy, and food nexus (WEFN) in the Indus River of Pakistan using the Indus Basin Model Revised—Multi Year, a hydro-agro-economic model extended with an agricultural energy use module. Impacts of a range of climate change scenarios on the WEFN in the Indus Basin were modeled and then the potential of different alternative water allocation mechanisms and water infrastructure developments to address growing water, energy and food security concerns in the country were assessed. Results show growing water and energy use under hotter and wetter climate conditions. While more flexible surface water allocation policies can mitigate negative climate change impacts on agricultural water and energy use allowing for larger crop and hydropower production, such policies might also increase the inter-annual variability of resource use. Moreover, a more flexible surface water alloca...

Cooperative water management and ecosystem protection under scarcity and drought in arid and semiarid regions

Climate change impacts and the growing concern on environmental water demand are further increasing competition for scarce water resources in many arid and semiarid regions worldwide. Under these circumstances, new water allocation mechanisms based on the involvement of stakeholders are needed, for an efficient and fair allocation of water and income among users. This paper develops a cooperative game theory framework in order to analyze water management policies that could address scarcity and drought in a typical arid and semiarid basin in Southeastern Spain. The results provide clear evidence that achieving cooperation reduces drought damage costs. However, cooperation may have to be regulated by public agencies, such as a basin authority, when scarcity is very high, in order to protect ecosystems and maintain economic benefits. The cooperative game theory solutions and stability indexes examined in this paper demonstrate the importance of incorporating the strategic behavior of water stakeholders in the design of acceptable and stable basin-wide drought mitigation policies.

Sustainable Statewide Water Resources Management in Texas

AbstractKey integrated components of the Texas sustainable water management enterprise include a regional and statewide planning process, water rights permit system and other water allocation mechanisms, process for establishing environmental flow standards, and water availability modeling system. These statewide endeavors mandated by the Legislature are implemented by a water management community comprised of state, local, and federal agencies, private industry, stakeholders, interests groups, consulting engineering firms, and university researchers. Texas is a large state with a rapidly growing population, declining groundwater supplies, intensifying demands on limited surface water resources, extreme hydrologic variability including severe droughts, and very diverse climate, geography, economic development, and water management practices. The Texas experience is illustrative of fundamental concepts and issues involved in state-level efforts to achieve sustainable water management.

Climate change, conflict, and cooperation: Global analysis of the effectiveness of international river treaties in addressing water variability

Climate-driven water variability is a natural phenomenon that is observed across river basins, but one that is predicted to increase due to climate change. Environmental change of this kind may aggravate political tensions, especially in regions which are not equipped with an appropriate institutional apparatus. Increased variability is also likely to challenge regions with existing institutional capacity. We argue that our best attempts to assess the ability of states to deal with variability in the future rest with considering how agreements have fared in the past. In this paper, we explore treaty effectiveness, or treaty resilience, by investigating whether particular water allocation and institutional mechanisms help mitigate inter-country tensions over shared water. We use water-related events from the Basins at Risk events database as a dependent variable to test particular hypotheses regarding the impact of treaty design on conflict and cooperation over time. A broad set of climatic, geographic, political, and economic variables are used as controls. The analysis is conducted for the years 1948–2001 using the country dyad as the level of observation. Findings pertaining to our primary explanatory variables suggest that country dyads governed by treaties with water allocation mechanisms exhibiting both flexibility and specificity evince more cooperative behavior. Country dyads governed by treaties with a larger sum of institutional mechanisms likewise evince a higher level of cooperation, although certain institutional mechanisms appear to be more important than others.

Water governance and adaptation to climate change in the Indus River Basin

Summary Conflicting approaches to water governance at multiple scales within large international river basins may have detrimental effects on the productivity of water resources and consequently the economic activities of the basin. In the Indus River Basin, local scale water productivity decisions are affected by international and intra-national scale water governance. Water availability and productivity is modulated by the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan, and within Pakistan by the agreements governing water allocation between and within provinces. Much of the literature on governance at multiple scales in the Indus basin, and others, has employed qualitative methods of institutional analysis. This paper extends that approach with quantitative modeling of surface water allocation rules at multiple scales and the consequent economic impact on water use and productivity in the Indus River of Pakistan. The effects of the existing water allocation mechanisms on the ability to adapt to possible future climate conditions are examined. The study is conducted using the Indus Basin Model Revised – Multi-Year (IBMR–MY), a hydro-agro-economic model of the Indus River within Pakistan that simulates river and canal flows, groundwater pumping, water use and economic activities with a distributed, partial equilibrium model of the local scale agro-economic activities in the basin. Results suggest that without changes in response to changing conditions, the current governance mechanisms impede the provinces’ ability to adapt to changing climate conditions, in ways that are significant, inflicting economic costs under both high and low flow conditions. However surface water allocation between the provinces does not appear to hinder adaptation. The greatest gains for economic water allocation are achieved at the sub-provincial level. The results imply that adaptive mechanisms for water allocation that allow response to changing climate conditions within provinces may be a promising adaptive response in the Indus Basin.