Hi Joanna
As requested, I have had a quick look through this report. It wasn’t what I expected. I thought it would be a guide to what needs to be done, both nationally and internationally, to ensure water policy is part of the solution for food security rather than another problem area alongside land tenure and management, trade and competition policy, the legal environment, infrastructure, gender opportunities etc inhibiting progress. Instead, it read like an inventory or catalogue of who thinks what about various aspects of water without a clear methodology to identify underlying issues worthy of priority attention.
To be useful, I feel a report of this nature should give guidance concerning what reforms are needed in the water space. I appreciate that is a huge task, particularly when the geographical focus is so broad but I do think there is scope to lay out what are the major problems around the countries of interest and then distil a framework that each country could assess itself against for potential reforms. Some assessment may need to be regional, certainly international and possibly catchment based to capture the areas where water is collected and flows rather than focus exclusively on where it is administered (ie national boundaries).
I am left floundering by this report when I try to answer the question what specific changes might be proposed to better enhance water management for food security. The list of recommended actions at the end of the report is too general to be useful and far too much space has been wasted in the report traversing the literature with little to show for the effort. There are some key aspects of water policy which have been addressed in Australia over the years that might help the assembly of a framework for international consideration. Unfortunately, they aren’t covered in Box 17. They include 1.Independent assessment of available surface and groundwater resources, 2.Planning and regulation of sustainable water extraction volumes, 3. Allocation of property rights to owners, either using historical, customary use as a guide or auction systems or a mixed system, 4. Pricing of water for extracted volumes and their delivery, 5. Trade (both within season and permanent) in water rights, 6. Monitoring and enforcement of property rights by relevant authorities and 7. A competition policy mechanism to address any anti-competitive behaviour surrounding potential concentration and distribution of water rights.
The Australian story is well covered in the publications of the National Water Resources Commission which should be available on-line. However, that organisation was scrapped in the 2014 Budget and I understand its responsibilities may be taken up by the Productivity Commission. It could be worthwhile making contact with Daryl Quinlivan from the Commission if you need something drafted with the imprimatur of the Australian Government.
Just a few more comments/observations on details of the report using my points 1-7 above. On 1 & 2., sustainability is a key issue. I like the provision for community input provided for in the report but each country of interest really needs to have a national organisation responsible for water regulation with the appropriate hydrological, NRM and economic expertise to establish suitable water extraction quotas. Sometimes, particularly where water and catchments cross national boundaries, an international body will be appropriate as in the case of the Mekong and a bit like administration of the Murray-Darling Basin (although MDB is national). Rights addressed in 3. also require assessment – water needed for household use (eg drinking and sanitation), agricultural use and manufacturing and non-consumptive uses, including the environment. I note that rights in the way that I see them are different to the use of the term ‘right to water’ used in the report which seems to be more emotionally based without quantification and not suitable for operationalising. The rights I describe can have varying securities attached as is done in Australia for urban versus agricultural water use. One point on future use of water that I didn’t understand in the report is Figure 5-why is it that industrial uses of water will become so much more important in the decades ahead? On 4, pricing is a sensitive issue but the report needs to address options for overcoming the sensitivities. For example, water purchased by the poor can be eligible for a specific and transparent government subsidy such that the price received by the relevant authority is unchanged but the payment comes from the government as well as the consumer.
The report doesn’t give sufficient emphasis to the advantages of a water trade regime (5. above), particularly the advantage markets provide with respect to moving water to its highest value use, a task the report seems to suggest (I am not sure on this) is best done administratively. The latter will never succeed and will require an army to ‘pick all the winners’. On trade more broadly, I was left with the impression that the report is assigning a low priority to addressing food shortages by trade liberalisation as it puts great emphasis on the rights to water and food without much weight given to comparative advantage and specialisation of nations. These issues need to be addressed with a far more balanced treatment.
Whatever framework nations finally adopt, it is vulnerable without some capacity to monitor and enforce key provisions, particularly property rights but also validation of water consumption, trade and compliance more broadly. The institutional support must also embrace related policy issues such as competition policy (point 7 above). There is considerable danger in just setting a framework and ‘letting the market rip’ if there is potential for monopolisation of assets and concentration of trade. These are issues the international community should be thinking about to help strengthen international governance.
Finally, storage (along with hydropower) is raised in the report but there isn’t a convincing discussion of how infrastructure investment needs might be met in the decades ahead, as demand for water increases, climate change threatens supply and there are 2 billion more people on the planet (by 2050). What are some of the options that might help us secure water supplies for food production?
All these issues suggest an ongoing program of work that international partners could undertake over an extended period. Bit by bit, the jigsaw could be put together.
I hope these brief comments are of some assistance Joanna. I could provide some further comments later in the process should that option be of interest.
Regards
Bernard Wonder
Bernard Wonder