Tradable Water Rights

Tradable Water Rights
Author: Paul Holden
Publisher:
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:
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In most countries, the state owns the water and hydraulic infrastructure, and public officials decide who gets water rights, how the water is to be used, and how much will be charged for its use. The authors of this paper compare administered systems of water allocation with a system of tradable water rights, and argue that water allocation by administrative edict has resulted in costly, large-scale inefficiencies in the supply and use of water, even with an adequate institutional framework. Secure property rights, on the other hand, have been shown to have a powerful positive effect on investment and efficiency, although only a few countries have tried to take advantage of the allocative efficiencies of a market to assign water resources among users. The authors argue that in order to ensure implementation of an effective water market system, attention should be paid to: (i) ensuring stakeholder participation in designing and implementing the new legislation; (ii) deciding on new rules for the initial allocation of rights and for how new rights should be allocated; (iii) establishing a public registry and block titling; (iv) setting up or strengthening water user associations; (v) protecting against the development of potential monopolies; (vi) ensuring that trades do not infringe on the water rights of existing users; and (vii) establishing appropriate environmental laws.

Tradable Water Rights: A Property Rights Approach to Resolving Water Shortages and Promoting Investment

Tradable Water Rights: A Property Rights Approach to Resolving Water Shortages and Promoting Investment
Author: Paul Holden
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 1999
Genre:
ISBN:
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July 1996 In most countries, the state owns the water and hydraulic infrastructure, and public officials decide who gets water rights, how the water is to be used, and how much will be charged for its use. The authors of this paper compare administered systems of water allocation with a system of tradable water rights, and argue that water allocation by administrative edict has resulted in costly, large-scale inefficiencies in the supply and use of water, even with an adequate institutional framework. Secure property rights, on the other hand, have been shown to have a powerful positive effect on investment and efficiency, although only a few countries have tried to take advantage of the allocative efficiencies of a market to assign water resources among users. The authors argue that in order to ensure implementation of an effective water market system, attention should be paid to: (i) ensuring stakeholder participation in designing and implementing the new legislation; (ii) deciding on new rules for the initial allocation of rights and for how new rights should be allocated; (iii) establishing a public registry and block titling; (iv) setting up or strengthening water user associations; (v) protecting against the development of potential monopolies; (vi) ensuring that trades do not infringe on the water rights of existing users; and (vii) establishing appropriate environmental laws.

Irrigation Water Pricing

Irrigation Water Pricing
Author: François Molle
Publisher: CABI
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1845932927
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Much hope has been vested in pricing as a means of helping to regulate and rationalize water management, notably in the irrigation sector. The pricing of water has often been applied universally, using general and ideological policies, and not considering regional environmental and economic differences. Almost 15 years after the emphasis laid at the Dublin and Rio conferences on treating water as an economic good, a comprehensive review of how such policies have helped manage water resources an irrigation use is necessary. The case-studies presented here offer a reassessment of current policies by evaluating their objectives and constraints and often demonstrating their failure by not considering the regional context. They will therefore contribute to avoiding costly and misplaced reforms and help design water policies that are based on a deeper understanding of the factors which eventually dictate their effectiveness.

European and Dutch Water Law

European and Dutch Water Law
Author: H. F. M. W. van Rijswick
Publisher: UWA Publishing
Total Pages: 544
Release: 2012
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9789089521071
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The Netherlands has a long history in water management, both regarding governance and management.

Information Technologies in Environmental Engineering

Information Technologies in Environmental Engineering
Author: Jorge Marx Gómez
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 591
Release: 2007-07-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3540713352
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Increasing environmental concerns demand interdisciplinary approaches enabling engineers, natural scientists, economists and computer scientists to work together. Information technology is vital to all scientists involved in environmental engineering, covering modeling and simulation, information systems, formal methods and data processing techniques, tools and measurement techniques. This book presents the proceedings of the ITEE 07 conference, where new concepts as well as practical applications and experiences in environmental engineering were presented and discussed.

Towards Tradable Water Rights

Towards Tradable Water Rights
Author: Min Jiang
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2017-09-27
Genre: Law
ISBN: 3319670875
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This book provides a first comprehensive legal examination of water rights arrangements and water rights trading in China. Although recent water reform in China has made substantial progress in policy development and practice, how its legal and institutional framework facilitates or hinders the application of tradable water rights remains less addressed in the existing scholarship. Against the backdrop of China’s water reform and the wider international debate in water governance, this book aims to provide an innovative approach to the complex issue of water governance by critically analysing the recent legal and policy developments in China towards tradable water rights. It examines the deficiencies of the current systems for water rights arrangements and trading, explores how China may learn from and build on the international trends in water rights trading practice (mainly Australia and the US), and proposes legal and policy frameworks for defining and administering tradable water rights in China that underpin sustainable water use in the face of exacerbated water scarcity, variability, and uncertainty. All in all, the book proposes pragmatic strategies for China’s water law and policy reform to move towards tradable water rights, which encompasses a comprehensive prescription from initialising and defining tradable water rights to administering water rights and trading. By reflecting on the deepening water reforms in both China and other jurisdictions, the book aims to contribute to the international water governance debate by exploring from a legal and policy perspective, how China, comparative to other cases around the world, can find a balanced combination of water allocation mechanisms to address its water challenges. It is hoped that the observations and proposed implications for China’s water reform will contribute to developing a better understanding of the way in which experiences in water markets can be shared from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Groundwater

Groundwater
Author: Salman M. A. Salman
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1999-01-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780821346136
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"Water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource for most of the world's citizens. The current trends indicate that the overall situation is likely to deteriorate further, at least for the next decade, unless the water profession eschews "business as usual" practices, which can only allow incremental changes to occur." Groundwater is the least understood and least appreciated, yet the most important, natural resource available to mankind. Groundwater represents about 97% of the existing fresh water resources, excluding the resources locked in polar ice. More than one and a half billion people in the urban parts of the world today depend on groundwater. Groundwater supply is more reliable than the seasonal, and sometimes erratic, surface water and provides the main line of defense against drought. Moreover, the quality of groundwater is, by and large, superior to surface water and cheaper to develop. However, when available, data on groundwater is very scanty. As a result, the World Bank is now paying increasing attention to this valuable resource, through both operations and sector work. This publication represents the proceeding of the seminar "Groundwater: Legal and Policy Perspectives" that was organized by the Legal Vice Presidency of the World Bank. It explains some basic technical aspects of groundwater, surveys the regulatory framework for it, and discusses the World Bank experience and international law regarding this precious resource. It is a timely publication and should also assist in a better understanding and appreciation of this valuable source. It will be of interest to Bank staff, borrowing country officials, international agencies and research organizations working on groundwater.