Anik Bhaduri discusses achieving sustainable development goals related to water under conditions of risk and uncertainty. Three main points:
1) Risk is an important factor in decisions around sustainable water use, stemming from uncertainties in future yields, prices, and water supply. Farmers are more likely to adopt conservation practices when risks are higher.
2) New policies are needed to encourage efficient water use, including innovative financing, changes to governance and legal frameworks, and technologies. Efficiency is key to equitable water distribution and climate change adaptation.
3) Storage infrastructure and flexible pricing policies can increase adoption of efficient irrigation by more than 20%, especially when water supply is uncertain. Institutional reforms and incentive-based approaches are important to
Side Event WFN_Giuseppe Frapporti, Environment Agency, 14th January, UN Water...
Academia: Anik Bhaduri, GWSP, 16th January UN Water Zaragoza Conference 2015
1. Anik Bhaduri
Global Water System Project (GWSP)
16th January , 2015
1
How to Achieve SDGs under
Risk?
2. Role of Risk in decision making
11
• Risk -an important factor influencing the decision
towards sustainable use of water
• Risk stems from-future farm yield, price
uncertainty, water uncertainty
• Probability of adoption water conservation
increases for farmers who experience higher
variance of profit, and for farmers who face the
risk of extreme outcomes-Yaron, Dinar, and Voet (1992),
Feder and Umali (1993), Saha, Love, and Schwart (1994), Sunding and
Zilberman(2001), Koundouri (2006 )Bhaduri (2013)
3. Adoption of efficient irrigation technologies under
different levels of variance in water supply
12
A risk averse farmer may invest
more in efficient irrigation
technology if the variance in water
supply is very high .
BHADURI, ANIK, and UTPAL MANNA. 2014"Impacts of water supply uncertainty and storage on efficient
irrigation technology adoption." Natural Resource Modeling 27.1 (2014): 1-24.
4. Water Use Efficiency for Equity and
Sustainability under Risk
13
• How to achieve water use efficiency?
Cannot be captured in isolation
• New policies and tools are needed to induce water use
efficiency:
– Financing: Search new sources of financing
– Governance: Institutional changes, changes in legal
frameworks
– Innovation: Stimulate innovation for efficient technology
• Must relate water resource use to the overall net-
returns in terms of economic change, behavioural
change and societal well-being
5. Efficient usage of water
14
• Conservation and efficient usage - critical to
sustainable water management and climate
change adaptation.
• Efficiency essential for equitable distribution
of water
• Modern(Efficient) irrigation technologies - one
of several possible solutions to tackle water
scarcity and environmental degradation.
6. Water Use Efficiency for Equity and
Sustainability under uncertainty
15
• How to achieve water use efficiency?
Cannot be captured in isolation
• New policies and tools are needed to induce water use
efficiency:
– Financing: Search new sources of financing
– Governance: Institutional changes, changes in legal
frameworks
– Innovation: Stimulate innovation for efficient technology
• Must relate water resource use to the overall net-
returns in terms of economic change, behavioural
change and societal well-being
7. Relationship between the option to store water and
investment to save water?
16
• If farmers invest in water storage
capacity then the value of
efficient irrigation increases, and
the rate of adoption will be
higher.
• A complementarity relationship
between investment in storage
capacity and efficient irrigation
techniques.
• The relationship becomes
stronger with increasing variance
in water supply.
BHADURI, ANIK, and UTPAL MANNA. 2014"Impacts of water supply uncertainty and storage on efficient
irrigation technology adoption." Natural Resource Modeling 27.1 (2014): 1-24.
8. Flexible water Pricing
17
a flexible water price can
increase the adoption rate
of efficient irrigation
techniques by more than 20
per cent for a risk averse
farmer.
9. Valuing Water
18
• Value water-- Implicit pricing has been
considered to be a powerful tool to induce
efficient use of water in agriculture
• Appropriate mechanisms to protect the poor,
demand management, institutional changes
and transparent and efficient legal framework
10. Getting the price right: An incentive based approach
19
• Farmers are willing to pay
higher prices for irrigation
water, if the additional
money is used to provide
non water related social
services
• Bundling water fees with
other social services can
be used as an efficient tool
to increase awareness and
acceptance of water
pricing,Bhaduri, A, Kloos, J, 2013, Getting the Water Prices Right Using an Incentive-
Based Approach: An Application of a Choice Experiment in Khorezm, Uzbekistan,
The European Journal of Development Research 25: 680-694
12. Water Transfer
21
• Inter-catchment water rights trading
can increase basin-wide benefits by
US$ 373–476 million.
• Under intra-catchment trading, gains
are still US$ 259–339 million,
depending on relative water
availability.
• Gains from trade are larger under drier
conditions.
13. Governance
22
• Decentralization, enabling legal framework
through reform of water laws, property rights,
separation of water and land rights
• Strengthening of river basin organizations
• Technological and institutional innovation
• This knowledge will help to assess the
environmental service innovation potential of the
regions and to create options for conserving
biodiversity and enhancing sustainable usage of
water
14. Conclusion
23
• Risk -an important factor influencing the decision
towards sustainable use of water
• New policies and tools are needed to induce water use
efficiency
• Storage crucial to meet water security under
uncertainty.
• Flexible and incentive based water pricing to induce
efficient usage of water.
• Institutional changes, changes in legal frameworks
Today, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)is on high on priority of the international community to achieve human wellbeing (), social equity and reducing environmental risk.
Goals and targets on the constituents of Sustainable development is so much required today . . But we must also acknowledge that
a wish list of such goals can be endless, and it is necessary to view SDGs in a nested concept, consider all dimensions and their interdependencies so that we can strengthen the human dimension of water scarcity and quality management and policy. A challenge to the scientific community—How do we define a set of SDGs that goes beyond political boundaries and looks at this planet as a single entity with a limited resource base?
It requires a new definition of sustainable development in the Anthropocene: “Development that meets the needs of the present while safeguarding Earth’s life support system, on which the welfare of current and future generation relies”
Can individuals today compensate future generations for the current deterioration of earth system?
Can we provide future generations with opportunity sets at least as large as the ones we have had for ourselves?
Griggs, 2013, Sustainable Development Goals for people and the planet, Nature, Vol 495, pp. 305-307
Having goals and targets on constituents of sustainable use of water
is no doubt laudable. But we must also acknowledge that
a wish list of such goals can be endless, and what is included
in such a list will inevitably be influenced by context specificities,
such as culture, religion, gender, ecological conditions and
economic status .
This means ensuring that freshwater, coastal and
related ecosystems are protected and improved; that
sustainable development and political stability are
promoted, that every person has access to enough
safe water at an affordable cost to lead a healthy
and productive life and that the vulnerable are
protected from the risks of water-related hazards.
Societies’ well-being depends on human condition and the environmental condition. Humans are fully
dependent on Earth’s ecosystems and the services that they
provide, such as food, clean water, disease regulation, climate
regulation, spiritual fulfillment, and aesthetic enjoyment. The
relationship between ecosystem services and human well-being is
mediated by access to manufactured, human, and social capital.
Human well-being depends on ecosystem services but also on the
supply and quality of social capital, technology, and institutions.
These factors mediate the relationship between ecosystem
services and human well-being in ways that remain contested and
incompletely understood. If either the human condition or earth life support system condition is bad, the society is not heading towards sustainability.
Only option d is sustainable: Humans are not suffering and ecosystems are not being degraded. The relationship between human wellbeing
and ecosystem services is not linear. When an ecosystem
service is abundant relative to the demand, a marginal increase in
ecosystem services generally contributes only slightly to human
well-being (or may even diminish it). But when the service is
relatively scarce, a small decrease can substantially reduce human
well-being
Definitions:
Human well-being: a condition in which all members of society are able to determine and meet their needs and have a large range of choices to meet their potential
Ecosystem well – being: A condition in which the ecosystem maintains its diversity and quality – and thus its capacity to support people and the rest of life- and its potential to adapt to change and provide a wide range of choices and opportunities for the future
Tradoffs between the needs of people and the needs of ecosystems are unavoidable, but they have to be limited
For a long time human progress was made on the expense of the environment – this must stop in order to preserve conditions for human well-being
Human and ecosystem well-being are equally important and society needs to achieve both together
Source: Prescott-Allen, Robert (2001), The Well-being of Nations – A country by country index of quality of life and the environment
Introduce a well-being index, combined of a human well- being index and an index reflecting the condition of earth life support system. The well-being index is where human well being index and the ecosystem well-being index intersect.
Enable a set of indicators (human and ecosystem well-being indicators) to be combined independently, while allowing for analysis of people-ecosystem relations
High score in human well-being cannot offset a low score in ecosystem well-being and vice versa
the basic material needs for a good life,
health, good social relations, security, and
freedom of choice and action.
climate change; rate of biodiversity loss (terrestrial and marine); interference with the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles; stratospheric ozone depletion; ocean acidification; global freshwater use; change in land use; chemical pollution; and atmospheric aerosol loading.
Materials use Clean air Nutrient (N and P) cycles Hydrological cycles Ecosystem services Biodiversity Climate stability
In order to overcome shortcomings of MDGs, characteristics of SDGs have to be different.
Characteristics of SDGs:
Recognize the global interconnectedness of economic, social and environmental systems; Apply to both developed and developing countries, consider global interlinkages, regional interlinkages, stimulate national policies and local action; consider different challenges at all scales
Account for interdependencies of sectors, stimulate nexus approach
Take into account not only the well-being of current, but also of future generations
economic and institutional development often focuses on and leads to fulfilling needs of the human population at the expense of the environment. HWS in wealthy nations is achieved through costly technological remedies to overcome the water problems and deliver water services anyways which does little to abate the underlying threats
Across the developed world existing human water security infrastructure will require re-engineering to protect biodiversity while retaining existing human water services.
Across the developing world, establishing human water security for the first time while preserving biodiversity constitutes a dual challenge
n today’s globalized world, people in one part of the world can affect the water system in the other part of the world, and this is possible through virtual water flow.
Water-Food systems changes are driven by demand, prices, technology and resource constraints.
Interdepnedency and feedbak effects.-Dynamic
Further complicated by trade, markets and speculation.
In short, its comlicated
Financing: it is not possible to rely on aid/funds (indefinite time horizon, impacts will be seen in future, goals unclear, global in scale)
New financing mechanisms required: private sector involvement, civil society partnerships, crowd sourcing, linkages to economic benefits (UNOSD, 2013)
Investigate the impact of water supply uncertainty on
adoption of efficient irrigation technologies under a flexible
water price regime. stochastic dynamic framework,
we explore whether increasing variability in water supply can induce the farmers
to conserve water through the adoption of efficient irrigation technologies.
Financing:
Develop incentives to conserve water: Incentive based water pricing
Include the private sector
Microcredits
Civil society partnerships (crowd – sourcing)
Payments for ecosystem services
Governance: Institutional changes, enabling legal framework through reform f water laws, property rights, decoupling of water use and land ownership, Integrating water and energy policies, Strengthening river basin institutions
- Innovation: Stimulate innovation; Benchmarking of best practices of water conservation technologies
Financing:
Develop incentives to conserve water: Incentive based water pricing
Include the private sector
Microcredits
Civil society partnerships (crowd – sourcing)
Payments for ecosystem services
Governance: Institutional changes, enabling legal framework through reform f water laws, property rights, decoupling of water use and land ownership, Integrating water and energy policies, Strengthening river basin institutions
- Innovation: Stimulate innovation; Benchmarking of best practices of water conservation technologies
Investigate the impact of water supply uncertainty on
adoption of efficient irrigation technologies under a flexible
water price regime. stochastic dynamic framework,
we explore whether increasing variability in water supply can induce the farmers
to conserve water through the adoption of efficient irrigation technologies.
In many countries, water prices are fixed and determined administratively,
reflecting neither the supply cost nor the scarcity value. Moreover,
when the scarcity value of water is increasing, it could be inappropriate to insulate
the water economy from market forces. In this paper, we investigate how to get
the water prices right so that it can induce the farmers to adopt efficient irrigation
technology.
Farmers are willing to pay higher prices for irrigation
water, if the additional money is used to provide non water related social services, such as maintenance of
local schools and health centers, training programs and
microcredits.
Bundling water fees with other social services can be
used as an efficient tool to increase awareness and
acceptance of water pricing, while the payments should
be administered in a transparent way and benefit the
entire community.
Reaching a “green–growth” based economic development is dominating the worldwide debate on achieving sustainable growth. we identify potential key sectors for economic restructuring based on the comparison of economic impact and environmental sustainability indexes concurrently.
less water intensive and high value-adding sectors
Sustainable development requires…
Essential principles of SDGs:
Any future goals must display properties of the socio-ecological reality, including their properties of interdependence and interrelatedness
They should incorporate as well the uniqueness of specific contexts, and the various values of the people that the SDGs will touch
They should attend to both societal well-being, as well as individual well-being – not simply one or the other
