Green growth and alternative water allocation mechanisms |
The need to reform water allocation, policies and mechanisms is becoming more and more pertinent to the policy-making agenda. Increasing demand for energy, competition over water, climate change and over-allocation of water have compelled governments to address this issue. Governments have different points of departure, however. During a two-day workshop on Water Allocation and Green Growth, 22–23 November 2012 in Wageningen, the Netherlands, almost 50 participants underlined the importance of raising awareness that water allocations are going to be reduced and to approach it in an organized way.
Discussions focused on two main issues:
Participants put forward the following considerations to be incorporated into water allocation reforms:
It was agreed that security of water availability is important. The water allocation process is a political bargaining process, which is guided by political objectives such as food self-sufficiency and equity. A number of transition barriers related to water allocation reforms were identified. For example, often the laws and institutions required for a reform are missing. It is also not known what users get back from giving up water in order to get more ecological/environmental flows. The meeting was organized by the Government of the Netherlands in cooperation with the Netherlands Commission for UNESCO and the Netherlands National Committee IHP-HWRP (UNESCO’s & WMO’s water programmes), hosted by Wageningen UR as an input to the work of the OECD the coming years. Participants included: OECD, World Bank, SIWI, IIASA, IUCN, UNESCO, UNESCO-IHE, PBL, Melbourne University, Conservation International, UNW-DPAC, FutureWater, Deltares, European Commission, IVM-VU, BuZa, I&M, K-Water.
Basic elements of Effective Water Resources Management, by Chris Perry IMAGE: tool for exploring the effects of water allocation and green growth strategies, by Willem Ligtvoet Macro-economic modeling of climate change and water scarcity, by Roy Brouwer Policy relevance for the Netherlands, by Niels Vlaanderen Preparing for an uncertain future through option analysis; the case of the Roode Vaart, by Gigi van Rhee Senegal River, by Tamsir Ndiaye The Water Blueprint, by Henriette Faergemann Water Allocation: A Participatory Approach?, by Mark Smith Water Allocation and Green Growth, by Maarten Gischler Allocation across New Waterscapes, by John Matthews Water Allocation and Investment Decisions in Water Infrastructure, by Diego Rodriguez Water Allocation in the Murray-Darling Basin, by Brian Davidson Water allocation policies and mechanisms, by Petra Hellegers Water and Green Growth in Korea, by Tae-Sun Shin Water Futures and Solutions: Developing a New Generation of Integrated World Water Scenarios, by David A. Wiberg Water Outlook 2050: Scenario Analysis to Support Decision Making in Water Allocation, by Peter Droogers Water trading: reducing or increasing demands for information?, by Josefina Maestu
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