tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/water-management-4630/articles
Water management – The Conversation
2024-03-20T21:24:09Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222941
2024-03-20T21:24:09Z
2024-03-20T21:24:09Z
Water woes in southern Alberta could spell disaster for aquatic ecosystems, and the people who rely on them
<p>Freshwater will be an increasingly scarce resource as we head into spring and summer in Western Canada with implications for the livelihoods and economic prosperity of humans, and non-humans alike, in southern Alberta and the downstream Prairie provinces. </p>
<p>The Bow River — in addition to the Oldman and South-Saskatchewan sub-basins — play a vital role in Western Canada. These rivers also have <a href="https://albertawater.com/water-licences-transfers-and-allocation/">a large number of competing uses</a> including agricultural and irrigation needs, municipal uses, hydroelectric developments, industrial consumption and <a href="https://open.alberta.ca/publications/after-the-flood">recreational and cultural uses</a> — including a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/rainbow-trout-bow-river-1.4921565">world-class sports fishery</a>. </p>
<p>The Rocky Mountains serve as Western Canada’s water towers and are the critical source of the snowpack which plays a major role in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/groundwater-recharge">groundwater recharge</a>. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-2731-2020">diminishing winter snowpack</a>, combined with increasing frequencies of <a href="https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/agricultural-production/weather/canadian-drought-monitor">multi-year droughts in the Prairies</a> from below-average regional precipitation, is setting up the summer of 2024 as another year of <a href="https://www.aer.ca/regulating-development/rules-and-directives/bulletins/bulletin-2023-43">abnormally low volumes</a> of water flowing through the basin.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-report-shows-alarming-changes-in-the-entire-global-water-cycle-197535">New report shows alarming changes in the entire global water cycle</a>
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<p>Make no mistake, dwindling flows will have wide reaching social, environmental and economic impacts. Governments and policymakers must act quickly to avert a larger crisis.</p>
<h2>Compounding impacts</h2>
<p>In addition to impacting the water available for human use, low flows and water levels have direct and indirect impacts on the <a href="https://trivent-publishing.eu/books/engineeringandindustry/watershedandriverbasinmanagement/11.%20C.%20W.%20Koning%20et%20al..pdf">organisms that live in and rely on the aquatic ecosystem</a>. Limited water supplies raise serious concerns about the <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/commentary/doc/2006CanLIIDocs562#!fragment/zoupio-_Toc2Page1-Page10/BQCwhgziBcwMYgK4DsDWszIQewE4BUBTADwBdoAvbRABwEtsBaAfX2zgCYAFMAc0ICMjHvwEAGAJQAaZNlKEIARUSFcAT2gByTVIiEwuBMtUbtu-YZABlPKQBCGgEoBRADLOAagEEAcgGFnKVIwACNoUnYJCSA">long-term impacts on our aquatic ecosystems</a>.</p>
<p>Complicating matters is the <a href="https://open.alberta.ca/publications/albertas-water-priority-system-tools-for-water-licence-holders">“first in time, first in right” (FITFIR) water governance</a> principle which emerged out of the Western United States and is essentially a first come, first served system of water allocation. To make matters worse, <a href="https://doi.org/10.4296/cwrj3501079">new applications for water access have been closed since 2006</a>, a decision which will have a “significant effect on water supply strategies available to municipal water users, as many communities currently hold water licences that are not adequate for their projected growth.” </p>
<p>In <a href="https://open.alberta.ca/publications/0778546209">2006 the government of Alberta</a> acknowledged that “the limits for water allocations have been reached or exceeded in the Bow, Oldman and South Saskatchewan River sub basins.” In the South Saskatchewan Basin, most of the water is allocated to a handful of license holders who have had licenses for high volumes of water for years. This is a substantial hurdle to overcome when trying to retain river water for aquatic ecosystems — a goal <a href="https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/er-2022-0126">often referred to as environmental flows or “e-flows”</a>.</p>
<p>Without substantial changes to the licensing program, aquatic ecosystem health will continue to be secondary to existing license holder uses. </p>
<p>Further complicating the matter is that allocations are looked at <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62f582febb0b3104adabb617/t/6358b7a0bf6485031a91dc36/1666758567761/Final+Report+-+Review+of+the+Implementation+of+the+Approved+WMP+for+the+SSRB.pdf">annually and not seasonally</a>. This means that the system can’t adapt “on the fly” when low flows hit, unless there are specific government directives implemented to that effect. This is also true of current monitoring and reporting efforts across the country, with reporting and interpretation of data being done only after an <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/business/energy/survey-finds-oilsands-environmental-monitoring-ineffective-after-10-years">issue has occurred, if at all</a>. </p>
<p>Perhaps most egregiously, the FITFIR approach has also long been criticized by Indigenous groups as disproportionately impacting their water rights and <a href="https://www.watercanada.net/feature/three-out-of-ten-odds-of-a-solution-to-first-nation-water-rights-in-alberta/">limiting water supplies in favour of competing industry and large agricultural needs</a>.</p>
<h2>Low-level impacts</h2>
<p>Alberta’s water regulations are generally not helping matters. Currently, regulations around pollution release are predominantly applied at the end-of-pipe, not throughout the river, meaning the impacts on the river will vary based on how much water is present. This often results <a href="https://doi.org/10.2166/wqrj.2019.033">in poor water quality events occurring in the summer,</a> when flow is lowest and the pollutants are less diluted. This has direct consequences on aquatic food webs and those that rely upon the river, especially in areas downstream of major sources of pollution.</p>
<p>Lower river flows and levels can result in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2014.11.010">increased water temperatures and</a> decreased oxygen availability for aquatic organisms. This can have harmful consequences on sensitive species like fish and their invertebrate food sources. The projected low flows in 2024 will likely lead to increased fish mortality.</p>
<p>There are numerous habitats around rivers that rely on certain levels of flow to be present for survival. Riparian areas (river banks) along the river run the risk of drying up and dying off if flow isn’t <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-020-01392-4">adequate</a>. While seasonal fluctuations in water levels are normal, the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/what-low-water-levels-in-edmonton-could-mean-for-fish-this-winter-1.7028203">uncharacteristically low flows this past fall and winter</a>, combined with expected lower water levels in the coming year may mean that these sensitive habitats are isolated for extended periods of time — not receiving the water and nutrients required for their survival.</p>
<p>The impacts aren’t restricted to organisms living directly in and around rivers in the region either. Low water flows affect the entire food web <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02705060.2023.2203728">from aquatic insects to apex predators</a> and with fewer prey available, larger fish populations may decline. These impacts also will only grow downstream as cumulative pressures on the river increase.</p>
<p>While rivers have seasonal flow patterns, low water flow isn’t just a seasonal issue. Climate change projections have been predicting more <a href="https://albertawater.com/climate-change-in-the-bow-basin/">frequent and severe droughts</a>, which will only exacerbate this issue.</p>
<h2>Preventing drought?</h2>
<p>2024 is likely the first of a series of years where we will see reduced snowpack, altered precipitation timing (and amounts) and increased water use pressures all combining to reduce river flows. </p>
<p>We have seen an initial reaction by <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=8971229900128-9793-C959-193E503D6C61CAD4">the provincial government</a> in Alberta; however, there has been a noticeable lack of acknowledgement from many governments and regulatory bodies across the country. This is a national issue and will be an ongoing issue as a result of climate change. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/02/19/Alberta-Brutal-Water-Reckoning/">tension between different water users has been predicted for over a decade</a>. Policy options to date have been limited and have lacked the inclusion of ecosystem-related considerations. There <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-parched-alberta-negotiating-with-water-holders-to-strike-share/">also has been discussion</a> around <a href="https://prism.ucalgary.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/596932e4-12f8-46d6-90f6-7512479be965/content">increasing the allowance</a> of water which can be moved between basins. However, such systems could have major implications on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1891">aquatic ecosystem health if utilized widely and must be done with great care.</a></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/johannesburgs-water-crisis-is-getting-worse-expert-explains-why-the-taps-keep-running-dry-in-south-africas-biggest-city-223926">Johannesburg's water crisis is getting worse – expert explains why the taps keep running dry in South Africa's biggest city</a>
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<p>As we move through what will be an unprecedented low water year, it will be critical that policymakers, regulators and all Canadians understand the far-reaching impacts. </p>
<p>Our existing approaches aren’t working. We must look beyond our current systems. This includes utilizing the knowledge of water quality experts as well as Indigenous Peoples who have relied on the river for centuries. </p>
<p>The management issue presenting itself is extremely complex and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2016.1238345">will require equally complex responses with input from all concerned parties</a>. But the costs of failure will be far greater than the costs of action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Barrett receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada and is involved in research projects in southern Alberta funded by the City of Calgary, Alberta Innovates, and the NSERC Alliance Program.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerry Black receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and is involved in research projects in southern Alberta funded by the City of Calgary, Alberta Innovates, and the NSERC Alliance Program.</span></em></p>
Declining precipitation, climate change and governance failures will drive water flow scarcity in 2024 with serious implications across Western Canada.
David Barrett, Research Associate, Faculty of Science, University of Calgary
Kerry Black, Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair, Integrated Knowledge, Engineering and Sustainable Communities, University of Calgary
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219596
2024-02-01T19:03:42Z
2024-02-01T19:03:42Z
Consulting firms provided low-quality research on crucial water policies. It shows we have a deeper problem
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572682/original/file-20240201-17-j9u2l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C17%2C3805%2C2138&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/agriculture-irrigation-silhouette-farmer-tablet-walks-2330622729">maxim ibragimov, Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Management <a href="https://www.ibisworld.com/au/industry/management-consulting/1896/#IndustryStatisticsAndTrends">consulting revenue</a> in Australia has grown from less than A$33 billion in 2010 to more than $47 billion in 2023. The increasing use of consultants, as well as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-the-pwc-scandal-theres-a-growing-case-for-a-royal-commission-into-australias-ruthless-corporate-greed-214474">PwC scandal</a>, highlights serious issues with vested interests, integrity and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/18/why-does-australia-rely-on-consulting-firms-such-as-pwc-and-not-on-its-own-public-servants">transparency</a>. </p>
<p>Consequently, a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Finance_and_Public_Administration/Consultingservices">Senate inquiry</a> is investigating the management and integrity of consulting services. The deadline for the Senate committee’s final report has been extended twice, partly due to the <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/236738-the-big-fours-revelations-in-senate-estimates/">various revelations</a>, to March 28. So far, all the big consulting groups in Australia have appeared before the committee. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901123003039">recent review</a> of research in the Murray-Darling Basin points to other serious concerns about the use of consulting studies, which are increasingly relied upon for policy-making, especially in water. Of the studies we examined, 65 were on the economic consequences of water recovery. Almost half of these were low-quality studies, mainly from consultancies but also by think tanks and government departments. The low-quality studies were more likely to overestimate negative impacts on the economy and community from buying water back for the environment. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, these poor-quality studies were used to justify changes to water policy. Buying back water rights from “willing sellers” is a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-8489.12001">cost-effective way</a> to redistribute water entitlements. But buybacks were halted under the former Coalition government. The policy <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/getting-straight-work-restore-murray-darling-rivers">will now be restored</a> under Labor in the form of “voluntary water purchases”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-buybacks-are-back-on-the-table-in-the-murray-darling-basin-heres-a-refresher-on-how-they-work-200529">Water buybacks are back on the table in the Murray-Darling Basin. Here's a refresher on how they work</a>
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<h2>Contested research into water buybacks</h2>
<p>The $13 billion basin plan seeks to improve the health of our nation’s largest river system by returning water from irrigation to the environment. </p>
<p>But such water reallocation has been blamed for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/18/murray-darling-basin-water-buyback-plan-farmers-claim-rural-job-losses">huge job losses, reductions in irrigated production and consequently, economic decline in rural towns</a>. </p>
<p>There are many groups with different interests in the basin. Research results are often contested.</p>
<p>To provide an objective assessment and comparison of the quality of basin water economic study results, we developed and applied a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901123003039">new economic quality assessment framework</a>. This was inspired by health research, which has long applied grading systems to ensure robustness in research findings (such as <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelinesforguidelines/develop/assessing-certainty-evidence">the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation</a>. </p>
<p>Our framework enables studies to be classified as low, medium or high quality, to suggest how robust each study’s results may be. </p>
<p>Nearly half (45 per cent) of the 65 water recovery studies in our review were classified as low quality. These low quality studies were much more likely to suggest large negative impacts on economic values from water recovery than higher quality studies. They were also more likely to be consulting studies. </p>
<p>The high quality studies (26 per cent) were peer-reviewed, employed sophisticated modelling and extensive analysis. The estimated impact of water recovery ranged from none to small or modest. None of these studies were funded by industry. </p>
<h2>Why is there such a difference in results?</h2>
<p>The method used in each study is a major factor determining research quality. Consultants often rely on simple methods such as “input-output modelling” or “multipliers” to assess economic impact. These are models that often rely upon simplistic assumptions and links within sectors in the economy to predict changes in job numbers or production. These models are not able to consider all possible influences of change. </p>
<p>Input-output modelling is <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/detailed-methodology-information/concepts-sources-methods/australian-system-national-accounts-concepts-sources-and-methods/2020-21/chapter-22-input-output-tables/using-i-o-tables-analysis">heavily criticised as inappropriate by the Australian Bureau of Statistics</a> and many treasury departments. Given this modelling is used across many areas and subjects within Australia to illustrate “economic impact”, its use and application needs greater scrutiny. </p>
<p>Higher quality studies use methods that allow for dynamic feedback and adaptation. They also account for other factors that influence outcomes such as climate or prices. As a result, higher quality studies in our review do not find anywhere near the same large decrease in jobs or economic impact from reduced water extraction. </p>
<p>For example, some feedbacks that can occur when farmers sell water include that the money is reinvested on the farm, increasing profits, or that the farm switches from irrigated to dryland agriculture, so production continues. Alternatively water recovery may increase community welfare through an improved environment, or better downstream water conditions for other farmers. Simplistic modelling approaches often ignore these other benefits.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901123003039?via%3Dihub">review</a> also indicated a relative lack of study in the basin on other downstream and Indigenous benefits and costs, as well as a need to pay closer attention to transition and adjustment issues within some small irrigation-intensive communities. </p>
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<h2>We need quality standards for water research</h2>
<p>Basin communities will increasingly need to adapt and adjust as the climate changes. We need better ways to cope with such transitions, especially in the face of future upheavals from drought and extreme weather events.</p>
<p>Hopefully the recently released funding and other <a href="https://consult.dcceew.gov.au/draft-restoring-our-rivers-framework">support for communities</a> announced in the amended <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/restoring-our-rivers-act">water law</a> will help communities adjust to the reallocation of water. To date, such funds have <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/basin-plan/report">not been allocated</a> to areas most in need.</p>
<p>The negative socio-economic impacts predicted by low-quality studies are often used to justify changed water policies. We, along with other <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/369142/sub104-basin-plan-2023.pdf">water economic professors</a>, are calling for greater quality standards when it comes to government-funded research into the affects of water reallocation. The government is now <a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/files-au-climate/climate-au/p/prj2a8f4464525d140f6d670/public_assets/Draft450Framework.pdf">required</a> to update the impact analysis for the basin plan. It is essential that any assessment of impact is robust and defensible, following strict quality standards.</p>
<p>These quality standards could also be applied widely, across a variety of policies and areas. Although high quality research is difficult and takes time, relying on inadequate research can have serious consequences. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/suicide-rates-increased-after-extreme-drought-in-the-murray-darling-basin-we-have-to-do-better-as-climate-change-intensifies-211107">Suicide rates increased after extreme drought in the Murray-Darling Basin – we have to do better as climate change intensifies</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219596/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>An Australian Research Council discovery grant and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority provided funding for this research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alec Zuo receives funding from an Australian Research Council discovery grant and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority provided funding for this research.</span></em></p>
A comprehensive review of research into the economic consequences of controversial water buybacks in the Murray-Darling Basin reveals many studies are of poor quality. Better standards are needed.
Sarah Ann Wheeler, Professor in Water Economics, University of Adelaide
Alec Zuo, Associate Professor, School of Economics and Public Policy, University of Adelaide
Ying Xu, Research Fellow, School of Economics and Public Policy, University of Adelaide
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/220455
2024-01-17T21:52:45Z
2024-01-17T21:52:45Z
Ripple effect: How public attitudes can shift governments toward sustainable, and resilient, water systems
<p>With all the negative news coming out about climate change, its impacts and its possible trajectory in the not-so-distant future, it can be difficult to maintain hope for a brighter future.</p>
<p>The last few years have been challenging, even for optimists, with international climate meetings like the recent COP28 in Dubai emphasizing <a href="https://www.wri.org/insights/explaining-global-stocktake-paris-agreement">how far we are from where we need to be in terms of climate action</a>. Meanwhile, reports like IPBES’ global biodiversity report provide <a href="https://www.ipbes.net/global-assessment">strong evidence for the accelerating deterioration of nature and its benefits</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/2023-was-the-hottest-year-in-history-and-canada-is-warming-faster-than-anywhere-else-on-earth-220997">2023 was the hottest year in history — and Canada is warming faster than anywhere else on earth</a>
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<p>It can feel like there is not enough momentum to move quickly enough to slow climate change and stave off its worst impacts. However, our recent work provides a point of hope and evidence for optimism.</p>
<h2>Understanding resilience</h2>
<p>We are researchers with expertise in psychology, sustainability and environmental governance. Our study assessed the attitudes of the general public towards a resilience-based approach to environmental decision-making, with a special focus on water. </p>
<p>Resilience is the ability to respond to disturbances (like climate change impacts) by resisting change, adapting or transforming, if needed, for the well-being of humans and ecosystems. </p>
<p>There are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-051211-123836">seven principles that support resilience</a> that range from promoting connectivity of human and natural systems, to creating inclusive decision-making processes, to being willing to experiment with new approaches and learn from them, even if they are not entirely successful.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">An overview of the basic principles of climate change adaptation and resilience produced by the IPCC in 2022.</span></figcaption>
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<p>We can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indic.2023.100249">assess these principles</a> and each of them contributes to resilience in unique and critically important ways. How we <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-meaning-of-environmental-words-matters-in-the-age-of-fake-news-106050">understand what resilience means matters</a>. </p>
<p>Some understand it to be only the ability to resist change, which is not sufficient for what the world needs in this moment. Beyond resisting, we must also adapt, and potentially, transform. However, resilience can also be used as a tool to deflect blame and responsibility for supporting disproportionately affected groups.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-unfairness-of-the-climate-crisis-podcast-192469">The unfairness of the climate crisis — Podcast</a>
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<p>Many organizations and international bodies, including the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/">IPCC</a>, <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34780">the World Bank</a> and the <a href="https://unfccc.int/topics/adaptation-and-resilience/the-big-picture/introduction">United Nations Climate Change Secretariat</a>, argue that we need to integrate resilience — including adaptation and transformation — into how we govern, make strategic decisions and take action moving forward.</p>
<p>We need resilience because we are dealing with unprecedented environmental change and the drivers and impacts of this change are highly intertwined, making governance a complex task. Resilience can meet the challenge of complexity. In our work, we focus on resilience in surface freshwater governance, specifically. </p>
<h2>Public attitudes</h2>
<p>How we govern is determined by many factors, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/106591290305600103">including public attitudes</a>. </p>
<p>As members of the public, we can vote, protest, communicate directly with elected officials, write opinion pieces for news outlets, talk to our neighbours and friends, and educate our children. We have multiple ways to influence decision-making, and our attitudes play an important role in the messages we send through those spheres of influence.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/court-decision-in-youth-climate-lawsuit-against-ontario-government-ignites-hope-206275">Court decision in youth climate lawsuit against Ontario government ignites hope</a>
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<p>We measured the attitudes of the general public in six countries representing the Global North and South with a study focused on resilience and water governance. We offered participants in our survey a vignette, or short scenario, about a water issue. </p>
<p>Participants answered a series of questions about the vignette. For each question, they had four options, representing a spectrum of support for resilience, from no support to full support.</p>
<p>Across six countries (Canada, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, India and South Africa) there was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2023.23">moderate to strong support for a resilience-based approach to water governance</a>. These findings suggest a positive outlook on public attitudes towards resilience-centred water governance, both now and especially for the future.</p>
<p>The best news from the study was that more than half of the participants across all countries showed the potential for strengthening their support for a more resilient approach to water governance. </p>
<p>We measured potential for growth by asking participants to select all of the options they considered acceptable for each question, before choosing their most preferred option. If participants selected an option that demonstrated stronger support for resilience than the one they most preferred, this signalled room for improving their support.</p>
<h2>Taking action</h2>
<p>We are encouraged by these results and how consistent they were across multiple countries that have different water issues, cultures and political leadership. We accounted for some of these differences by providing vignettes that dealt with a range of water issues, from flooding to drought to infrastructure concerns. </p>
<p>Even with differing water issues and cultures factored in, attitudes were consistent, and so was the potential to strengthen support for water resilience.</p>
<p>We feel that these results serve as a hopeful message to those who might be feeling discouraged or pessimistic about our shared future. There are many whose attitudes support resilience-based approaches to governance, and this is a fact worth celebrating.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadians-are-unprepared-for-natural-hazards-heres-what-we-can-do-about-it-201863">Canadians are unprepared for natural hazards. Here's what we can do about it</a>
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<p>We also share this message with those in policy leadership positions, like the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/water-overview/canada-water-agency.html">Canada Water Agency</a>.</p>
<p>The public is supportive of approaches that will improve the resilience of water systems and strengthen the well-being of humans and the ecosystems upon which we all depend.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Baird receives funding from SSHRC and the Canada Research Chairs program. She is affiliated with the Canadian Coalition for Healthy Waters as an academic advisor.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gary Pickering receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gillian Dale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The results of a new study are clear: resilient water governance systems are effective and enjoy strong public support. The time is now to build resilience into our global water systems.
Julia Baird, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Human Dimensions of Water Resources and Water Resilience, Brock University
Gary Pickering, Professor, Biological Sciences and Psychology, Brock University
Gillian Dale, Research fellow, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216253
2023-11-08T13:37:55Z
2023-11-08T13:37:55Z
Fresh water is a hidden challenge − and opportunity − for global supply chains
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558062/original/file-20231107-15-72zegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=65%2C5%2C3928%2C2646&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cargo ships wait at the entrance to the Panama Canal in late September.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cargo-ships-wait-at-the-entrance-of-the-panama-canal-at-news-photo/1687928473">Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Reports of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/business/economy/panama-canal-drought-shipping.html">lengthy shipping delays</a> for vessels traveling through the Panama Canal this year have highlighted the critical but often overlooked role that fresh water plays across global supply chains. Drier than normal conditions in Panama, brought on by El Niño, have <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67281776">left the region drought-stricken</a> and water levels in the locks that feed the canal lower than normal. This has led to fewer ships being able to pass through the canal each day: only <a href="https://apnews.com/article/panama-canal-locks-reduction-31-ships-061ce1797cb9b0fb8ea7ab44ba04bdf1.html">31 ships</a> currently, compared with 36 to 38 under normal conditions. This means longer waits to move products through the canal and onto store shelves. </p>
<p>The slowdown at the Panama Canal shows how access to fresh water is key to the way goods are made and shipped, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/26/economy/panama-canal-supply-chain/index.html">affecting everything</a> from the price of groceries to retail forecasts for the upcoming holiday shopping season. As a <a href="https://harbert.auburn.edu/directory/dustin-cole.html">professor of supply chain management</a>, I think businesses would be wise to pay closer attention to this issue.</p>
<p>But first, you might ask: What does fresh water have to do with ocean freight? Plenty, it turns out.</p>
<h2>Water, water everywhere, and not enough to share</h2>
<p>The Panama Canal is a freshwater connection between two oceans – not a saltwater link, as one might assume. A series of locks on each side of the canal raise cargo freighters nearly 100 feet to human-made lakes that extend across Panama’s isthmus and lower them down to sea level on the other side. </p>
<p>Each crossing by a ship requires <a href="https://1997-2001.state.gov/regions/wha/panama/991206_faqs.html">52 million gallons</a> of fresh water from lakes, rivers and streams across this small country. This creates a trade-off between preserving water for local needs and using it to allow ships to traverse the canal. Less water allocated to the canal means fewer ships can pass through.</p>
<p>This isn’t an isolated phenomenon. Periodic low water levels in the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/mississippi-river-careens-from-floods-to-low-water-threatening-barge-traffic-a6d5758d">Mississippi River</a> and the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/low-water-hampers-rhine-river-shipping-germany-2023-06-19/">Rhine River</a> in Germany have impeded barge traffic for years, disrupting supply chains while stoking debate about how to divide limited amounts of fresh water. Recent plans by communities in northern Colorado to <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10092023/colorado-river-upstream-use-it-before-they-lose-it-2/">build their own reservoirs</a> on tributaries of the Colorado River highlight questions about who owns access to local waterways and how this resource is governed.</p>
<h2>An ancient challenge</h2>
<p>The need to manage water resources isn’t new, with complex water management systems <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/roman-aqueducts/">dating back to the Roman Empire</a> and <a href="https://eal.isas.illinois.edu/projects/ancient-water-management/">even earlier</a>. Humankind has made great progress on water management over the centuries, but in recent years the issue has often taken a back seat to other pressing environmental concerns such as global warming. </p>
<p>Water management is complicated by the fact that businesses and communities sometimes find themselves in conflict: Businesses want to use water for their operations, while communities want to preserve water supplies to ensure that residents’ basic needs are met. At the same time, communities also need the jobs and services that businesses provide. Examples such as the Panama Canal highlight this tension.</p>
<p>Balancing these seemingly contrary needs calls for a deeper look into how much water is used in the making of products people buy and use every day.</p>
<p>As my colleagues and I show in a recent journal article, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.13923">water is an important component</a> of almost everything people buy. For example, roughly <a href="https://interestingengineering.com/science/industrial-activity-is-draining-the-world-of-fresh-water">2,600 gallons of water</a> goes into making the fabric for a single pair of jeans. From growing cotton for the fibers needed to manufacturing the denim and getting those jeans onto shelves at The Gap, more and more water is embedded into each pair as it moves through the supply chain. </p>
<p>Essentially, businesses use water to transport water embedded in virtually all products they sell. This is why businesses have more than purely altruistic reasons to address water-related problems: It isn’t just good for society but also their own operations. A lack of water can hamper production and disrupt the supply chains that businesses rely on.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JS_pnCWNb4Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Inside the world’s largest cargo shipping bottleneck. | WSJ.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Solutions for businesses</h2>
<p>There are a number of ways in which businesses can improve their water management to reduce their own consumption – and costs – while limiting their exposure to water risks.</p>
<p>First, companies should realize that not everything requires clean water. Wastewater from one process can be used for another that doesn’t require clean water. Similarly, not every process pollutes water, so reuse is easy for wastewater resulting from those processes, such as water used for cooling.</p>
<p>Second, firms can share wastewater between facilities for reuse, a concept called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/industrial-ecology#">industrial ecology</a>. For example, nutrient-rich water from food production can be used for farm irrigation rather than being discharged.</p>
<p>And third, since water is an excellent medium for heat transfer, rather than trying to cool one area and heat another, companies can connect the systems. For example, global aluminum giant Novelis is deploying hot water used in the casting process at one of its plants in Europe to <a href="https://www.novelis.com/district-heating-with-casting-water/">heat a neighboring building</a>.</p>
<p>Opportunities abound for improving management of fresh water – one of our most precious resources. While stronger government regulations and expanded reporting requirements will help, decisions by businesses themselves can move that needle even more.</p>
<p>For those who do, their standing in the communities in which they operate will surely benefit – as will their bottom lines.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216253/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dustin Cole does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Smart water management isn’t just good for the earth. It’s good for business.
Dustin Cole, Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management, Auburn University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/213745
2023-09-20T20:06:15Z
2023-09-20T20:06:15Z
Freshwater quality is one of New Zealanders’ biggest concerns – water-trading ‘clubs’ could be part of the solution
<p>For more than 25 years, New Zealanders have consistently rated freshwater health as one of their <a href="https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/assets/Discover-Our-Research/Environment/Sustainable-society-policy/EPS/public-perceptions-of-nzs-environment-2000-report.pdf">leading environmental concerns</a>. But the issue is strikingly absent from the 2023 election campaign.</p>
<p>Debate of the controversial new <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/water-services-entities-amendment-bill-passes-third-reading">water reform law</a> – which places the management of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater with ten publicly owned entities instead of local councils – has been noticeably muted. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-the-three-waters-reforms-under-fire-lets-not-forget-that-safe-and-affordable-water-is-a-human-right-192933">With the Three Waters reforms under fire, let’s not forget that safe and affordable water is a human right</a>
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<p>Similarly, discussions of the 2020 <a href="https://environment.govt.nz/assets/Publications/Files/essential-freshwater.pdf">Essential Freshwater</a> package, which was the government’s response to New Zealanders listing freshwater as the <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/21-08-2017/the-water-battle-in-election-2017-a-beginners-guide">second most important policy issue</a> in 2017, are nowhere to be seen. </p>
<p>Part of the reason could be that the regulatory approach of the Essential Freshwater package has met resistance from farmers and landowners who feel growing pressure from compounding environmental regulations. </p>
<p>Given this, the continued absence of environmental markets for addressing scarcity and improving freshwater quality in New Zealand streams and rivers is a marked policy omission. </p>
<p><a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aaac08">Elsewhere in the world</a>, water trading can help improve efficiency and drive water conservation. Trading helps to shift water from low-value to high-value uses or from areas with relative abundance to places of relative scarcity.</p>
<p>Motivated by what we observe in New Zealand and internationally, our new <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/acf58d">research</a> offers an innovative, alternative approach for managing freshwater in small catchments.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/report-shows-new-zealands-fragmented-environmental-research-funding-doesnt-match-most-urgent-needs-151741">Report shows New Zealand's 'fragmented' environmental research funding doesn't match most urgent needs</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>Freshwater and property rights</h2>
<p>Freshwater is allocated on a “first come, first served” basis in New Zealand. Since 1991, consents or permits have been granted to water users by local authorities under the Resource Management Act (<a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1991/0069/latest/DLM230265.html">RMA</a>), usually for periods of up to 30 years.</p>
<p>Although these consents act as de-facto property rights to water, they are not defined as such under the RMA. This makes water “rights” open to interpretation when challenged under law. </p>
<p>Consent holders are also unable to easily trade and exchange their rights. This means water is not necessarily used in the most efficient or effective way. This potentially exacerbates issues of <a href="https://www.lawa.org.nz/explore-data/canterbury-region">over-allocation and declining water quality</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sprinkler on a farm in Canterbury, New Zealand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548917/original/file-20230918-21-kfyfej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548917/original/file-20230918-21-kfyfej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548917/original/file-20230918-21-kfyfej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548917/original/file-20230918-21-kfyfej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548917/original/file-20230918-21-kfyfej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548917/original/file-20230918-21-kfyfej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548917/original/file-20230918-21-kfyfej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Water-use rights are allocated on a first come, first served basis in New Zealand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Janice Chen</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Part of the ambiguity around water rights is driven by unresolved questions about <a href="https://environment.govt.nz/publications/tribunal-findings-rma/ownership/">proprietary rights</a> and <a href="https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/11811">Māori interests in water</a> that have arisen because of inconsistent translations of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. These complexities make the establishment of property rights to freshwater complicated, with run-on effects for the types of policy tools that can be adopted.</p>
<p>Formal water markets, like those in <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/markets">Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin</a>, require property rights to be well defined, defended and divestible. They also have several institutional preconditions, such as low transaction costs and a large number of active traders. These make them appear poorly suited for many small New Zealand catchments.</p>
<p>However, our <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/acf58d/meta">research</a> suggests that designing water markets as “clubs” could circumvent some of the institutional challenges of implementing formal trading regimes in small New Zealand catchments.</p>
<h2>Water clubs: a new model for small catchments</h2>
<p>Unlike other countries characterised by large river basins and many active water users, many parts of New Zealand have small catchments with few active users. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A map of a typical freshwater catchment in the South Island of New Zealand, showing the catchment's geographical boundaries, surface water sources and active water users." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548974/original/file-20230919-23-eoyege.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548974/original/file-20230919-23-eoyege.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548974/original/file-20230919-23-eoyege.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548974/original/file-20230919-23-eoyege.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548974/original/file-20230919-23-eoyege.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548974/original/file-20230919-23-eoyege.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548974/original/file-20230919-23-eoyege.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Freshwater catchments, such as the 12,400ha Edendale groundwater management zone in the South Island, generally have small numbers of active users.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NIWA</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Economic theory argues these contexts are unsuitable for formal trading arrangements because the transaction costs associated with establishing an active water market are likely to outweigh any potential efficiency gains from trade.</p>
<p>Designing (or redesigning) water markets as clubs could get around some of the political and economic complexities of New Zealand’s freshwater policy landscape by permitting small groups of users with shared interests to voluntarily trade their water endowment under certain conditions. </p>
<p>In small catchments, the introduction of trading at the group level has the potential to increase the public-good aspects of water such as water quality. It could also improve community wellbeing and encourage people to internalise the costs they may be imposing on other group members.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/murray-river-water-sales-better-for-farmers-and-the-environment-22158">Murray River water sales: better for farmers and the environment</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We also find the club model performs best when the number of active traders is low. This challenges the common assumptions regarding group size and effective market performance.</p>
<p>These results suggest that if water users, such as a group of like-minded farmers involved in a catchment group, were given permission to trade their water consent with other members of their group, they could improve the health of the environment. </p>
<p>They could also enhance the net benefits of their own private agricultural production, compared with the current regulatory status quo.</p>
<p>Although this new “club model” does not comprehensively address the outstanding issues of Māori rights and interests in freshwater, it provides an innovative way to adapt a trading regime to suit New Zealand’s political and geographical context. </p>
<p>Surely innovation is something political leaders would want to discuss on the campaign trail.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213745/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Funding from the Royal Society Te Apārangi (VUW2006) helped support this research. Julia also leads the freshwater programme at Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yigit Saglam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Despite its importance, water management has been largely absent from the election campaign. But using trading markets to improve freshwater quality in smaller catchments deserves wider debate.
Julia Talbot-Jones, Senior Lecturer, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Yigit Saglam, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212816
2023-09-12T12:29:30Z
2023-09-12T12:29:30Z
What Arizona and other drought-ridden states can learn from Israel’s pioneering water strategy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546411/original/file-20230905-364-hcc2rt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5491%2C3655&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Suburban development in Maricopa County, Arizona, with lakes, lush golf courses and water-guzzling lawns. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/aerial-view-of-suburban-development-named-ocotillo-in-news-photo/1410152052">Wild Horizon/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Arizona is one of the <a href="https://www.prb.org/resources/growth-and-migration-in-the-american-southwest-a-tale-of-two-states/">fastest-growing states in the U.S.</a>, with an economy that offers many opportunities for workers and businesses. But it faces a daunting challenge: a water crisis that could seriously constrain its economic growth and vitality. </p>
<p>A recent report that projected <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/09/us/arizona-water-development-desert.html">a roughly 4% shortfall in groundwater supplies</a> in the Phoenix area over the next 100 years prompted the state to <a href="https://www.azwater.gov/phoenix-ama-groundwater-supply-updates">curtail new approval</a> of groundwater-dependent residential development in some of the region’s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/arizona-colorado-river-drought-climate-change-groundwater-52860198c654d7308137c6c7836707f4">fast-growing suburbs</a>. Moreover, negotiations continue over <a href="https://www.azwater.com/colorado-river-updates/">dwindling supplies from the Colorado River</a>, which historically supplied more than a third of the state’s water. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of the full Colorado River watershed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Colorado River’s watershed extends across seven U.S. states and into Mexico. Use of river water is governed by a compact negotiated in 1922.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://qcnr.usu.edu/coloradoriver/files/perspectives-map.pdf">Center for Colorado River Studies</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a partial solution, the <a href="https://www.azwifa.gov/">Arizona Water Infrastructure Finance Authority</a> is exploring a proposal to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/10/climate/arizona-desalination-water-climate.html">import desalinated water from Mexico</a>. Conceptualized by <a href="https://ide-tech.com/en/">IDE, an Israeli company</a> with extensive experience in the desalination sector, this mega-engineering project calls for building a plant in Mexico and piping the water about 200 miles and uphill more than 2,000 feet to Arizona. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the project is slated to <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2022/12/21/arizona-piping-mexico-water-desalination-colorado-river-dwindles/69745907007/">cost more than US$5 billion</a> and provide fresh water at nearly 10 times the cost of water Arizona currently draws from the Colorado River, not including long-term energy and maintenance costs. </p>
<p>Is this a wise investment? It is hard to say, since details are still forthcoming. It is also unclear how the proposal fits with Arizona’s plans for investing in its water supplies – because, unlike some states, Arizona has no state water plan.</p>
<p>As researchers who focus on water <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kYqOHrMAAAAJ&hl=en">law</a>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sharon-Megdal">policy</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JZBqTFcAAAAJ&hl=en">management</a>, we recommend engineered projects like this one be considered as part of a broader water management portfolio that responds holistically to imbalances in supply and demand. And such decisions should address known and potential consequences and costs down the road. Israel’s approach to desalination offers insights that Arizona would do well to consider.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6sidQzMicXY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A 20-year drought in the Colorado River basin poses critical questions for Arizona’s water future.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lands and waters at risk</h2>
<p>Around the world, water engineering projects have caused large-scale ecological damage that governments now are spending heavily to repair. Draining and straightening <a href="https://www.evergladesrestoration.gov/restoration-program-overview">the Florida Everglades</a> in the 1950s and ′60s, which seriously harmed water quality and wildlife, is one well-known example. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Maps showing historic, current and planned water flows in south Florida" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">State and federal agencies are spending billions of dollars to restore the Everglades, reversing water control projects from 1948-1963 that channelized and drained these enormous wetlands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/earth-systems/blog/tell-me-about-everglades-restoration/">US Army Corps of Engineers/Florida Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Israel’s <a href="https://en.parks.org.il/reserve-park/hula-nature-reserve/">Hula wetlands</a> is another. In the 1950s, Israeli water managers viewed the wetlands north of the Sea of Galilee as a malaria-infested swamp that, if drained, would eradicate mosquitoes and open up the area for farming. The project was an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/05/world/israel-restoring-drained-wetland-reversing-pioneers-feat.html">unmitigated failure</a> that led to dust storms, land degradation and the loss of many unique animals and plants.</p>
<p>Arizona is in crisis now due to a combination of water management gaps and climatic changes. Groundwater withdrawals, which in much of rural Arizona remain unregulated, include unchecked pumping by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/16/fondomonte-arizona-drought-saudi-farm-water/">foreign agricultural interests</a> that ship their crops overseas. Moreover, with the Colorado River now in its <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-colorado-river-drought-crisis-5-essential-reads-203651">23rd year of drought</a>, Arizona is being forced to reduce its dependence on the river and <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06052023/arizona-water-sources-drought/">seek new water sources</a>.</p>
<p>The desalination plant that Arizona is considering would be built in Puerto Peñasco, a Mexican resort town on the northern edge of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Gulf-of-California">Gulf of California</a>, also known as the Sea of Cortez. Highly saline brine left over from the desalination process would be released into the gulf. </p>
<p>Because this inlet has an elongated, baylike geography, salt could concentrate in its upper region, harming endangered aquatic species such as <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/totoaba">the totoaba fish</a> and the vaquita porpoise, <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/vaquita">the world’s most endangered marine mammal</a>. </p>
<p>The pipeline that would carry desalinated water to Arizona would cross through <a href="https://www.nps.gov/orpi/index.htm">Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument</a>, a fragile desert ecosystem and UNESCO biosphere reserve that has already been damaged by <a href="https://www.popsci.com/story/environment/border-wall-damage-water-west/">construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall</a>. To run the facility, IDE proposes to build a power plant in Arizona and lay transmission lines across the same fragile desert. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing location of proposed plant and pipeline route." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The proposed desalination plant in Mexico would pipe fresh water 200 miles to Arizona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.enr.com/articles/55659-arizona-advances-55b-mexico-desalination-plant-proposal">Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona/ENR Southwest</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>No single solution</h2>
<p>Israel has adapted to water scarcity and has learned from its disastrous venture in the Hula wetlands. Today the country has a <a href="https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/isr204034.pdf">water sector master plan</a> that is regularly updated and draws on water recycling and reuse, as well as a significant desalination program.</p>
<p>Israel also has implemented extensive water conservation, efficiency and recycling programs, as well as a broad economic review of desalination. Together, these sources now meet most of the nation’s water needs, and Israel has become a leader in both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.3193">water technology and policy innovation</a>. </p>
<p>Water rights and laws in Arizona differ from those of Israel, and Arizona isn’t as close to seawater. Nonetheless, in our view Israel’s approach is relevant as Arizona works to close its water demand-supply gap. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A worker in a hard hat surrounded by valves, adjusting one." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A worker at the Sorek seawater desalination plant south of Tel Aviv, Israel, which provides 20% of the nation’s municipal water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/worker-is-seen-at-the-sorek-desalination-plant-in-palmachim-news-photo/1236763628">Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Steps Arizona can take now</h2>
<p>In our view, Arizona would do well to follow Israel’s lead. A logical first step would be making conservation programs, which are <a href="https://new.azwater.gov/conservation">required in some parts of Arizona</a>, mandatory statewide. </p>
<p>Irrigated agriculture uses <a href="https://www.arizonawaterfacts.com/water-your-facts">more than 70% of Arizona’s water supply</a>, and most of the state’s irrigated lands use <a href="https://water.usgs.gov/edu/irmethods.html">flood irrigation</a> – pumping or bringing water into fields and letting it flow over the ground. Greater use of <a href="https://water.usgs.gov/edu/irmethods.html">drip irrigation</a>, which delivers water to plant roots through plastic pipes, and other water-saving techniques and technologies would reduce agricultural water use. </p>
<p>Arizona households, which sometimes use as much as 70% of residential water for <a href="https://www.waterforarizona.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Investing-in-Arizonas-Water-final.pdf">lawns and landscaping</a>, also have a conservation role to play. And the mining sector’s groundwater use presently is <a href="https://nativenewsonline.net/opinion/arizona-must-stop-the-400b-giveaway-of-groundwater-to-the-world-s-largest-foreign-based-mining-companies">largely exempt from state regulations and withdrawal restrictions</a>. </p>
<p>A proactive and holistic water management approach should apply to all sectors of the economy, including industry. Arizona also should continue to expand programs for agricultural, municipal and industrial <a href="https://wrrc.arizona.edu/reuse-whats-in-store">wastewater reuse</a>. </p>
<p>Desalination need not be off the table. But, as in Israel, we see it as part of <a href="https://rnrf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/RRJV37N3.pdf">a multifaceted and integrated series of solutions</a>. By exploring the economic, technical and environmental feasibility of alternative solutions, Arizona could develop a water portfolio that would be far more likely than massive investments in seawater desalination to achieve the sustainable and secure water future that the state seeks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212816/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clive Lipchin is affiliated with the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel Eckstein and Sharon B. Megdal do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Arizona is considering a multibillion-dollar desalination project to address its urgent water needs. Three water experts call for a go-slow approach and point to Israel as a role model.
Gabriel Eckstein, Professor of Law, Texas A&M University
Clive Lipchin, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Studies, Tel Aviv University
Sharon B. Megdal, Professor of Environmental Science and Director, Water Resources Research Center, University of Arizona
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/195172
2023-01-02T12:40:42Z
2023-01-02T12:40:42Z
Scientists dig deep and find a way to accurately predict snowmelt after droughts
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497775/original/file-20221128-25-6d5d8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C324%2C2293%2C1207&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Following historic drought in 2021, reservoir levels dropped down in the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, which gets its waters from the melting snowpack from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pxhere.com/en/photo/623841">(pxhere.com)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/scientists-dig-deep-and-find-a-way-to-accurately-predict-snowmelt-after-droughts" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Where does your water supply come from? </p>
<p>If you live near mountains, for instance in British Columbia, a lot of your water probably comes from mountain snowpack. Over <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1822-y">1.9 billion people</a> globally rely on the snow melting and running off from these mountain snowpacks for their water supply.</p>
<p>Accurate predictions of this annual trend is critical for water supply planning. And forecasting models often rely on the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/47863505/Principles_of_snow_hydrology">historical relationship between mountain snowpack and the subsequent water supply</a>. </p>
<p>However, in times of unprecedented drought and a changing climate, these forecasting models seem to no longer be reliable. Following an intense drought in California in 2021, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/07/california-drought-oregon-west-climate-change">snowmelt from mountain snowpack delivered significantly less water than historical models predicted</a>, meaning that reservoirs remained drier than anticipated. For the first time in 100 years, water supply models were wrong. </p>
<p>In an attempt to address the gaps in the traditional model, we recently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100505">developed an updated water supply forecasting model</a> that considers additional factors, like water storage deficits in the soil and bedrock. This new model significantly improves the accuracy of water supply forecasts following drought.</p>
<h2>What are existing water supply models missing?</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511535673">Models used for forecasting snowmelt </a>typically consider winter rain and snowpack. But it turns out that water absorbed by the ground matters too. The amount of water absorbed into the soil and bedrock varies from year to year and is especially impacted by drought.</p>
<p>When snow melts or rain falls, almost all of it goes underground first before <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/runoff-surface-and-overland-water-runoff">heading downstream to water supply systems </a>. The water storage processes below the surface of the ground are key to understanding the ultimate fate of rain and snow in the mountains.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Schematic diagram of runoff generation in the mountains." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497773/original/file-20221128-12-3ska04.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497773/original/file-20221128-12-3ska04.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497773/original/file-20221128-12-3ska04.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497773/original/file-20221128-12-3ska04.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497773/original/file-20221128-12-3ska04.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497773/original/file-20221128-12-3ska04.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497773/original/file-20221128-12-3ska04.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A diagram showing how water gets from snowpack or rain to water supply systems. Rain and snowmelt seep into the ground. Plants draw water from this region. Once the subsurface is wet, the water flows downstream to water supply systems.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022GL100505">(Dana Lapides)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The below ground environment is made up of complex layers of soil, fractures and weathered bedrock that can <a href="https://hydrology.usu.edu/rrp/pdfs/ch2.pdf">store, detain and transport water</a>. The details of these processes are complicated, but the overall effect can be likened to a giant sponge. </p>
<p>Over the summer, the ground dries out and it gets wet again with the arrival of rain and snowmelt in winter and spring. Once the ground is wet enough, it starts to drip. This dripping water enters the groundwater and streams and eventually goes into the water supply systems.</p>
<p>How much water drips depends on how much snowmelt and rain is received, which is included in forecasting models. It also depends on how dry the subsurface was to begin with, which is not traditionally included in forecasting models.</p>
<h2>Plants use a lot of water</h2>
<p>How dry the subsurface is this year can depend on how much water the plants used last year (or even over the last few years). In hotter, drier years, plants can use more water from underground, causing the subsurface to dry out more.</p>
<p>Recent studies show us that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03761-3">trees routinely dry up not just soils but also weathered bedrock metres below the surface</a>.</p>
<p>Scientists are still struggling to identify how dry these mountain environments can get and how far below the surface they dry. With a drier subsurface at the start of the year, more snowmelt is needed before water starts to flow downstream to water supply systems. </p>
<p>As droughts become more frequent and intense with climate change, this process could become more important even in regions that historically haven’t faced much drought.</p>
<h2>Measuring the moisture underground</h2>
<p>Directly observing the moisture levels of the ground’s subsurface is difficult, especially when it’s stored in weathered bedrock, which can extend many metres below the ground surface and be challenging to observe. </p>
<p>In our research, we found the most accurate measurements by lowering geophysical instruments down boreholes and taking water content readings at different depths. By comparing these readings over time, we observe how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1800141115">the subsurface dries out and gets wet again</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Researcher measures subsurface wetness conditions" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497767/original/file-20221128-20492-5u0m49.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497767/original/file-20221128-20492-5u0m49.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497767/original/file-20221128-20492-5u0m49.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497767/original/file-20221128-20492-5u0m49.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497767/original/file-20221128-20492-5u0m49.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497767/original/file-20221128-20492-5u0m49.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497767/original/file-20221128-20492-5u0m49.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A USDA Forest Service employee uses an instrument to measure the moisture conditions deep underground.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Jamie Hinrichs/USDA Forest Service)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, this intensive monitoring is nearly impossible to do over large areas.</p>
<p>While we can’t look directly underground everywhere, <a href="https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/20/1459/2016/">we can track how much water enters (rain and snowmelt) and leaves (plant water use) the ground using satellite-derived data</a>.</p>
<p>By taking a running account of water going in and out of the ground, we can estimate how dry the subsurface is — a metric we call the water storage deficit. </p>
<h2>Water supply models must dig deeper</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03761-3">newly-developed water supply forecasting model</a> accounts for water storage deficits in both soil and bedrock. This has improved post-drought forecast accuracy substantially, taking the probability of error in the calculation of predictions from 60 per cent to about 20 per cent.</p>
<p>Since we can calculate deficits before spring snowmelts, they serve as an early warning sign and can aid water management strategies.</p>
<p>As the climate changes, the water supply challenges in California foreshadow issues that will become increasingly prevalent in British Columbia and other regions reliant on mountain snowpack. Using updated forecasting models in the future can help these regions better prepare for <a href="https://drought.ca.gov/current-drought-conditions/#overview-of-2021">continued water shortages even when snowpack seems normal</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195172/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dana Ariel Lapides receives funding from Simon Fraser University and the US Forest Service Southwest Pacific Research Station with funds administered through Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Engineering (ORISE). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Dralle receives funding from the US Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jesse Hahm receives funding from Simon Fraser University, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniella Rempe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Unprecedented droughts leave the subsurface drier than usual, affecting water supply in subsequent years.
Dana Ariel Lapides, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Geography, Simon Fraser University
Daniella Rempe, Assistant professor, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin
David Dralle, Research officer, Hydrology, University of California, Berkeley
Jesse Hahm, Department of Geography, Assistant Professor, Simon Fraser University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/191469
2022-11-02T17:06:03Z
2022-11-02T17:06:03Z
If more houses had water butts, it could help with drought, flooding and water pollution
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492090/original/file-20221027-20344-4bkeu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5590%2C3715&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A small rain tank could supply 15% of a household's total annual water consumption on average across the UK.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-collecting-rainwater-barrel-2197232009">Alexander Knyazhinsky/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Earlier this year, southern England experienced its <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2022/driest-july-in-england-since-1935">driest July on record</a>. The drought affected many parts of the UK and grew so acute that Thames Water’s hosepipe ban will <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63048351">remain in force</a> into 2023. </p>
<p>But rainfall in August was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_Kingdom_floods">heavy</a>. The volume of rain <a href="https://theriverstrust.org/about-us/news/new-interactive-map-reveals-the-truth-about-sewage-pollution">caused</a> outdated drainage and sewerage systems to overflow, <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmenvaud/74/report.html">degrading the quality</a> of many of the UK’s rivers. </p>
<p><a href="https://nic.org.uk/app/uploads/NIC-Preparing-for-a-Drier-Future-26-April-2018.pdf">Extreme weather patterns</a> such as these are set to dominate our future. The Environment Agency <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/lack-of-water-presents-existential-threat-says-environment-agency-chief">predicts</a> that demand for water in southern England may outstrip supply in the next 20 years. Yet, at the same time, as many as <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/920944/023_15482_Environment_agency_digitalAW_Strategy.pdf">5.2 million</a> UK properties are threatened by flooding.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.communityactionforwater.org/stories/waterbuttsandflooding">Our research</a> suggests that collecting rainwater in water butts may offer a solution to these problems. This cheap, small-scale intervention could help protect households against water risks while engaging those involved with water issues. Unfortunately, the government tends to ignore this scale of intervention. </p>
<h2>Engineered solutions to water issues</h2>
<p>Water management in England is largely isolated to large infrastructure projects. Reservoirs are built to withstand drought and larger sewers are seen as the solution to flooding and water pollution. </p>
<p>But these approaches are costly; Central London’s new sewer, the <a href="https://www.thameswater.co.uk/about-us/investing-in-our-region/thames-tideway-tunnel#:%7E:text=The%20tunnel%20will%20cost%20%C2%A3,wastewater%20customers%20through%20their%20bills">Thames Tideway Tunnel</a>, will cost £4.3 billion. </p>
<p>They can also harm the environment. The Thames Tideway tunnel will prolong the energy-intensive pumping of dirty sewage, while building reservoirs often involves the flooding of agricultural land and wildlife habitats.</p>
<p>These government and water industry solutions also fail to engage the public. <a href="https://www.cambridge-water.co.uk/news/the-great-british-rain-paradox">Public awareness</a> of the dual drought and flood crises, therefore, remains low. According to a <a href="https://www.hwmglobal.com/uploads/Great%20British%20Rain%20Paradox.pdf">report</a> published in 2020 and partly funded by the Environment Agency, 72% of people surveyed believe that the UK has enough water to meet the country’s needs.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A tunnel boring machine standing on the bank of the Thames, next to a large warehouse." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492092/original/file-20221027-1498-93mxo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492092/original/file-20221027-1498-93mxo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492092/original/file-20221027-1498-93mxo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492092/original/file-20221027-1498-93mxo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492092/original/file-20221027-1498-93mxo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492092/original/file-20221027-1498-93mxo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492092/original/file-20221027-1498-93mxo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the Thames Tideway Tunnel boring machines ready to begin tunnelling.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-england-uk-june-8-2018-1729245604">Joe Dunckley/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Re-thinking water management</h2>
<p>There are other ways to manage the UK’s water better.</p>
<p>The roof area of an average terraced house in the UK (30m²) receives <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-climate-averages">19,000–55,000 litres of rain</a> each year. Our modelling suggests that a significant proportion of household water consumption could be met by collecting this water. </p>
<p>Averaged across the UK, we found that a 210-litre rain tank – equivalent to a small bath – could supply 15% of a household’s total annual water consumption. But this will be subject to clear geographic and seasonal variation. </p>
<p>The calculation accounts for the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204605000496">loss of rainwater</a> through processes such as evaporation. <a href="https://knowledge.bsigroup.com/products/on-site-non-potable-water-systems-systems-for-the-use-of-rainwater/standard">Current regulations</a> also restrict the use of rain tank water to non-potable demands, such as flushing toilets.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491620/original/file-20221025-232-m8nxx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491620/original/file-20221025-232-m8nxx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491620/original/file-20221025-232-m8nxx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491620/original/file-20221025-232-m8nxx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491620/original/file-20221025-232-m8nxx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491620/original/file-20221025-232-m8nxx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491620/original/file-20221025-232-m8nxx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rainfall rates vary across the UK.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the wetter northwest of Scotland, we found that 26% of a household’s annual water consumption could be met by collecting rainwater. In contrast, only 9% could be supplied in the southeast of England, dropping to 4% in the driest months. Although this seems a low value, it still equates to 14 litres of water per household each day.</p>
<h2>Reducing the risk of flooding and pollution</h2>
<p>In the future, wetter winters will also become more common. This will amplify the risk of flooding and water pollution. Our research suggests that a network of small water butts fitted across towns or cities could substantially reduce these risks. </p>
<p>In the event of a storm, a 210-litre water butt can capture <a href="https://www.communityactionforwater.org/stories/waterbuttsandflooding">7mm of rainfall</a> from the roof of an average terraced house. To put this in context, in the English city of Hull, a storm that deposits <a href="https://www.ceh.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/Flood%20Studies%20Report%20-%20Volume%201%20-%20Hydrological%20Studies.pdf">22.3 mm of rainfall</a> is sufficient to cause flooding. This amount of rain typically falls once every ten years. </p>
<p>So if we can store 7mm of that rain in a water butt, then the amount that is required to cause a flood rises to 28.6mm. A storm that results in this amount of rainfall only occurs once every 30 years.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492093/original/file-20221027-25221-fk9f19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A red road closed sign emerging from a heavily flooded town road." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492093/original/file-20221027-25221-fk9f19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492093/original/file-20221027-25221-fk9f19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492093/original/file-20221027-25221-fk9f19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492093/original/file-20221027-25221-fk9f19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492093/original/file-20221027-25221-fk9f19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492093/original/file-20221027-25221-fk9f19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492093/original/file-20221027-25221-fk9f19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The installation of rain tanks could reduce the frequency of flooding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/road-flood-closed-sign-under-deep-1652959534">richardjohnson/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This approach is not without its limitations. The area that is occupied by roofs is far smaller than the total area over which rain falls. The hydrology of a flood is also complex, including the movement of water through a catchment from uplands to lower-lying areas. </p>
<p>But if used in combination with <a href="https://www.bgs.ac.uk/geology-projects/suds/">sustainable drainage systems</a> and other <a href="https://www.gov.uk/flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-management-research-reports/working-with-natural-processes-to-reduce-flood-risk">natural flood management measures</a>, water butts could make a small but meaningful contribution to reducing the threat of flooding and water pollution. Through various processes, sustainable drainage systems provide an alternative to the direct channelling of rainwater through pipes and sewers to nearby watercourses. By providing additional storage in ponds, for example, the flow of surface water can be reduced.</p>
<p>Even then, large numbers of households would still need to install water butts for this approach to have any effect. We have worked with local voluntary organisations to establish a non-profit cooperative called Susdrainable that specialises in the design and installation of rain tanks (water butts). Together, we have installed rain tanks on public buildings in Hull and are working on signage and leaflets to provide households with the information they need to participate in water management.</p>
<p>Water butts are not a replacement for large-scale water management infrastructure, but they do offer a cheaper mitigation option – one that also engages the public with water issues. There is a role for everyone as we prepare for a future dominated by drought and flood.</p>
<p><em>This article has been amended to clarify the cost of the Thames Tideway Tunnel is £4.3 billion not £4.9 billion as originally stated.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191469/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research contributing to this paper was funded by UKRI grant no NE/T01394X/1. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research behind this article was funded by the UKRI, grant no NE/T01394X/1
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research contributing to this paper was funded by UKRI grant no NE/T01394X/1.</span></em></p>
Extreme weather is set to dominate our future – can collecting rainwater reduce the threat posed by both drought and flooding?
Liz Sharp, Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield
Kiera Chapman, Research Associate, University of Sheffield
Ruth Quinn, Assistant Lecturer of Civil, Environmental and Water Engineering, Atlantic Technological University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/190700
2022-09-26T16:29:53Z
2022-09-26T16:29:53Z
The UK’s water industry is broken – here’s how to fix it
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486247/original/file-20220923-22-4pptt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As periods of drought become more common, the consequences of an ill functioning water sector will be severe.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stainesupon-thames-31122020-england-english-neighbourhood-1886829592">malgosia janicka/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prolonged <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/25/uk-drought-extreme-heat-dry">periods</a> of intense heat affected large parts of the UK and Europe this summer. These conditions forced parts of the UK into an official drought, with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/03/south-east-water-announces-hosepipe-ban-kent-and-sussex">restrictions</a> on water use imposed for the first time since 2012. Despite recent autumnal weather, parts of the country remain firmly <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-drought-isnt-over-even-though-its-rained-all-week-190812">in drought</a>.</p>
<p>Droughts are increasingly a feature of the UK’s climate. The UK has experienced at least <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-65578-5#otherversion=9783030655785">three major drought episodes</a> since 2000. The risk has grown so acute that, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/escaping-the-jaws-of-death-ensuring-enough-water-in-2050">unless action is taken</a>, in around 25 years England will be unable to supply its own water needs.</p>
<p>This threat has materialised faster than many anticipated. England’s reservoirs reached their <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-12/total-water-in-england-s-reservoirs-is-at-lowest-level-since-1995">lowest level</a> since 1995 this summer. Regardless, some water companies <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/03/water-companies-resist-government-calls-hosepipe-bans-drought?amp;amp;amp">resisted calls</a> for usage restrictions. </p>
<p>To ensure it is equipped to deal with future challenges, the UK’s water industry requires reform. To do this, we should look to regions where water is already scarce. In California, for example, shared knowledge is ensuring that water is managed in a responsible and sustainable way.</p>
<h2>Why is the water industry not working?</h2>
<p>England and Wales are the only countries in the world with a fully privatised water industry. There are only two dozen water companies across England and Wales. Each is granted a licence to operate from the industry regulator, <a href="https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/">Ofwat</a>, and holds a <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/259664/pb14058-water-bill-industry-structure-regulation.pdf">regional monopoly</a> making them responsible for providing water for a particular geographical area. </p>
<p>This structure, combined with high infrastructure costs, restricts the chance for new companies to enter the market. Meanwhile consumers are unable to switch providers. With competition thus limited, water companies can get away with minimal investment. Investment in critical water infrastructure has been slashed by <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a5669358-bc40-4065-a864-88fa671e71d4">up to a fifth</a> over the past 30 years as a result. </p>
<p>Subsequently, leakage rates are high. Despite recent efforts to address leakage, Thames Water still loses <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2022-08-11/thames-water-admits-it-leaks-millions-of-litres-per-day-as-hosepipe-ban-looms">600 million litres</a> of water each day. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486246/original/file-20220923-8064-zn3w0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a reflective orange jacket locating a water leak on a town road." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486246/original/file-20220923-8064-zn3w0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486246/original/file-20220923-8064-zn3w0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486246/original/file-20220923-8064-zn3w0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486246/original/file-20220923-8064-zn3w0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486246/original/file-20220923-8064-zn3w0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486246/original/file-20220923-8064-zn3w0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486246/original/file-20220923-8064-zn3w0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A water engineer locating a burst pipe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bradford-on-avon-may-21st-2019-1413981746">Starsphinx/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Maintenance also happens slowly. A <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/65e8979e-af3d-11e7-beba-5521c713abf4">past report</a> concluded that it would take Thames Water 357 years to renew its network. Yet pipes have a lifespan of only 50 years. </p>
<p>This situation is exacerbated by weak regulation. The sector has a small number of actors, comprised of water companies, consultancies and regulators. Workers frequently move between these organisations. </p>
<p>Such impartiality interferes with regulatory decisions as former water company employees turned regulators may not wish to inflict excessive strain upon former colleagues. As customers’ water bills rose, Anglian Water paid a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a5669358-bc40-4065-a864-88fa671e71d4">£92 million dividend</a> to its owners in June, a payout within its regulatory limits. </p>
<p>Distrust has also become a key feature of the UK’s water industry, impeding its ability to function effectively. Numerous scandals, including the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/13/sewage-dumps-into-english-rivers-widespread-criminal-inquiry-suspects">discharge of sewage</a> into water sources and the imprudent award of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/08/ban-bonuses-for-water-firm-bosses-until-they-fix-leaky-pipes-say-lib-dems">bonuses</a> have aggravated customers. Attempting to appease customers, water companies are reluctant to agree to further compromises over service quality.</p>
<p>Even then a lack of dialogue between water companies and the public restricts understanding of water scarcity. This fuels the popular perception of the UK as a “wet” country, which may contribute to the public’s low willingness to restrict their own water use.</p>
<h2>Whipping water companies into place</h2>
<p>Despite the industry’s continual failure to service society’s water needs, consecutive governments seem set on not nationalising. How does research instead suggest the UK can fix its broken private water model?</p>
<p>There is currently little room for public contribution to water resource management. However, local communities often have an abundance of knowledge regarding water resources. This includes records of localised water level, seasonal water flow, and weather data.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2021.574975">Research</a> indicates that shared knowledge can enhance water management. One option is <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-65578-5#otherversion=9783030655785">water stewardship</a>. </p>
<p>Water stewardship is the concept of using water in a socially responsible, sustainable and economically beneficial way. This is achieved by including various stakeholders including government, businesses and commmunity groups throughout the management process. This ensures the development of strategies that account for a range of shared water-related risks.</p>
<p>Water stewardship is being used with success in <a href="https://drought.ca.gov/current-drought-conditions/">California</a>, which is currently experiencing its second extreme drought in ten years. The <a href="https://cawateraction.org/">California Water Action Collaborative</a> brings together environmental groups, agricultural producers, and major companies operating in California to pursue collective projects to improve the region’s water security. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486315/original/file-20220923-8064-s7m7vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A river channel surrounded by green trees against a cloudy blue sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486315/original/file-20220923-8064-s7m7vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486315/original/file-20220923-8064-s7m7vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486315/original/file-20220923-8064-s7m7vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486315/original/file-20220923-8064-s7m7vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486315/original/file-20220923-8064-s7m7vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486315/original/file-20220923-8064-s7m7vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486315/original/file-20220923-8064-s7m7vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Through the California Water Action Collaborative, the Consumnes river is managed sustainably.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/summer-marsh-scene-green-grass-blue-3406954">Terrance Emerson/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The management of the <a href="https://cawateraction.org/cwac-projects-list/cosumnes-river">Cosumnes river</a> in northern California is one such project. Here, the Freshwater Trust, a Californian conservation group, are collaborating with regional stakeholders to develop a recycled water plant to irrigate more than <a href="https://www.regionalsan.com/harvest-water">16,000 acres</a> of agricultural land in the Sacramento region. The plant will also support drinkable water supplies in the region in the future.</p>
<p>In such ways, the Californian public contribute to management and actively engage water companies in conversation. This will ensure greater resilience towards drought, but also increase the acceptability of drought management measures such as usage restrictions. </p>
<p>The UK’s water sector is clearly not working. The need for an industry that does not shirk responsibility for water management will become clear as water insecurity becomes an increasing feature of life. As shown in California, through collaboration it is possible to re-establish the value of water.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190700/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Grecksch has received funding from NERC, ESRC and the British Academy. </span></em></p>
Unless action is taken, the UK will be unable to supply its own water needs in the future – we should look to water-scarce regions such as California for inspiration.
Kevin Grecksch, Departmental Lecturer and Course Director MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/189293
2022-08-25T12:27:09Z
2022-08-25T12:27:09Z
America’s summer of floods: What cities can learn from today’s climate crises to prepare for tomorrow’s
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480740/original/file-20220824-25-dci54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C5425%2C3608&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Flash flooding made a mess in Dallas in August 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/DallasFlooding/61d6c07f90564d0ba48e5f60c63827e9/photo">AP Photo/LM Otero</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Powerful storms across the South, following flash floods in Dallas, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/news/death-valley-experiences-1-000-year-rain-event.htm">Death Valley</a>, <a href="https://www.weather.gov/lsx/July262022Flooding">St. Louis</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-making-flooding-worse-3-reasons-the-world-is-seeing-more-record-breaking-deluges-and-flash-floods-185364">Yellowstone and Appalachia</a>, have left cities across the U.S. questioning their own security in a warming climate.</p>
<p>Dallas was hit with <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSFortWorth">nearly 15 inches</a> of rain that turned roads into rivers and poured into homes starting Aug. 21, 2022. Neighborhoods in <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/parts-of-deep-south-flooded-after-heavy-rainfall">Jackson, Mississippi</a>, were inundated a few days later as the Pearl River rose and a water treatment plant breakdown left the city without clean drinking water. In late July, extreme storms struck the <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-making-flooding-worse-3-reasons-the-world-is-seeing-more-record-breaking-deluges-and-flash-floods-185364">mountains of eastern Kentucky</a>, sending rivers sweeping through valley towns and triggering mudslides that killed more than three dozen people. </p>
<p>Floods are complex events, and they are about more than just heavy rain. Each community has its own unique geography and climate that can exacerbate flooding, so preparing to deal with future floods has to be tailored to the community.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=viGxwOwAAAAJ&hl=en">I work with</a> a <a href="https://glisa.umich.edu/about/team/">center at the University of Michigan</a> that helps communities turn climate knowledge into projects that can reduce the harm of future climate disasters. The recent floods provide case studies that can help cities everywhere manage the increasing risk.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Houses in a steep valley are flooded to their rooflines with muddy water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480738/original/file-20220824-24-3i57gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480738/original/file-20220824-24-3i57gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480738/original/file-20220824-24-3i57gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480738/original/file-20220824-24-3i57gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480738/original/file-20220824-24-3i57gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480738/original/file-20220824-24-3i57gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480738/original/file-20220824-24-3i57gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Extreme storms in mountainous regions like eastern Kentucky can quickly funnel floodwater into valleys, creating different hazards than flatter cities would face from the same storm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/homes-along-gross-loop-off-of-ky-15-are-flooded-with-water-news-photo/1242172582">Arden S. Barnes/For The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Flood risks are rising</h2>
<p>The first thing the recent floods tell us is that the climate is changing.</p>
<p>In the past, it might have made sense to consider a flood a rare and random event – communities could just build back. But the statistical distribution of weather events and natural disasters is shifting.</p>
<p>What might have been a 1-in-500-year event may become a <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-a-100-year-flood-a-hydrologist-explains-162827">1-in-100-year event</a>, on the way to becoming a 1-in-50-year event. Hurricane Harvey in 2017 delivered Houston’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/29/houston-is-experiencing-its-third-500-year-flood-in-3-years-how-is-that-possible/">third 500-year flood</a> in the span of three years. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/10/ellicott-city-flood-projects-underway/">Ellicott City, Maryland</a> saw catastrophic floods in 2016 and 2018, and the town flooded again in June 2022.</p>
<p>Basic physics points to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-intensifying-the-water-cycle-bringing-more-powerful-storms-and-flooding-heres-what-the-science-shows-187951">rising risks ahead</a>: Global greenhouse gas emissions are increasing global average temperatures. Warming leads to increasing precipitation and more intense downpours, and this increases flood potential.</p>
<p><iframe id="zBAAz" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/zBAAz/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Communities aren’t prepared</h2>
<p>Recent floods are revealing vulnerabilities in how communities are designed and managed.</p>
<p>Pavement is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL086480">major contributor</a> to urban flooding, because water cannot be absorbed and it runs off quickly. Similarly, after a forest fire or <a href="https://youtu.be/CyGmRaadsPE">extended drought</a>, <a href="https://www.noble.org/news/publications/ag-news-and-views/2013/june/healthy-soil-aids-drought-and-flood-management/">water runs off of soil</a> rather than soaking in. This can overwhelm drainage systems and pile up debris that can clog pipes and culverts.</p>
<p>Failures in maintaining infrastructure, such as levees and storm drains, are a common contributor to flooding. </p>
<p>If the infrastructure is well designed and maintained, flood damage can be greatly reduced. However, increasingly, researchers have found that the engineering specifications for drainage pipes and other infrastructure are <a href="https://time.com/6094221/hurricane-ida-engineering-protection/">no longer adequate</a> for the increasing severity of storms and amounts of precipitation. This can lead to <a href="https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/flood-recovery.htm">roads being washed out and communities being cut off</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Four maps show how risk of extreme precipitation increased in some regions, particularly the Northeast, and projections of increasing rainfall in the East in the coming decades." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481011/original/file-20220825-17-jfr4s5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481011/original/file-20220825-17-jfr4s5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481011/original/file-20220825-17-jfr4s5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481011/original/file-20220825-17-jfr4s5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481011/original/file-20220825-17-jfr4s5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481011/original/file-20220825-17-jfr4s5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481011/original/file-20220825-17-jfr4s5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even in a future with low greenhouse gas emissions, extreme precipitation events will be more likely in parts of the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/2/">National Climate Assessment 2018</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The increasing risks affect not only engineering standards, but <a href="https://qz.com/1064364/hurricane-harvey-houstons-flooding-made-worse-by-unchecked-urban-development-and-wetland-destruction/">zoning laws that govern where homes can be built</a> and building codes that describe minimum standards for safety, as well as permitting and environmental regulations.</p>
<p>By addressing these issues now, communities can anticipate and avoid damage rather than only reacting when it’s too late.</p>
<h2>Four lessons from case studies</h2>
<p>The many effects associated with flooding show why a holistic approach to planning for climate change is necessary, and what communities can learn from one another. For example, case studies show that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Floods can damage resources that are essential in flood recovery, such as <a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article264072046.html">roads, bridges</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LatLRwrrpRY">hospitals</a>. Considering future risks when determining where and how to build these resources enhances the <a href="https://toolkit.climate.gov/case-studies/after-record-breaking-rains-major-medical-centers-hazard-mitigation-plan-improves">ability to recover from future disasters</a>. In Jackson, an aging <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/floods-knock-out-drinking-water-supply-jackson-mississippi-2022-08-30/">water treatment plant</a> stopped working, leaving people without safe running water.</p></li>
<li><p>Flood damage does not occur in isolation. Downpours can <a href="https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/least-13-killed-flooding-mudslides-fire-scarred-southern-california">trigger mudslides</a>, make sewers more vulnerable and turn <a href="https://theconversation.com/flood-maps-show-us-vastly-underestimates-contamination-risk-at-old-industrial-sites-186620">manufacturing facilities into toxic contamination risks</a>. These can become broad-scale dangers, extending far beyond individual communities.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a boat peers under sheeting along a level. The river side is higher than the dry side across the levee." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480733/original/file-20220824-26-3i57gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480733/original/file-20220824-26-3i57gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480733/original/file-20220824-26-3i57gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480733/original/file-20220824-26-3i57gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480733/original/file-20220824-26-3i57gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480733/original/file-20220824-26-3i57gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480733/original/file-20220824-26-3i57gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A crew inspects a levee constructed around a medical center to hold back floodwater from the Mississippi River in Vidalia, La., in 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dennis-barkemeyer-inspects-a-levee-constructed-around-a-news-photo/114243924">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<ul>
<li><p>It is difficult for an individual or a community to take on even the technical aspects of flood preparation alone – there is too much interconnectedness. Protective measures like levees or channels might protect one neighborhood but <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/2021/how-houston-floods/">worsen the flood risk downstream</a>. Planners should identify the appropriate scale, such as the entire drainage basin of a creek or river, and form important relationships early in the planning process.</p></li>
<li><p>Natural disasters and the ways communities respond to them can also amplify <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-flood-maps-show-us-damage-rising-26-in-next-30-years-due-to-climate-change-alone-and-the-inequity-is-stark-175958">disparities in wealth</a> and resources. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/27/unfair-fema-climate-program-floods-00032080">Social justice and ethical considerations</a> need to be brought into planning at the beginning.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Scenarios: How to manage complexity</h2>
<p>In the communities that my colleagues and I have worked with through the <a href="https://glisa.umich.edu/">Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessment</a> center, we have found an increasing awareness of floods and, more generally, the challenges of a warming climate. </p>
<p>Many communities have some capacity to deal with weather-related hazards, but they realize that past practices will not be adequate in the future.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man stands next to a long metal door that opens from the ground and is part of a flood control system for the building behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480735/original/file-20220824-16-d0ker3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480735/original/file-20220824-16-d0ker3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480735/original/file-20220824-16-d0ker3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480735/original/file-20220824-16-d0ker3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480735/original/file-20220824-16-d0ker3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480735/original/file-20220824-16-d0ker3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480735/original/file-20220824-16-d0ker3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tim Edwards, facility manager for the National Archives, with the flood control gate system that kept a 2019 storm from flooding the building in Washington, DC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tim-edwards-facility-manager-for-the-national-archives-with-news-photo/1155241152">Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We have found that by focusing on vulnerabilities, discussions about future climate risk become more real. Communities start to recognize the interconnectedness of zoning, storm drains and parks, for example, and the value of clearing of debris from stream beds. They also see the importance of engaging regional stakeholders to avoid fragmented and ineffective adaptation responses.</p>
<p>We use <a href="https://glisa.umich.edu/engagement/scenario-planning/">scenario planning</a> to help officials examine several plausible climate futures as they develop strategies to deal with specific management challenges. Examining case studies and past floods provides a way to consider future flooding events from an experience base of known community vulnerabilities.</p>
<p>In most exercises I have participated in, local officials’ instinct is to protect property and persist without changing where people live. However, in many cases, that might only buy time before people will have <a href="https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/degrees-of-change-migration/">little option but to move</a>. Scenario planning can bring focus to these difficult choices and help individuals and <a href="https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2022/06/24/how-good-are-your-coping-skills/">communities gain control</a> over the effects of climate change.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated Aug. 26, 2022, with flooding in Mississippi.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189293/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Rood receives funding from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation. He is a co-principal investigator at the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessment Center at the University of Michigan.</span></em></p>
Flood risks are rising as the climate warms. The risks are complex, as a levee or new roadway in one place can worsen flooding somewhere else.
Richard B. (Ricky) Rood, Professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering and School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/188175
2022-08-05T15:41:25Z
2022-08-05T15:41:25Z
UK drought: are farmers facing the crop failures of 1976 all over again?
<p>July 2022 was the <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2022/driest-july-in-england-since-1935">driest July in England</a> since 1935. Combined with record breaking temperatures, we are hearing talk of a drought comparable to the great <a href="https://www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-media/news/new-publication-1975-76-drought-contemporary-and-retrospective-review">drought of 1976</a>, with fears of disruptions to public water supply and poor crop yields, especially for fruit and vegetables. But <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02508068508686328">not all droughts are the same</a> and not all farmers are affected by the same type of drought.</p>
<p>To a meteorologist, drought is usually defined as a period of significantly below-average rainfall. However, low rainfall even over a whole season does not necessarily mean the water supply will run low, or that industry or agriculture will suffer, since there could be lots of water already stored in reservoirs and groundwater.</p>
<p>Of course, such reserves are little help for grassland, cereals and other crops that are entirely rain-fed and are badly impacted when we get a dry spring and summer. The past 12 months have been <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-temperature-rainfall-and-sunshine-anomaly-graphs">particularly dry</a> over much of the UK and since May 2021, only October and February have recorded above-average rainfall. </p>
<p>Things are even worse if combined with the high temperatures and plentiful sunshine we have seen this year, which increases evaporation and depletes soils of the water required for plant growth – a so-called “agricultural drought”.</p>
<p>We have evaluated the combined impact of the low rainfall and hot, sunny weather using <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2020.589871/full">potential soil moisture deficit</a> (PSMD), which is a cumulative measure (in millimetres) of the balance between rainfall input to the soil and potential losses through evaporation and plant transpiration. </p>
<p>When evaporation exceeds rainfall, the soils become drier and the PSMD increases. When it rains, it reduces. Usually, the PSMD starts to increase from late March or early April, peaking in August or September when the soils are at their driest. A high PSMD means that <a href="https://www.fwi.co.uk/arable/crop-management/crops-struggle-with-lack-of-rain-as-drought-fears-intensify">rain-fed crops</a> like cereals and grass, as well as our <a href="https://www.rhs.org.uk/lawns/drought-care">gardens</a>, will suffer.</p>
<p>Using data from weather stations in Cambridge, we estimate the PSMD in 2022 has (so far) behaved very similarly to 1976. The deficit started to increase in early March and has continued to grow through to the end of July. </p>
<p>This is in contrast to the last drought <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2020.589871/full">in 2018</a>, when the spring was wetter and the soil drying was delayed. PSMD currently stands at about 350mm, which is around 50% higher than the average peak between 1981 and 2010. So for farmers that rely solely on rainfall, 2022 looks like it could be as severe an agricultural drought as 1976.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477434/original/file-20220803-15-wzvjes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="graph with three similar lines" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477434/original/file-20220803-15-wzvjes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477434/original/file-20220803-15-wzvjes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477434/original/file-20220803-15-wzvjes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477434/original/file-20220803-15-wzvjes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477434/original/file-20220803-15-wzvjes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477434/original/file-20220803-15-wzvjes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477434/original/file-20220803-15-wzvjes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Potential Soil Moisture Deficit (PSMD) in Cambridge, UK, in 1976, 2018 and 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NIAB Cambridge and Cambridge Digital Technology Group</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Irrigated farming might be restricted</h2>
<p>Most grassland and “broadacre” crops like cereals and oilseeds are grown in the UK without irrigation. It is not that they don’t need the water, but that it is financially unattractive to invest in irrigation equipment. </p>
<p>However, to ensure yield and particularly crop quality, much of the UK’s potato, vegetable and fruit crops are given extra water from irrigation during dry periods. Dry soil also means that demand for water for irrigated crops will be higher, competing with reduced available water resources for other sectors. </p>
<p>To the water resources manager, a “hydrological drought” is when the water available in rivers, reservoirs and groundwater is insufficient to meet demand – including demand to maintain a healthy aquatic ecosystem.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477445/original/file-20220803-11074-6yrn1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Field with sprinklers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477445/original/file-20220803-11074-6yrn1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477445/original/file-20220803-11074-6yrn1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477445/original/file-20220803-11074-6yrn1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477445/original/file-20220803-11074-6yrn1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477445/original/file-20220803-11074-6yrn1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477445/original/file-20220803-11074-6yrn1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477445/original/file-20220803-11074-6yrn1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spud soaking: potato is the UK’s main irrigated crop.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Giovanni Arrè</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.1201/9781351114523/achieving-sustainable-cultivation-potatoes-volume-2-stuart-wale">Potatoes</a> account for more than half of the UK’s irrigated area and volume of irrigation water used. In a <a href="http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/14122">dry year</a>, we estimate that a hectare of potatoes (just over half a football pitch) needs more than 2 million litres of irrigation water to maintain yield and quality. That is more than 40 litres for every kg of potatoes. </p>
<p>As UK irrigated agriculture and horticulture needs lots of water but is regarded as a non-essential user, irrigated farmers are at risk of mandatory <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/641/regulation/25/made">restrictions</a> during a drought, with potentially severe financial implications.</p>
<p>Here we see a difference between 1976 – which followed a very dry 1975 – and 2022. The Met Office described rainfall in 2021 as “<a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/summaries/uk_monthly_climate_summary_annual_2021.pdf">unremarkable</a>”. This, together with better water metering and investment in infrastructure to move water from areas of availability to need, means water resources are in a better condition now than they were in 1976.</p>
<p>The maps below show the status of river flows across the country in February 1976 and February 2022. Pinks to reds indicate river flows that were below normal (pink) to exceptionally low (crimson) for the time of year. </p>
<p>So while this year’s dry and hot weather has been similar to 1976 with similar effects on our gardens and farming, last winter finished with water resources that were mostly around normal for the time of year. This means we don’t expect widespread mandatory restrictions on irrigated farms, although some restrictions may be imposed to protect supplies in certain catchments.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477439/original/file-20220803-24-ymhvrk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two maps of the UK" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477439/original/file-20220803-24-ymhvrk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477439/original/file-20220803-24-ymhvrk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477439/original/file-20220803-24-ymhvrk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477439/original/file-20220803-24-ymhvrk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477439/original/file-20220803-24-ymhvrk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477439/original/file-20220803-24-ymhvrk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477439/original/file-20220803-24-ymhvrk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">River flow was much lower in the spring before the 1976 flood (left) compared to 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://eip.ceh.ac.uk/hydrology/water-resources/">Data: UK Water Resources Portal</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, despite the water resources situation not being as severe in 2022 as it was in 1976, demand across all uses needs to be managed to prevent a severe hydrological drought this year. It is also prudent to manage our water resources carefully in the summer of 2022, not only to avoid restrictions this year but also to reduce the risk of more severe restrictions next year if the UK follows this dry summer with a dry winter.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188175/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Hess has received funding from the Natural Environment Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council. He is affiliated with Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Holman has previously received funding from the Natural Environment Research Council</span></em></p>
Unlike this time, the dry summer of 1976 followed a particularly dry year.
Tim Hess, Professor of Water and Food Systems, Cranfield University
Ian Holman, Professor of Integrated Land and Water Management and Head of the Centre for Water, Environment and Development, Cranfield University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/173142
2021-12-07T13:33:52Z
2021-12-07T13:33:52Z
California’s water supplies are in trouble as climate change worsens natural dry spells, especially in the Sierra Nevada
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435786/original/file-20211206-21-d69ztq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=835%2C323%2C3673%2C2254&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Several of California's reservoirs were at less than one-third of their capacity in early December 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Martha Conklin</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>California is preparing for a third straight year of drought, and officials are tightening limits on water use to levels never seen so early in the water year. Most of the state’s water reservoirs are <a href="https://cdec.water.ca.gov/resapp/RescondMain">well below average</a>, with several at less than a third of their capacity. The <a href="https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/seasonal.php?lead=2">outlook for rain and snow this winter</a>, when most of the state’s yearly precipitation arrives, isn’t promising.</p>
<p>Especially worrying is the outlook for the Sierra Nevada, the long mountain chain that runs through the eastern part of the state. California’s cities and its farms – which grow <a href="https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/Statistics/">over a third of the nation’s vegetables</a> and two-thirds of its fruit and nuts – rely on runoff from the mountains’ snowpack for water.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=S2cxf2IAAAAJ&hl=en">an engineer</a>, I have studied California’s water and climate for over 30 years. A closer look at California’s water resources shows the challenge ahead and how climate change is putting the state’s water supply and agriculture at greater risk.</p>
<h2>Where California gets its water</h2>
<p>Statewide, California averages about 2 feet of precipitation per year, about two-thirds of the global average, giving the state as a whole a semi-arid climate.</p>
<p>The majority of California’s rain and snow falls in the mountains, primarily in winter and spring. But agriculture and coastal cities need that water to get through the dry summers. To get water to dry Southern California and help with flood control in the north, California over the past century developed <a href="https://water.ca.gov/Programs/State-Water-Project/SWP-Facilities/History">a statewide system</a> of reservoirs, tunnels and canals that brings water from the mountains. The largest of those projects, the State Water Project, delivers water from the higher-precipitation northern Sierra to the southern half of the state.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large, manmade canal flows through low hills." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436038/original/file-20211207-17-k5lghw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436038/original/file-20211207-17-k5lghw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436038/original/file-20211207-17-k5lghw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436038/original/file-20211207-17-k5lghw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436038/original/file-20211207-17-k5lghw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436038/original/file-20211207-17-k5lghw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436038/original/file-20211207-17-k5lghw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A section of the California Aqueduct within the State Water Project.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ken James/California Department of Water Resources</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To track where the water goes, it’s useful to look at the volume in acre-feet. California is about 100 million acres in area, so at 2 feet per year, its annual precipitation averages about 200 million acre-feet.</p>
<p>Of that 200, an average of only about 80 million acre-feet heads downstream. Much of the water returns to the atmosphere through <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/evapotranspiration-and-water-cycle?qt-science_center_objects">evapotranspiration</a> by plants and trees in the Sierra Nevada or North Coast forests. Of the 80 million acre-feet that does run off, about half remains in the aquatic environment, such as rivers flowing to the ocean. That leaves about 41 million acre-feet for downstream use. About 80% of that goes for agriculture and 20% for urban uses.</p>
<p>In wet years, there may be much more than 80 million acre-feet of water available, but in dry years, it can be much less.</p>
<p>In 2020, for example, California’s precipitation was <a href="https://water.ca.gov/Current-Conditions">less than two-thirds of average</a>, and the State Water Project delivered only 5% of the contracted amounts. The state’s other main aqueduct systems that move water around the state also severely reduced their supplies.</p>
<p>The 2021 water year, which ended Sept. 30, was one of the three driest on record for the Sierra Nevada. Precipitation was about <a href="https://water.ca.gov/Current-Conditions">44% of average</a>. With limited precipitation as of December 2021 and the state in <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1466766767573798914">extreme drought</a>, the State Water Project cut its preliminary allocations for water agencies to 0% for 2022, with small amounts still flowing for health and safety needs. </p>
<p>While conditions could improve if more storms come in the next three months, the official National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration outlook points to <a href="https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/seasonal.php?lead=2">below-normal precipitation being more likely than above normal</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436055/original/file-20211207-136955-odxbx4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Comparison of state maps with water uses in wet and dry years" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436055/original/file-20211207-136955-odxbx4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436055/original/file-20211207-136955-odxbx4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436055/original/file-20211207-136955-odxbx4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436055/original/file-20211207-136955-odxbx4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436055/original/file-20211207-136955-odxbx4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436055/original/file-20211207-136955-odxbx4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436055/original/file-20211207-136955-odxbx4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Programs/California-Water-Plan/Docs/Update2018/Final/California-Water-Plan-Update-2018.pdf">California State Water Plan 2018</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Drought and a warming climate</h2>
<p>Multiyear dry periods, when annual precipitation is below average, are a feature of California’s climate, but rising global temperatures are also having an impact.</p>
<p>Over the past 1,100 years, there has been at least one dry period lasting four years or longer each century. There have been two in the past 35 years – 1987-92 and 2012-15. A warmer climate intensifies the effect of these dry periods, as drier soil and drier air stress both natural vegetation and crops.</p>
<p>Rising global temperatures affect runoff from the Sierra Nevada, which provides <a href="https://sierranevada.ca.gov/what-we-do/water-supply/">over 60% of California’s developed water supply</a>.</p>
<p>Over 80% of the runoff in the central and southern Sierra Nevada comes from the snow zone. In the wetter but lower-elevation northern Sierra, rainfall contributes over <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/frwa.2021.655485">one-third of the annual runoff</a>.</p>
<p>The average snowline, the elevation above which most precipitation is snow, goes from about 5,000 feet elevation in the north to 7,000 feet in the south. On average, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12647">each 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 Celsius) of warming</a> could push the snowline another 500 feet higher, reducing the snow total. </p>
<p>Shifts from snow to rain and earlier runoff also mean that more of the capacity behind existing dams will be allocated to flood control, further reducing their capacity for seasonal water-supply storage.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A dry ring around the reservoir shows how low its water level is." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436045/original/file-20211207-17-o1e5g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436045/original/file-20211207-17-o1e5g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436045/original/file-20211207-17-o1e5g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436045/original/file-20211207-17-o1e5g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436045/original/file-20211207-17-o1e5g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436045/original/file-20211207-17-o1e5g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436045/original/file-20211207-17-o1e5g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A section of Shasta Lake, California’s largest reservoir, on Oct. 28, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Innerarity/California Department of Water Resources</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083770">A wealth of research</a> has established that the Sierra Nevada could see <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-021-00219-y.epdf">low- to no-snow winters for years at a time</a> by the late 2040s if greenhouse gases emissions don’t decline, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-will-mean-more-multiyear-snow-droughts-in-the-west-121406">conditions worsening</a> beyond that possible. </p>
<p>Warming will also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319316111">increase water demand from forests as growing seasons lengthen</a> and drive both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0388-5">drought stress leading to tree mortality</a> and increased <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-and-wildfires-how-do-we-know-if-there-is-a-link-101304">risk of high-severity wildfires</a>. </p>
<h2>Sustainability in a warming climate</h2>
<p>Water storage is central to California’s water security.</p>
<p>Communities and farms can <a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-groundwater-why-the-water-youre-drinking-may-be-thousands-of-years-old-167982">pump more groundwater</a> when supplies are low, but the state has been pumping out more water than it replenished in wet years. Parts of the state rely on water from the Colorado River, whose dams provide for several years of water storage, but the basin <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-shrinking-the-colorado-river-76280">lacks the runoff</a> <a href="https://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/#/news-release/3950">to fill the dams</a>.</p>
<p>Public opposition has made it difficult to build new dams, so better use of groundwater for both seasonal and multiyear storage is crucial.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Aerial view of a recharge ponds" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435973/original/file-20211206-21-1rkabet.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435973/original/file-20211206-21-1rkabet.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435973/original/file-20211206-21-1rkabet.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435973/original/file-20211206-21-1rkabet.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435973/original/file-20211206-21-1rkabet.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435973/original/file-20211206-21-1rkabet.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435973/original/file-20211206-21-1rkabet.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Groundwater banking, or recharging groundwater during wet periods, is crucial to weathering multiyear droughts. Shallow ponds like these allow water to sink into underground aquifers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dale Kolke/California Department of Water Resources</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The state’s <a href="https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management">Sustainable Groundwater Management Act</a> requires local agencies to develop sustainability plans. That provides some hope that groundwater pumping and replenishment can be brought into balance, most likely by leaving some cropland unplanted. Managed aquifer recharge south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is gradually expanding, and much more can be done.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>If the state doesn’t do more, including tactics such as applying desalination technology to make saltwater usable, urban areas can expect the 25% cuts in water use put in place during the 2012-15 drought to be more common and potentially even deeper.</p>
<p>California’s water resources can provide for a healthy environment, robust economy and sustainable agricultural use. Achieving this will require upgrading both natural infrastructure – headwaters forests, floodplains and groundwater recharge in agricultural areas – and built infrastructure, such as canals, spillways and levees. The <a href="https://resources.ca.gov/Initiatives/Building-Water-Resilience/portfolio">information is available</a>; officials now have to follow through.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Bales receives research support from and consults for Blue Forest and for The Nature Conservancy. Both are non-profit conservation organizations implementing forest-restoration projects in California, He also receives research support from state and federal agencies. </span></em></p>
The State Water Project cut its initial allocations for water agencies to 0% for 2022. A California water expert explains why.
Roger Bales, Distinguished Professor of Engineering, University of California, Merced
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/168920
2021-10-07T16:24:49Z
2021-10-07T16:24:49Z
How ancient water management techniques may help Prairie farmers experiencing drought
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424356/original/file-20211004-18-1kfec42.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=93%2C85%2C4462%2C3360&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A refurbished Nabataean cistern at the site of Humayma, Jordan.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Craig Harvey)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year witnessed one of the hottest and driest summers in recent history for Western Canada and the American Southwest. The resulting droughts <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/210729/dq210729d-eng.htm?CMP=mstatcan">adversely affected food supply</a> and helped send <a href="https://financialpost.com/news/economy/oh-no-canada-bacon-is-leading-the-pack-of-sizzling-hot-meat-prices">meat prices rising three times faster than inflation</a>. </p>
<p>Despite the severity of these droughts, the worst may be yet to come. <a href="https://changingclimate.ca/site/assets/uploads/sites/4/2020/12/Prairie-Provinces-Chapter-%E2%80%93-Regional-Perspectives-Report-1.pdf">Extreme weather events are expected to become increasingly severe and frequent in the Prairies</a>, with longer dry periods coupled with the risk of floods from intense rainstorms.</p>
<p>While Canada benefits from a world-class agricultural technology industry, lessons can also be drawn from low-tech solutions developed by ancient societies that flourished in arid climates. One such society was the <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Kingdom_of_Nabatea/">Nabataean culture</a>, which thrived in the hyper-arid deserts of Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia and southern Israel 2,000 years ago. For over a decade, I have worked on Nabataean and Roman archeological sites of this region, exploring their building practices and innovative strategies for overcoming environmental limitations.</p>
<h2>Masters of hydraulic engineering</h2>
<p>Known for their rock-carved monumental facades at the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/326/">UNESCO World Heritage sites of Petra</a> (their capital) <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1293/">and Hegra</a>, the Nabataeans grew rich from trading incense between southern Arabia and the Mediterranean. But it was another skill that allowed them to flourish in their arid homeland.</p>
<p>Drawing on local techniques as well as those adopted from neighbouring cultures, the Nabataeans became masters of hydraulic engineering. They constructed complex <a href="https://www.topoi.org/publication/47316/">water management systems</a> that included dams, catchment systems, underground cisterns and aqueducts. These systems were designed to maximize the amount of rainwater collected and stored during the wet winter months and to minimize the amount of water lost through evaporation during the dry summer months.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Tourists pointing to an ornate building facade carved out of red standstone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424533/original/file-20211004-12717-1r2ntkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424533/original/file-20211004-12717-1r2ntkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424533/original/file-20211004-12717-1r2ntkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424533/original/file-20211004-12717-1r2ntkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424533/original/file-20211004-12717-1r2ntkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424533/original/file-20211004-12717-1r2ntkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424533/original/file-20211004-12717-1r2ntkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Treasury, a monumental tomb carved from bedrock by the Nabatean civilization in the Petra archeological park, in southern Jordan. The Nabateans dug diversion tunnels to protect their capital of Petra against flash floods.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Sam McNeil)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At Petra, the Nabataeans constructed a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774305000053">network of dams to protect their capital from flash floods and covered channels to deliver water to the city centre</a>. In the surrounding hillsides, they built <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.09.061">terraces to absorb runoff</a>, mitigating flood risk and supporting agriculture. So effective were these catchment and delivery systems that the Nabataeans built <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3210851">open-air pools and monumental fountains</a> in Petra as ostentatious displays of their wealth and power.</p>
<p>South of Petra, at the archeological site of Hawara (modern Humayma), Canadian archeologists have explored and documented the settlement’s extensive <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5615/j.ctt2jcb16">water supply system</a>. Here, catchment systems directed rainwater runoff to large cisterns that stored it for use in the dry season. These cisterns were roofed to prevent evaporation and were furnished with settling basins to collect sediment. A 26.5-kilometre spring-fed aqueduct also supplied this settlement with drinking water. Much of this system is still in use today.</p>
<h2>Ancient techniques for a modern problem</h2>
<p>Despite being developed and constructed two millennia ago, efforts are currently underway to <a href="https://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/scholars-say-complex%E2%80%99-nabataean-irrigation-system-can-be-adopted-current-times">revitalize the Nabataean water management systems</a> around Petra to help with flood control and support agricultural development. Elsewhere across the globe, archeology has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09138-5">advanced our understanding of sustainable farming</a> and holds the potential to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1215">contribute meaningfully to contemporary water politics</a>. While implementation of these historical solutions may not by themselves solve the complex issues we currently face, they will likely play an important role in helping us adapt to a warmer and dryer climate.</p>
<p>Although the climate and hydrology of the Canadian Prairies are very different from the deserts of northern Arabia, some similarities exist. Just as winter rains in northern Arabia sustained life during the summer months, runoff from snow melt in the Prairies plays an important role in recharging groundwater and represents a significant portion of stream flow during the spring.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A trough carved out of a rock wall beside a path" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A segment of the Nabataean aqueduct in the Petra Siq, which brought water to the city.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(John Oleson)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Like the underground cisterns built by the Nabataeans, <a href="https://www.ontariofarmer.com/news/local-news/dugouts-more-than-just-a-hole-in-the-ground/wcm/46f5b750-0d50-4481-93e2-0f1d469193c6/amp/">excavated depressions known as dugouts</a> are an important source of water for Prairie farmers. While these human-made reservoirs can be supplied by groundwater, they often rely on spring snow melt. During the drought conditions of this past summer, however, many of these <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-drought-cattle-farmers-1.6093799">dugouts dried up</a>, forcing many farmers to rely on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-global-race-for-groundwater-speeds-up-to-feed-agricultures-growing-needs-108458">pumped groundwater</a>, which comes with its own set of issues.</p>
<p>Adopting sustainable practices similar to those used by the Nabataeans to maximize the amount of water collected and minimize the amount lost to evaporation can help increase the effectiveness of these reservoirs. Just as the Nabataeans placed their cisterns to maximize the catchment of runoff, dugouts should be strategically located in fields to collect as much snow melt as possible. The amount of snow melt captured can be further increased by the use of <a href="http://prairieshelterbelts.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Snow_Control_with_Shelterbelts_.pdf">well-designed shelterbelts</a>, which comprise rows of trees and shrubs that act as a windbreak and can also encourage the accumulation of snow.</p>
<p>Settling tanks such as the ones the Nabataeans built to prevent the accumulation of sediment in their cisterns, could also be used to <a href="https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/9b728d84-aab2-41bc-8611-b96f051047a6/resource/369333a9-ab82-48da-a3d3-2ee1bd0a2e33/download/716-a01.pdf">prevent sedimentation in dugouts</a>, improving both storage capacity and water quality.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A concrete lined canal running through a dry landsacpe." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">California has more than 1,000 kilometres of aqueducts, reservoirs and pumping plants that move water from the state’s wetter areas to its drier south. Covering the channels with solar panels could reduce evaporation — and generate electricity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Nabataeans were also careful to avoid evaporation, and modern dugouts may benefit from being covered to minimize water loss. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147800">Global studies</a> have shown the effectiveness of physical covers at slowing the rate of evaporation, and recently California proposed <a href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2021-04-22/solar-power-water-canals-california-climate-change-boiling-point">covering its canals with solar panels</a> to help conserve its water supply while also producing green electricity.</p>
<h2>Part of an integrated strategy</h2>
<p>While greater investment in water storage systems will improve water security in the Prairies and mitigate the affects of prolonged droughts, these storage systems may also have the added benefit of <a href="https://www.producer.com/opinion/storing-spring-melt-could-yield-flood-crop-benefits/">reducing flood risk</a> by retaining runoff. </p>
<p>Although the adoption of these low-tech and sustainable solutions will not by themselves drought-proof the Prairies, when combined with <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/new-farming-techniques-increased-drought-1.6146266">innovative cropping techniques</a> they may play an important role in helping Canada’s farmers mitigate the growing impacts of climate change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168920/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig A. Harvey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ancient cultures that flourished in arid climates developed low-tech solutions to manage water scarcity.
Craig A. Harvey, Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Classics, Western University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/166422
2021-08-30T20:05:50Z
2021-08-30T20:05:50Z
Robber barons and high-speed traders dominate Australia’s water market
<p>What began as an informal arrangement between neighbouring farmers, where one farm’s surplus water could be transferred to another, has over the past two decades morphed into a complex set of commodity markets whose annual turnover exceeds A$1.8 billion.</p>
<p>When the Murray–Darling Basin water markets were established, little consideration was given to training farmers or equipping them with the tools they would need.</p>
<p>“Many older farmers struggle even to use a smartphone,” one farmer told us in research for our book <a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/sold-down-the-river">Sold Down The River</a>, to be published this week. “They simply can’t use the water trading platforms.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1150&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1150&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1150&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>But others can, to their huge advantage. “Being a water broker is a lot like buying and selling shares or any other financial asset,” one investor said last year. </p>
<p>“There is no depreciation, there’s no goodwill, there is no maintenance and repairs. There are not many asset classes that are that good.”</p>
<p>The 2015 film adaptation of Michael Lewis’s bestselling <a href="https://youtu.be/vgqG3ITMv1Q">The Big Short</a> ends with a chilling line. </p>
<p>Investment genius Michael Burry had predicted the 2007 US housing market collapse and the ensuing financial crisis but, the movie said, was now “focusing all of his trading on one commodity — water”.</p>
<p>In a shocking report delivered to the treasurer in February, the Australian <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries-finalised/murray-darling-basin-water-markets-inquiry-0">Competition and Consumer Commission</a> found “scant rules governing the conduct of market participants, and no particular body to oversee trading activities, undermining confidence in fair and efficient markets”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In particular, water market intermediaries such as brokers and exchange platforms currently operate in a mostly unregulated environment, resulting in a lack of clarity regarding the role brokers play, and permitting undisclosed conflicts of interest to arise.</p>
<p>Trading behaviours that can undermine the integrity of markets, such as market manipulation, are not prohibited, insider trading prohibitions are insufficient, and information gaps make these types of detrimental conduct difficult to detect.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The report has shifted the debate about water in the Murray-Darling Basin. Regulators, politicians, officials and researchers all realise that something has gone horribly wrong.</p>
<h2>Scant rules, little oversight</h2>
<p>At the beginning of the water trading experiment, little effort was put into defining the goals of water trading, or how its success would be measured. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-murrumbidgee-rivers-wet-season-height-has-dropped-by-30-since-the-1990s-and-the-outlook-is-bleak-165764">The Murrumbidgee River's wet season height has dropped by 30% since the 1990s — and the outlook is bleak</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Yet despite that oversight, it’s easy to conclude that on any relevant measure the market has failed. It has failed the environment. It has failed farmers and towns. It has failed to recognise the rights of Indigenous Australians. And it has failed in its basic function of allocating water to where it can best be used.</p>
<p>Like a plane crash, the market failed because crucial systems and backups broke down simultaneously. </p>
<p>Here are the top four fractures in the multi-point failure:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Essential design steps weren’t taken. The designers spent little time on ensuring proper market conduct and integrity. There are multiple exchanges and at no particular moment is there a clear picture of the market value of water rights, even within the same valley. Large irrigators appear to be taking water over which they don’t have rights and selling it outside the markets to farmers of walnuts and other thirsty crops, leaving <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/water-watchdog-has-big-riverina-irrigator-in-its-sights-over-diversion-20210611-p580d0.html">dying rivers</a> in their wake.</p></li>
<li><p>To ensure the water market was “liquid”, the designers removed restrictions on who could own and trade water rights. Then they took the extraordinary step of exempting traders from regulation that would normally apply to financial markets and markets for commodities. External traders used tactics no one anticipated including market manipulation and high-speed trading.</p></li>
<li><p>The <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2016C00469">Commonwealth Water Act</a> gave responsibility for overseeing the markets to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, whose expertise is competition, rather than the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, whose expertise is in finance. A <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/consultation/corporations-and-australian-securities-and-investments-commission-legislation-amendment-water-trading-exemptions-regulation-2014">2014 regulation</a> expressly exempted basic tradable water rights from the definition of “derivative” under the ASIC Act.</p></li>
<li><p>There is little precision in the water policy debate. Terms such as “hoarding”, “efficiency”, “speculation” and “investment” are used without consistency or clarity. People in and around the Murray-Darling Basin have been talking over each other for years, allowing rorts that should have been caught early to persist.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Added to these are a series of counter-intuitive tax advantages and subsidies that drive water rights away from the best land toward arid lands far down-river. </p>
<h2>The silence is deafening</h2>
<p>A giant policy experiment is sucking hundreds of millions of dollars each year out of the Murray-Darling Basin, and it is sending water away from our most productive land and what used to be our most vibrant food-bowl communities.</p>
<p>The federal government has had the <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries-finalised/murray-darling-basin-water-markets-inquiry/final-report">report</a> of the Competition Commission’s water markets inquiry since February. The silence is deafening.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-injustice-runs-deep-in-australia-fixing-it-means-handing-control-to-first-nations-155286">Water injustice runs deep in Australia. Fixing it means handing control to First Nations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In our research and in our book, we have mapped out a way forward for allocating scarce irrigation water and balancing the management of our largest river system. </p>
<p>Indigenous rights, environmental sustainability and food security are but some of what’s at stake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166422/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott is affiliated with H4 CO PTY LTD and is a panel member at the Energy Transition Hub and is a member of the Australian Labor Party. Scott is a senior advisor to the Smart Energy Council and consults to governments, businesses and communities. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Kells does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A new book says Australia’s 20-year water trading experiment is sucking hundreds of millions of dollars each year out of the Murray-Darling Basin and directing water away from productive land.
Scott Hamilton, Strategic Advisory Panel Member, Australian-German Energy Transition Hub, The University of Melbourne
Stuart Kells, Adjunct Professor, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce, La Trobe University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/158772
2021-05-11T02:46:50Z
2021-05-11T02:46:50Z
‘Boys and their toys’: how overt masculinity dominates Australia’s relationship with water
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399399/original/file-20210507-23-h4b7nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C24%2C5472%2C3604&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Australia over recent months, the fury of women has been hard to ignore. The anger, much of it directed at the toxic masculine culture <a href="https://theconversation.com/cultural-misogyny-and-why-mens-aggression-to-women-is-so-often-expressed-through-sex-157680">of Parliament House</a>, has sparked a national conversation about how these attitudes harm women.</p>
<p>The movement has led me to think about how masculine cultures pervade our relationship with water. I worked as a civil engineer in the water industry for nine years, managing projects from planning through to construction. I’m now a water policy researcher, and in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2021.1886832">recent paper</a> I explored how dominant masculinity is limiting our response to dire water problems.</p>
<p>Overly masculine environments affect the way decisions are made. In particular, a reliance on technological and infrastructure “fixes” to solve problems is linked to masculine ideas of power.</p>
<p>Under this way of thinking, water is to be controlled, re-purposed and rerouted as needed. I believe we must reassess these old methods. Does it really need to be all about control and power? Managing water in tandem with nature may be more prudent. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="two male engineers look at dam" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dams and other major water infrastructure are a mainstay of male-dominated water management.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hiring women is not enough</h2>
<p>In the case of federal parliament, the toxic masculinity problem has partly been blamed on a lack of women in senior roles. Similarly, in the area of water supply, sewerage and drainage services, <a href="https://data.wgea.gov.au/">only 19.8% of the workforce</a> comprises people who identify as women (compared to 50.5% across all industries). The sector include state government departments, water authorities and consultancies. </p>
<p>Globally, the lack of women in water engineering has primarily been addressed by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2017.1361427">increasing</a> the representation of women in the field, <a href="https://www.wsaa.asn.au/sites/default/files/publication/download/Tapping%20the%20Power%20of%20Diversity.pdf">on boards</a> and in management. </p>
<p>However creating a more diverse workforce does not automatically lead to a diversity of thinking. In the case of water management, hiring women, or others such as LGBTI and Indigenous employees, does <a href="https://www.wsaa.asn.au/sites/default/files/publication/download/Tapping%20the%20Power%20of%20Diversity.pdf">not necessarily mean</a> their contributions are valued. Very often, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2017.1361427">a masculine culture</a> prevails. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-national-water-policy-is-outdated-unfair-and-not-fit-for-climate-challenges-major-new-report-155116">Our national water policy is outdated, unfair and not fit for climate challenges: major new report</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="male engineer points as female look on" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hiring women is not enough - their contribution should be valued.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pipelines and gadgets aren’t always the answer</h2>
<p>Toxic masculinity doesn’t just refer to overtly sexist cultures or allegations of sexual assault. It can also refer to male-dominated decision making where other ideas are undervalued.</p>
<p>Take, for example, the dominant “technocracy” approach to water management, in which infrastructure and technology is relied on to solve problems.</p>
<p>In Australia as elsewhere, this can perhaps be seen in the emergence of “smart water management” which uses gadgets such as smart meters and other technology to gather and communicate real-time data to help address water management challenges. </p>
<p>As other researchers <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343748198_The_moral_hazards_of_smart_water_management">have argued</a>, this “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Boys-and-their-Toys-Masculinity-Class-and-Technology-in-America/Horowitz/p/book/9780415929332">boys and their toys</a>” approach perpetuates a mindset that sustainability problems - often caused by deep-seated structural and behaviour faults such as over-consumption - can be solved with engineering and technology.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-cant-drought-proof-australia-and-trying-is-a-fools-errand-124504">We can’t drought-proof Australia, and trying is a fool's errand</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The idea that technology is a symbol of masculinity has been explored by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X03260956">many</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066">feminist</a> <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/42968827">theorists</a>. </p>
<p>Technical prowess, being “in control” and rationality have <a href="https://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/allabs/19-a-1-1-7/file">historically been seen</a> as typically male characteristics. And senior technological roles are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1097184X03260956">usually occupied</a> by men. </p>
<p>There’s nothing inherently wrong with using technology to solve water issues. But when technocratic thinking is “monolithic” and ignores wider societal issues, it can become a problem. </p>
<p>Take, for example, Victoria’s North-South pipeline built during the Millennium Drought. This A$750 million piece of infrastructure connected to Melbourne in 2010 but has <a href="https://www.3aw.com.au/the-750m-pipe-weve-never-used-and-never-will-but-still-pay-for/">lain idle</a> ever since – largely due to fears from farmers that taking water from rural areas will hurt agricultural output.</p>
<p>Similarly, desalination plants in many parts of Australia are an expensive technological approach that solve one problem, yet can create <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-water-scarcity-increases-desalination-plants-are-on-the-rise">many others</a>. They use a lot of energy, which contributes to climate change if drawn from fossil fuels, and can damage marine life.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two men look at laptop" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most technology jobs in water management are occupied by men.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Finding another way</h2>
<p>Global water scarcity is inescapable. Water use is growing at a <a href="https://worldwater.io/">rate faster</a> than population growth while climate change is <a href="https://theconversation.com/seriously-ugly-heres-how-australia-will-look-if-the-world-heats-by-3-c-this-century-157875">diminishing</a> clean water suppies in many areas.</p>
<p>We need look no further than Australia’s trouble-plagued Murray Darling Basin to know it’s time to reassess the old methods and explore new ways in our relationship with water. </p>
<p>Exerting control over water – say, building an extensive sewer network and water supply system – may have been needed when Australia was modernising. But now it’s time to take a more humble approach that works in tandem with the environment. </p>
<p>A different approach would incorporate valuable knowledge in the social sciences, such as recognising the politics and social issues at play in how we manage water. </p>
<p>For example, in 2006 residents in the Queensland town of Toowoomba rejected the prospect of drinking <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/toowoomba-says-no-to-recycled-water-20060731-gdo2hm.html">recycled wastewater</a> after a highly politicised referendum campaign. Residents had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/06/can-recycled-water-be-the-next-frontier-for-towns-running-out-of-drinking-water">just three months</a> to consider the proposal, which divided the community. A non-masculine approach might involve better public consultation and an effort by authorities to understand community attitudes prior to planning.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-injustice-runs-deep-in-australia-fixing-it-means-handing-control-to-first-nations-155286">Water injustice runs deep in Australia. Fixing it means handing control to First Nations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australians are the world’s <a href="https://www.yourhome.gov.au/water">greatest per capita consumers</a> of water. A new approach might also involve questioning this consumptive <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2020.1805579">behaviour</a> and reducing our water use, rather than relying on technological fixes.</p>
<p>Such approaches are likely to require giving up some control. And it may require working closely with traditional owners to incorporate Indigenous understandings of water.</p>
<p>In 2017 for example, the New Zealand government <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-rivers-are-now-legally-people-but-thats-just-the-start-of-looking-after-them-74983">passed legislation</a> that recognised the Whanganui River catchment as a legal person. The reform formally acknowledged the special relationship local Māori have with the river.</p>
<p>This different approach may also mean moving to community decision making models or even programs to increase youth involvement in water management. </p>
<p>An over-reliance on technology and infrastructure papers over the need to understand the behaviours that lead to water problems. We must seek new, sustainable approaches that recognise the role of water in our social, political and cultural lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Kosovac does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Pipelines, dams, gadgets: does water management really need to be all about control and power? Adopting less masculine ideas and working with nature may be more prudent.
Anna Kosovac, Research Fellow in Water Policy, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/157251
2021-03-18T21:06:06Z
2021-03-18T21:06:06Z
Indigenous youth are playing a key role in solving urgent water issues
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390201/original/file-20210317-19-1vrs7nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C175%2C3941%2C1931&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Youth with Music for the Spirit & Indigenous Visual Arts work on projects about relationships with water at Six Nations of the Grand River.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Elaine Ho)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Unsolved environmental problems, a national mandate to uphold treaty responsibilities and a new appreciation for <a href="https://native-land.ca">positive treaty relationships</a> are leading some water researchers to consider new approaches to their work. They are examining <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10661-020-08570-1">how water monitoring practices that are conventionally considered strong, can be improved</a>. </p>
<p>Recent research examined how water quality monitoring in the lower Grand River and nearby Lake Erie can inform management <a href="https://6ff4e7e4-cc7a-4c33-9790-a58aef3bc978.filesusr.com/ugd/536b70_cb71347471e141da94b752c7e298c706.pdf">to address prolific growth of nuisance algae</a>. Nuisance algae affect wildlife habitats and fishing, as well as swimming and boating. This work is part of the <a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/lake-futures/">Lake Futures Group at the University of Waterloo</a> and <a href="https://gwf.usask.ca/">Global Water Futures</a>, Canada’s largest water research collaboration. </p>
<p>This research was a collaboration with <a href="https://www.musicounts.ca/2018/11/14/meet-the-community-recipients-music-for-the-spirit">Music for the Spirit & Indigenous Visual Arts</a>, a youth-led program that provides space for expression, learning and guidance for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqJGkbiZ-r8">over 40 students at Six Nations of the Grand River</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A framed drawing next to a paddle hung on a wall." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390187/original/file-20210317-19-1q6ai3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390187/original/file-20210317-19-1q6ai3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390187/original/file-20210317-19-1q6ai3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390187/original/file-20210317-19-1q6ai3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390187/original/file-20210317-19-1q6ai3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390187/original/file-20210317-19-1q6ai3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390187/original/file-20210317-19-1q6ai3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From Waterlily series: ‘Waterlily’s Unravelling,’ digital drawing, and ‘Behind the Falls,’ paddle (double-sided), by Adriana Johnson, on display at the Carolinan Cafe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Adriana Johnson)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Indigenous and treaty perspectives</h2>
<p>Some water researchers are looking to a teaching from the Mi'kmaw culture that can enable a more <a href="https://www.watercanada.net/feature/is-your-water-management-as-diverse-as-your-communities">holistic understanding of a watershed</a>, including interactions between land and water and the social-ecological contexts surrounding them. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CY-iGduw5c">Etuaptmumk</a>, or “Two-Eyed Seeing” is about learning to see from one eye with Indigenous knowledge, from the other eye with western science and integrating the knowledge <a href="https://6ff4e7e4-cc7a-4c33-9790-a58aef3bc978.filesusr.com/ugd/536b70_58fcc01b6fcc4c59b3c2dc1d22758994.pdf">to see with both eyes open</a>. </p>
<p>With such approaches, water scientists and managers look to Indigenous cultural teachings, community intergenerational stories and records as well as western science.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-taken-thousands-of-years-but-western-science-is-finally-catching-up-to-traditional-knowledge-90291">It's taken thousands of years, but Western science is finally catching up to Traditional Knowledge</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Grand River — named O:se Kenhionhata:tie (“Willow River”) in the Kanien’kéha:ka (Mohawk) language — is Southern Ontario’s largest and most populated watershed. It drains into the eastern basin of Lake Erie — named from Erielhonan in the Iroquoian language spoken by the Erie people, meaning “long tail.” About 80 species at risk are found in the watershed. The Grand River and contributing waters are home to more than half the fish species in Canada, resulting in a world-class fishery.</p>
<p>The watershed is home to roughly <a href="https://www.grandriver.ca/en/our-watershed/Our-Watershed.aspx">one million people who reside in 39 municipalities and two First Nations territories</a>: the <a href="http://www.sixnations.ca/">Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation</a> — Canada’s largest Indigenous population and the only place in North America where all six Iroquois nations reside — and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9tOv3epq5E">the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation</a>. </p>
<p>Three treaties apply to the Grand River watershed: </p>
<ol>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwTIjDzodi4">The Two-Row Wampum</a> that recognizes distinct but equally valued cultures living together but separately, without interference from each other. </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiU5uvGXhxA">The Dish With One Spoon</a>, a treaty to collaboratively maintain the health of lands, waters and wildlife.</p></li>
<li><p>The <a href="http://www.sixnations.ca/LandsResources/HaldProc.htm">Haldimand Proclamation of 1784</a>, which designated six miles (about 10 kilometres) on either side of the Grand River — from headwaters to Lake Erie — as permanent Six Nations of the Grand River territory. Six Nations Lands and Resources notes that today the Six Nations of the Grand River community lives on <a href="http://www.sixnations.ca/SNGlobalSolutionsBookletFinal.pdf">approximately 46,000 acres, a base that is less than five per cent of the original 950,000 acre grant from the Haldimand treaty</a>. </p></li>
</ol>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Ink drawing of turtle with straw." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390181/original/file-20210317-17-uohrvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390181/original/file-20210317-17-uohrvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390181/original/file-20210317-17-uohrvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390181/original/file-20210317-17-uohrvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390181/original/file-20210317-17-uohrvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390181/original/file-20210317-17-uohrvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390181/original/file-20210317-17-uohrvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From plastics pollution series: ‘Plastic Beach,’ ink, by Steve Johnson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Steve Johnson)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Building relationships, reciprocity</h2>
<p>Taking a collaborative research approach of documenting Six Nations youth perspectives on water with Music for the Spirit & Indigenous Visual Arts involved a shared process: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Investing time to build relationships (our process required over a year of building relationships and developing the exhibit concept). Community members Paul General (former Six Nations wildlife manager and artist) and Tayler Hill (youth leader with Music for the Spirit & Indigenous Visual Arts) also supported this process.</p></li>
<li><p>Ensuring participants can contribute in meaningful ways. For example, I, Elaine, as a doctoral researcher, had to grow intercultural competency. The youth artists further developed their skills to ensure they could produce either independent or collaborative artworks for this project.</p></li>
<li><p>Ensuring reciprocity is part of the process. In this project, Six Nations community members asked to have youth insights amplified by seeking opportunities where they could be widely shared.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Acknowledging and enacting reciprocity means that collaborative research should not be pursued to serve the needs of western science, and that research is flexible to accommodate community interests.</p>
<p>The above considerations shaped the development of an ethical framework for the project. It is important to challenge ethical processes that apply a single set of western or empirical criteria to all activities, including those involving Indigenous communities. A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2020-0005">growing literature can guide this process</a>.</p>
<p>Together, we explored one way of sharing Six Nations youth perspectives with non-Indigenous community members and water managers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="collage about chemical spills" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390179/original/file-20210317-19-oq3e3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390179/original/file-20210317-19-oq3e3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390179/original/file-20210317-19-oq3e3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390179/original/file-20210317-19-oq3e3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390179/original/file-20210317-19-oq3e3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390179/original/file-20210317-19-oq3e3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390179/original/file-20210317-19-oq3e3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From Grand River chemical spills series: ‘Grand Chemical Spills 2,’ photographic collage, by Paityn Hill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Paityn Hill)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Looking at the river: Many stories</h2>
<p>Youth from Music for the Spirit & Indigenous Visual Arts used different artistic media accompanied by stories to describe their relationships with water. In some cases, these were their responses to the question: “What do you see when you look at the river?” </p>
<p>Themes that emerged were plastics pollution, <a href="https://www.granderiestudy.ca/post/art-in-depth-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women">Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls</a>, drinking water, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6505250/brantford-spill-grand-river/">Grand River chemical spills</a> and Waterlily (a cultural story transmitted in oral history). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-mmiwg-report-a-call-for-decolonizing-international-law-itself-118443">The MMIWG report: A call for decolonizing international law itself</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The youth art and stories were profiled in the <a href="https://www.granderiestudy.ca/post/grand-expressions-has-launched">Grand Expressions art exhibit</a>. This exhibit was displayed at the Carolinian Café in Cayuga, Ont., near Six Nations territory on the Grand River, before being shared virtually due to the pandemic. THEMUSEUM in Kitchener, Ont., later <a href="https://themuseum.ca/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/alarm-2">featured the virtual exhibit</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390158/original/file-20210317-17-1d4730l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390158/original/file-20210317-17-1d4730l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390158/original/file-20210317-17-1d4730l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390158/original/file-20210317-17-1d4730l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390158/original/file-20210317-17-1d4730l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390158/original/file-20210317-17-1d4730l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390158/original/file-20210317-17-1d4730l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Haldimand County Water and Wastewater division staff were among those who visited the Grand Expressions exhibit at the Carolinian Cafe in Cayuga, Ont.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Artist Ashley Cattrysse explored the <a href="https://www.granderiestudy.ca/tour">connection between water and women</a>. She wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Indigenous women share a sacred connection to the spirit of water. As water keepers their responsibilities are to protect and nurture. Among their roles, women across Canada are raising awareness to draw attention to the water crisis faced in Indigenous communities and Canada. As depicted in this piece, the message is stop, listen, act, prepare, join. However, this is not the only crisis in Canada.… The colour red represents the missing and murdered Indigenous women.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A figure holds a hand up that is painted red." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390458/original/file-20210318-15-gyrs95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390458/original/file-20210318-15-gyrs95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390458/original/file-20210318-15-gyrs95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390458/original/file-20210318-15-gyrs95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390458/original/file-20210318-15-gyrs95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390458/original/file-20210318-15-gyrs95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390458/original/file-20210318-15-gyrs95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls series: ‘Water Keeper,’ canvas, by Ashley Cattrysse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ashley Cattrysse)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Artist Hannah Wallace-Lund <a href="https://www.granderiestudy.ca/tour">contributed an image</a> depicting summer camp participant Chase in front of water coolers holding a water drum. She wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It reminded me as someone who has grown up outside Six Nations that even though we all as onkwehon:we people care deeply for water, some of our relatives live without clean drinking water.… I grew up next to the Grand River and many of my strongest and happiest memories from then involve the river. To keep the river and Lake Erie clean should be the responsibility of all those who have lived beside them and received their many gifts, not just Indigenous people.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young man with lacrosse stick in front of bottled water jugs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389792/original/file-20210316-22-16txuvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389792/original/file-20210316-22-16txuvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389792/original/file-20210316-22-16txuvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389792/original/file-20210316-22-16txuvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389792/original/file-20210316-22-16txuvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389792/original/file-20210316-22-16txuvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389792/original/file-20210316-22-16txuvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From drinking water series: untitled photograph, by Hannah Wallace-Lund.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Hannah Wallace-Lund)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Articulating principles</h2>
<p>An analysis of common themes in the youth’s stories identified recommendations,
most of which were statements of values. These were synthesized with perspectives from 21 water managers, western scientists and subject-matter experts <a href="https://6ff4e7e4-cc7a-4c33-9790-a58aef3bc978.filesusr.com/ugd/536b70_8f617cd6d53c4b588629604250a438e9.pdf">interviewed as part of the larger study</a>.</p>
<p>The result was 10 principles for guiding water monitoring and management. For example, that water is finite; impacts are shared but are unequally distributed; we will manage as stewards and treat waters as living; and that managers should measure and enhance community experiences as part of watershed health.</p>
<p>Our co-created, arts-based approach can be effective <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29O0vCawdrc">for engaging youth and diverse community members not just for water management</a> but <a href="https://6ff4e7e4-cc7a-4c33-9790-a58aef3bc978.filesusr.com/ugd/536b70_1448906e7d50402aaaa4913f7d7bc100.pdf">all aspects of sustainable planning</a>. </p>
<p>Relationships formed during this research lay the foundation for meaningful Canadian-Indigenous cooperation, especially in the context of our most important shared resource: water.</p>
<p><em>This exhibit would not have been possible without the efforts of Tayler Hill, Jordon and Whitney from the Carolinian Café and Laurel McKellar at THEMUSEUM. Elaine notes there are no words to express appreciation for the cross-cultural bridging that was supported by the positive and energetic involvement of Richelle and Tayler. Thank you.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elaine Ho receives funding through the Lake Futures group (part of Global Water Futures) in the form of University of Waterloo Graduate Research Studentships, funded primarily by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund. This research was also supported through an Ontario Graduate Scholarship jointly funded by the Province of Ontario (two thirds) and the University of Waterloo (one third). She is affiliated with the Canadian Rivers Institute and Global Water Futures/Lake Futures.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richelle Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Collaborative research sought to document Six Nations youth perspectives shared through art and story to inform principles for water management in the lower Grand River.
Elaine Ho-Tassone, PhD Candidate, Social and Ecological Sustainability program in Integrated Water Management, School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, University of Waterloo
Richelle Miller, Community partner, Co-ordinator of Music for the Spirit & Indigenous Visual Arts
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/155880
2021-03-01T19:11:02Z
2021-03-01T19:11:02Z
Water markets are not perfect, but vital to the future of the Murray-Darling Basin
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386822/original/file-20210227-13-1jrvbwx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=155%2C257%2C3838%2C2281&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">kaman985shu/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Water markets have come in for some bad press lately, fuelled in part by the severe drought of 2019 and resulting <a href="https://theconversation.com/drought-and-climate-change-are-driving-high-water-prices-in-the-murray-darling-basin-119993">high water prices</a>.</p>
<p>They have also been the subject of an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry, whose <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries-ongoing/murray-darling-basin-water-markets-inquiry/interim-report">interim report</a> released last year documented a range of problems with the way water markets work in the Murray-Darling Basin. The final report was handed to the treasurer last week.</p>
<p>While water markets are far from perfect, new <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/working-papers/model-spatial-inter-temporal-water-trade-southern-mdb">research</a> from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) has found they are vital in helping the region cope with drought and climate change, producing benefits in the order of A$117 million per year. </p>
<p>To make the most of water markets, we will need to keep improving the rules and systems which support them. But with few “off-the-shelf” solutions, further reform will require both perseverance and innovation.</p>
<h2>Water markets generate big benefits</h2>
<p>Australia’s biggest and most active water markets are in the southern Murray-Darling Basin, which covers the Murray River and its tributaries in Victoria, NSW and South Australia. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386839/original/file-20210228-15-fit7fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386839/original/file-20210228-15-fit7fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386839/original/file-20210228-15-fit7fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386839/original/file-20210228-15-fit7fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386839/original/file-20210228-15-fit7fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386839/original/file-20210228-15-fit7fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1221&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386839/original/file-20210228-15-fit7fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1221&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386839/original/file-20210228-15-fit7fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1221&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Murray Darling Basin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/water-management/managing-water/water-markets-trade">MDBA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Each year water right holders are assigned “allocations”: shares of water in the rivers’ major dams. These allocations can be traded across the river system, helping to get water where it is <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/publications/insights/snapshot-of-australian-water-markets#australian--water-markets-why-where-who-and-how">most needed</a>.</p>
<p>Water markets also allow for “carryover”: where rights holders store rather than use their allocations, holding them in dams for use in future droughts. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/working-papers/model-spatial-inter-temporal-water-trade-southern-mdb">research</a> estimates that water trading and carryover generate benefits to water users in the southern Murray-Darling, of A$117 million on average per year (around 12% of the value of water rights) with even larger gains in dry years. Carryover plays a key role, accounting for around half of these benefits. </p>
<p>Together water trading and carryover act to smooth variability in water prices, while also slightly lowering average prices across the basin. </p>
<h2>There’s room for improvement</h2>
<p>One of many issues raised in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission interim report was the design of the trading rules, including limits on how much water can move between regions. </p>
<p>These rules are intended to reflect the physical limits of the river system, however getting them right is extremely difficult. </p>
<p>The rules we have are <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries-ongoing/murray-darling-basin-water-markets-inquiry/interim-report">relatively blunt</a>, such that there is potential at different times for either too much water to be traded or too little.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386836/original/file-20210228-13-1jggh3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386836/original/file-20210228-13-1jggh3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386836/original/file-20210228-13-1jggh3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386836/original/file-20210228-13-1jggh3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386836/original/file-20210228-13-1jggh3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386836/original/file-20210228-13-1jggh3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1218&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386836/original/file-20210228-13-1jggh3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1218&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386836/original/file-20210228-13-1jggh3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1218&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">National Electricity Market.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://thehub.agl.com.au/articles/2019/05/explainer-the-national-electricity-market">AGL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One possible refinement is a shift from a rules-based system to one with more <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/ABARES.pdf">central coordination</a>.</p>
<p>For example, in electricity, these problems are addressed via so-called “smart markets”: centralised computer systems which balance demand and supply across the grid in real-time. </p>
<p>Such an approach is <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/ABARES.pdf">unlikely to be feasible</a> for water in the foreseeable future. </p>
<p>But a similar outcome could be achieved by establishing a central agency to determine inter-regional trade volumes, taking into account user demands, river constraints, seasonal conditions and environmental objectives. </p>
<p>While novel in Australia, the approach has parallels in the government-operated “<a href="https://www.innovations.harvard.edu/california-drought-water-bank">drought water banks</a>” that have emerged in some parts of the United States.</p>
<h2>Some of the good ideas are our own</h2>
<p>Another possible refinement involves water sharing rules, which specify how water allocations are determined and how they are carried over between years. </p>
<p>At present these rules are often <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/ABARES.pdf">complex and lacking in transparency</a>. This can lead to a perceived disconnect between water allocations and physical water supply, creating uncertainty for users and undermining confidence in the market.</p>
<p>Although markets in the northern Murray-Darling Basin are generally less advanced than the south, some sophisticated water sharing systems have evolved in the north to deal with the region’s unique hydrology (highly variable river flows and small dams).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386895/original/file-20210301-23-3ixon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386895/original/file-20210301-23-3ixon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386895/original/file-20210301-23-3ixon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386895/original/file-20210301-23-3ixon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386895/original/file-20210301-23-3ixon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386895/original/file-20210301-23-3ixon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386895/original/file-20210301-23-3ixon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beardmore Dam at St George in Southern Queensland, where water markets operate under a capacity sharing system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABARES</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is potential for the southern basin to make use of these northern innovations (known as “<a href="https://daff.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/search/asset/1027337/1">capacity sharing</a>” or “<a href="https://daff.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/search/asset/1027337/1">continuous accounting</a>”) to improve transparency and carryover decisions.</p>
<h2>Don’t throw the market out with the river water</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries-ongoing/murray-darling-basin-water-markets-inquiry/interim-report">Governance failures</a> in the water market have led to understandable frustration. </p>
<p>But it is important to remember how vital trading and carryover are in smoothing variations in water prices and making sure water gets where it is needed, especially during droughts.</p>
<p>The ACCC’s final report (<a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries-ongoing/murray-darling-basin-water-markets-inquiry/final-report">due soon</a>) will provide an opportunity to take stock and develop a roadmap for the future.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Water markets will be discussed at Today’s ABARES <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/outlook">Outlook 2021</a> conference in an online panel session at <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/outlook/program">3-4pm AEDT</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155880/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The views expressed in this article are those of the author and ABARES and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ACCC.
</span></em></p>
New research finds water markets in the southern Murray-Darling produce benefits of around $117 million per year.
Neal Hughes, Senior Economist, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES)
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/150674
2020-11-29T19:06:51Z
2020-11-29T19:06:51Z
Victoria just gave 2 billion litres of water back to Indigenous people. Here’s what that means for the rest of Australia
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371657/original/file-20201127-22-1kal3ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C4121%2C2731&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GLaWAC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the first time in Victoria’s history, the state government has <a href="https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/water-traditional-owners-victorian-first">handed back</a> water to traditional owners, giving them rights to a river system they have managed sustainably for thousands of years. </p>
<p>The two billion litres of water returned to the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (<a href="https://gunaikurnai.org.au/">GLaWAC</a>) this month means traditional owners can now determine how and where water is used for cultural, environmental or economic purposes.</p>
<p>The decision recognises that water rights are crucial for Indigenous people to restore customs, protect their culture, become economically independent and heal Country. </p>
<p>The hand-back to Gunaikurnai people is the crucial first step in a bigger, statewide process of recognising Indigenous people’s deep connection to water. It also serves as an example to the rest of Australia, where Indigenous rights to water are <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-an-ugly-legacy-of-denying-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people-not-much-has-changed-141743">grossly inadequate</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Water from the river has" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371687/original/file-20201127-23-1rn3fs1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371687/original/file-20201127-23-1rn3fs1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371687/original/file-20201127-23-1rn3fs1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371687/original/file-20201127-23-1rn3fs1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371687/original/file-20201127-23-1rn3fs1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371687/original/file-20201127-23-1rn3fs1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371687/original/file-20201127-23-1rn3fs1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gunaikurnai woman Alice Pepper on the banks of the Mitchell River. Water from the river has been handed back to traditional owners.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GLaWAC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Water’s rightful home</h2>
<p>Gunaikurnai people hold <a href="https://www.justice.vic.gov.au/your-rights/native-title/gunaikurnai-native-title-agreement">native title</a> over much of Gippsland, from the mountains to the sea. </p>
<p>The water hand-back comes ten years since this native title was secured, and since Gunaikurnai people entered into the state’s first Traditional Owner Settlement Agreement with the government. Under this agreement, GLaWAC is a <a href="https://gunaikurnai.org.au/jointly-managed-parks-reserves/">joint manager</a>, with Parks Victoria, of ten parks and reserves in Gippsland, including the Mitchell River National Park.</p>
<p>Victorian water minister Lisa Neville said the hand-back was a key milestone in her government’s 2016 <a href="https://www.water.vic.gov.au/water-for-victoria/progress-report-recognising-and-managing-for-aboriginal-values/implementationrecognising-and-managing-for-aboriginal-values">Aboriginal Water Policy</a>. That plan aims to:</p>
<ul>
<li>recognise Aboriginal values and objectives of water</li>
<li>include Aboriginal values and traditional ecological knowledge in water planning</li>
<li>support Aboriginal access to water for economic development</li>
<li>build capacity to increase Aboriginal participation in water management.</li>
</ul>
<p>GLaWAC engages closely with government agencies that control how water is shared and used and these partnerships are highly valued. But it is only through owning water that traditional owners can really control how water is used to care for Country and for people.</p>
<p>For the moment, the water will be staying in the river. Its use will be decided after discussions between GLaWAC and Gunaikurnai community members. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The Mitchell River" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371658/original/file-20201127-14-18wex8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371658/original/file-20201127-14-18wex8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371658/original/file-20201127-14-18wex8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371658/original/file-20201127-14-18wex8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371658/original/file-20201127-14-18wex8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371658/original/file-20201127-14-18wex8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371658/original/file-20201127-14-18wex8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indigenous poeple must own water to control how they care for Country.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GLaWAC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Barriers to water ownership</h2>
<p>In 2016, the Victorian government committed A$5 million to a plan to increase Aboriginal access to water rights, including funding for traditional owners to develop feasibility plans to support <a href="https://www.water.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0030/493455/AWP_Progress-Snapshot-brochure-October_FINAL-WEB.pdf">water-based businesses</a>. </p>
<p>There are significant barriers to reallocating water to Victoria’s traditional owners. Water is expensive to buy, hold and use. Annual fees and charges can easily run to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2468312418300348?via%3Dihub">tens of thousands of dollars a year</a> in some locations. </p>
<p>Using water to care for Country supports well-being, the environment and other water uses, including tourism and recreation. But, unlike using water for irrigation, there may not be any direct economic return from a water hand-back. This means water recovery for traditional owners must include ways to cover fees and charges.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-an-ugly-legacy-of-denying-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people-not-much-has-changed-141743">Australia has an ugly legacy of denying water rights to Aboriginal people. Not much has changed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Victoria’s water entitlement framework is also consumption-based – it is designed for water to be taken out of rivers, not left in. This can make it hard for traditional owners to leave water in the river for the benefit of the environment. So water entitlements and rules should be changed to reflect how traditional owners want to manage water.</p>
<p>Lastly, many traditional owners lack access to land where they can use the water. Or they may wish to use water in areas that, under natural conditions, would be watered when rivers flood, but which are now disconnected from the waterway. To help overcome this, traditional owners should be given access to Crown land, including joint management of parks. GLaWAC’s partnership agreements are a good example of how this might happen in future.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="GLaWAC water team Uncle Lloyd Hood and Tim Paton." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371689/original/file-20201127-17-i7nutr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371689/original/file-20201127-17-i7nutr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371689/original/file-20201127-17-i7nutr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371689/original/file-20201127-17-i7nutr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371689/original/file-20201127-17-i7nutr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371689/original/file-20201127-17-i7nutr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371689/original/file-20201127-17-i7nutr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">GLaWAC water team Uncle Lloyd Hood and Tim Paton. Water rules should be changed to reflect how traditional owners manage water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GLaWAC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Change is possible</h2>
<p>While significant barriers to water access remain, this hand-back shows how real water outcomes for traditional owners can be achieved when there is political will and ministerial support.</p>
<p>The water is part of six billion litres on the Mitchell River <a href="https://www.water.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/52883/DSE_GRWS_accessible_linked.pdf">identified</a> as unallocated, meaning no-one yet has rights over it. The remaining four billion litres will be made available on the open market, for use by irrigators or other industries. It can be extracted only during the colder months from <a href="http://www.srw.com.au/mitchell-river-winterfill/">July 1 to October 31</a>.</p>
<p>The extraction and use of the water by Gunaikurnai people will be linked to specific locations, and the licence is up for renewal every 15 years. GLaWAC will work with state agency Southern Rural Water to ensure that the licence conditions match the water plans of traditional owners.</p>
<p>This step is crucial. There have been many instances in other states where traditional owners have obtained water, but been <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-an-ugly-legacy-of-denying-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people-not-much-has-changed-141743">unable to use it</a> due to barriers on how it can be used, and annual fees and charges.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mitchell River scene" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371690/original/file-20201127-21-1ufaa2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371690/original/file-20201127-21-1ufaa2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371690/original/file-20201127-21-1ufaa2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371690/original/file-20201127-21-1ufaa2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371690/original/file-20201127-21-1ufaa2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371690/original/file-20201127-21-1ufaa2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371690/original/file-20201127-21-1ufaa2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Water extraction form the Mitchell River will be limited to colder months.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GLaWAC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Overcoming a history of injustice</h2>
<p>Traditional owners across Australia <a href="https://www.mldrin.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Echuca-Declaration-Final-PDF.pdf">never ceded</a> their rights to water. Yet Aboriginal people own <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837719319799">less than 1%</a> of the nation’s water rights. Righting this wrong is the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jun/29/ending-aqua-nullius-calls-for-laws-to-protect-indigenous-water-rights">unfinished business</a>” of national water reform.</p>
<p>Even when political commitments are made, there has been little progress. For example, in 2018 the federal government committed A$40 million to acquire water rights for Aboriginal people <a href="https://theconversation.com/deal-on-murray-darling-basin-plan-could-make-history-for-indigenous-water-rights-96264">in the Murray-Darling Basin</a>, but no purchase of water rights has yet occurred.</p>
<p>This woeful and unjust situation is also reflected in Victoria. Before the Gunaikurnai hand-back, only a tiny handful of Aboriginal-owned organisations and one traditional owner, <a href="https://taungurung.com.au/">Taungurung</a>, owned water rights in Victoria, and the volumes were small. In these cases, water recovery was not a formal hand-back from the state, and included a donation from a farmer. </p>
<p>Across Australia, Aboriginal people are watching the Victorian water reform process with great interest. The water returned to Gunaikurnai people builds momentum, and increases pressure on governments across Australia to take water justice seriously.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-voices-are-missing-from-the-murray-darling-basin-crisis-110769">Aboriginal voices are missing from the Murray-Darling Basin crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150674/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Troy McDonald is the Chair of the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (GLaWAC). Troy is also the GLaWAC representative on the First Peoples Treaty Assembly.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin O'Donnell receives funding from Murray and Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN), as part of a larger programme funded by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (Victoria). She has also consulted to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (Victoria).</span></em></p>
The decision recognises that water rights are critical for Indigenous people to restore customs, protect their culture, become economically independent and heal Country.
Troy McDonald, Chairman of Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, Indigenous Knowledge
Erin O'Donnell, Early Career Academic Fellow, Centre for Resources, Energy and Environment Law, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/144860
2020-09-11T08:41:19Z
2020-09-11T08:41:19Z
How India’s civil society can shape the country’s water policy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357380/original/file-20200910-20-ieiydp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C2389%2C1796&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">India's civil society has opposed engineering-based water management such as large dams, river linking and canal irrigation, for environmental and social reasons, but often ideological reasons. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/1HK8RLtdPVE">www.unsplash.com/@akshat_agrawal11</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>India’s National Water Policy is meant to provide a definite course of action on water management, ensuring the country’s population of nearly 1.3 billion and industries have access to adequate water for various uses. </p>
<p>The country first adopted a National Water Policy (NWP) in 1987, which was revised in 2002. Technocrats and bureaucrats drafted the first two versions of the policy. The third revision took place in 2012. Alhough the water ministry held consultations with all stakeholders, including civil society, the drafting committee had only one representative of civil society. </p>
<p>The civil society has always opposed engineering-based water management, such as large dams, river linking and canal irrigation, sometimes for environmental and social reasons, but often for ideological reasons. </p>
<p>Another revision is now due and, for the first time, civil society organisations make up the majority of a committee to draft the National Water Policy. </p>
<p>Civil society representatives, who for the past 30 years have been critical of India’s water policies, now have the opportunity to drive policy recommendations for water management in the world’s second-most-populous country. </p>
<p>But, with a majority on the drafting committee, they now have a responsibility to not get carried away by romantic and unimplementable ideas. They must produce a policy draft that is workable in the real world. </p>
<p>In this piece, we provide some dos and don'ts for developing a credible NWP which will have an impact on India’s water management policies, practices and processes.</p>
<h2>1. Avoid ideological preaching</h2>
<p>Members of the drafting committee should understand that a water policy should not be a lofty statement of how the nation wishes things to be. </p>
<p>Rather, it must be a realistic and achievable statement of how water resources should be managed, so the desired social, economic and environmental outcomes can be achieved. </p>
<p>All recommendation must be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. </p>
<h2>2. When presenting a paradigm shift, NWP must provide evidence</h2>
<p>Civil society has criticised engineering interventions such as dams, barrages, inter-basin transfers of water, flood control embankments and hydropower. Therefore, one presumes the policy drafted by civil society actors will move away from these traditional interventions and suggest some new paradigm. </p>
<p>The drafting committee needs to assure the decision-makers, and also the people at large, that their paradigm is realistic and will provide food and water security.</p>
<p>The best way to ensure confidence in their paradigm is to quantify the recommendations. </p>
<p>The policy should include a basin-wise statement of the total estimated demand, the quantity of water to be set aside for environmental objectives, and the quantity of water that will be available for human consumption, separately from surface and groundwater sources, as per the new paradigm.</p>
<h2>3. Be clear and concrete</h2>
<p>Vague statements like “The water resources available to the country should be brought within the category of utilisable resources to the maximum possible extent”, as found in the 2002 National Water Policy, are simply good-sounding words that have no real meaning. </p>
<p>The drafting committee for the new policy must avoid such vague statements. </p>
<p>They must also avoid ideas that are good in principle only and cannot be implemented. </p>
<p>Typical examples are planning for the basin as a unit, river basin organisations, and integrated water resources management. These ideas have been in all the NWPs right from 1987, and the water sector’s total inability to implement them has been demonstrated beyond doubt. </p>
<p>Why these can not be implemented is a topic for a separate article. However, the drafting committee must not ignore the evidence. Not even one interstate river basin organisation has been established in the past 30 years, let alone made to function.</p>
<h2>4. Be realistic</h2>
<p>It is very tempting for the drafters of the National Water Policy to try to match water availability and demand by modifying cropping patterns. </p>
<p>For example, to turn a deficit river basin to a surplus basin, the drafting committee might dream up doing away with all sugarcane, or replacing rice and wheat with millets, and justify the switch by arguing that millets are health food. </p>
<p>However, to think the people will stop eating rice and wheat and start eating millets, or that the entire economy built on sugar mills can be sacrificed, just because the water policy says so, is a pipedream. </p>
<p>Moreover, there are many things India must consider as an exporter of a wide range of agricultural products, such as rice, wheat, sugar, cotton, fruits and flowers. These factors include production per hectare, profit margins, farmers’ income, and trade considerations. All these cannot be subservient to the single consideration of which crop has the lowest water requirement. </p>
<p>In addition, agriculture is in the jurisdiction of the states. Even the central agricultural ministry cannot enforce the cropping patterns devised by the drafters of the National Water Policy, let alone the central water ministry. </p>
<h2>5. Use instructional language</h2>
<p>In all three versions of the National Water Policy so far, the language has been very unsure. For example Clause 6.1 of NWP-3 reads: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A system to evolve benchmarks for water uses for different purposes, i.e., water footprints, and water auditing should be developed to promote and incentivise efficient use of water. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>To say that “water auditing should be developed” makes it a piece of advice, which the recipient is free to accept or reject. The authors of NWP-3 could have written: “A system to evolve benchmarks for water uses for different purposes, i.e., water footprints, and water auditing shall be developed …” </p>
<p>One wonders what stopped the authors of NWP-3 from using decisive and assertive language. Unless NWP-4 does away with this “should” word, it will remain only a piece of advice. The state water resources departments will be free to flout it, as they have done consistently.</p>
<h2>Managing water resources is a huge undertaking</h2>
<p>The task facing the drafting committee is huge and complex. India’s Constitution places water, and also agriculture, in the jurisdiction of the states. This means, the states formulate plans and execute them. </p>
<p>Control of water is a very sensitive subject. Each state wants its share of water to be defined, either by an inter-state agreement or by a judicial process, and opposes any external control of how to manage the share of water given to it. The states are reluctant to allow what they perceive as a dilution of their authority and control.</p>
<p>While the water ministry may produce policies and plans, many variables and policy actions depend on cross-sector agencies. </p>
<p>For example, the environment ministry decides how much water is required for environmental flows. </p>
<p>The agriculture ministry decides price support for farm produce. And the finance ministry decides whether or not funds are available. </p>
<p>All these factors have major implications for water planning.</p>
<p>The constitution gives jurisdiction over water to the states and they have the responsibility to provide water to the farmers. Therefore, the states will do what they must do, no matter what is written in the NWP.</p>
<p>The drafting committee faces another challenge. Having been very vocal in criticising the engineering-based policy, they have heightened the expectations from them, and they now have to live up to those expectations. If they write a policy that is high on ideology but deficient in hydrology and fails to deliver water and food security, they will have to accept that hydrology has veto power over ideology.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144860/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chetan Pandit is a former member of India's Central Water Commission.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asit K. Biswas tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>
India’s civil society, which for the past 30 years has been critical of India’s water policies, now has the opportunity to drive the policy recommendations for water management.
Chetan Pandit, Visiting faculty, National Water Academy of India's Central Water Commission
Asit K. Biswas, Distinguished visiting professor, University of Glasgow
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/141773
2020-08-14T05:46:01Z
2020-08-14T05:46:01Z
Water management in Java adds to burden on women and reduces their incomes
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348048/original/file-20200716-21-w3oxs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Seorang perempuan membawa air.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/128334607@N03/34899033731/in/photolist-5pyiFN-6b11Mr-9yKioj-bRyfPa-BRYMF7-CGcg8r-BRPfuh-FWVXgC-bRxYMH-CGco4k-a4R75a-bRyhq4-CfPzqR-GmbjZG-bRyeyn-ECf6uM-bRydTM-229FWtx-bRyd8X-bRybMt-bRyjN2-bCDnTJ-28zK3os-23PogWN-bRyiRz-bCDjkN-bRy4U8-bRy1S2-bRy7Nt-bCDC27-bRy9PR-KA7Kga-bRyctn-229Fw4F-Bho7Gk-7tRWNy-bkQQbq-7tRQNq-VaUES8-bypWZe-wkhoDd-bypWXP-7tMXL2">opendatalabjakarta/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women make up <a href="https://databoks.katadata.co.id/datapublish/2019/09/13/jumlah-penduduk-indonesia-diproyeksikan-mencapai-270-juta-pada-2020#:%7E:text=Jumlah%20Penduduk%20Indonesia%20Menurut%20Kelompok%20Umur%20(2020E)&text=Berdasarkan%20proyeksi%20penduduk%202015%2D2045,dan%20134%2C27%20jiwa%20perempuan.">half the Indonesian population</a> but their roles and contribution to the economy are still limited. </p>
<p>The 2020 Global Gender Gap Index shows Indonesian women <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/12/30/more-indonesian-women-in-labor-market-fewer-in-politics-gender-gap-report.html">earn only half of men’s estimated income</a>.</p>
<p>Our latest <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429273353/chapters/10.4324/9780429273353-6">research</a> reveals how gender inequality in water management in rural Java has forced women to reduce their hours of paid work. They have to spend more time to secure water supply for their family, hurting their income-earning capacity. </p>
<h2>The research</h2>
<p>We studied women’s role in water management in Kulon Progo, Yogyakarta, in 2018 by interviewing villagers and government officers. </p>
<p>Our research finds that traditional values drive access to clean drinking water and its distribution in rural Indonesia. These practices fail to recognise women’s role in the household and village economy. </p>
<p>As a result, they don’t have a voice in governing the village and managing the water. </p>
<p>The problems are more evident during the dry season, when limited access to water reduces women’s work hours as they spend more time gathering water.</p>
<p>One of the interviewees could usually produce 3 to 4 kilograms of palm sugar every day in the rainy season. During the dry season, she could produce only 1.5kg per day. </p>
<p>The decreases occurred because the interviewees spent more hours collecting water than working. It is estimated they lost at least 50% of their monthly income at this time.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348049/original/file-20200716-17-1kiao06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348049/original/file-20200716-17-1kiao06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348049/original/file-20200716-17-1kiao06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348049/original/file-20200716-17-1kiao06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348049/original/file-20200716-17-1kiao06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348049/original/file-20200716-17-1kiao06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348049/original/file-20200716-17-1kiao06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman rides a bike in Kulon Progo, Yogyakarta.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/johanwieland/7124369399/in/photolist-bRyfPa-BRPfuh-CfPzqR-ECf6uM-229FWtx-5pyiFN-6b11Mr-9yKioj-BRYMF7-CGcg8r-bRxYMH-FWVXgC-CGco4k-a4R75a-bRyhq4-GmbjZG-bRyeyn-bRydTM-bRyd8X-bRybMt-bRyjN2-bCDnTJ-28zK3os-23PogWN-bRyiRz-229Fw4F-Bho7Gk-bCDjkN-bRy4U8-bRy1S2-bRy7Nt-bCDC27-bRy9PR-KA7Kga-bRyctn-7tRWNy-bkQQbq-7tRQNq-VaUES8-bypWZe-wkhoDd-bypWXP-7tMXL2">johanwieland/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why this happens</h2>
<p>Indonesia’s influential patriarchal culture has excluded women from political decision-making processes, including the governance of water management. </p>
<p>This culture contributes to limiting women’s roles to water gatherers, as their roles are associated with domestic duties. </p>
<p>The government has made some attempts at gender mainstreaming and to involve women more in decision-making processes at all levels of government. Despite this, it was still difficult for women to be actively involved in the decision-making processes of water management.</p>
<p>When women raise issues regarding the quality and quantity of water management at the family and community levels, their views and experiences are often ignored.</p>
<p>Men dominate decision-making on water management at almost all levels. These include decisions on access to water and the quantity and quality of water. </p>
<h2>The government needs to be more active</h2>
<p>Based on our <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429273353/chapters/10.4324/9780429273353-6">research</a>, we found that national gender mainstreaming programs have not filtered into rural regions.</p>
<p>Instead, local NGO programs such as <a href="https://www.internationalbudget.org/groups/perkumpulan-idea/#:%7E:text=The%20IDEA%20Association%20is%20an,development%20planning%20and%20budget%20advocacy.">IDEA</a>, an Indonesian-based organisation that promotes public policies to support economic, social and cultural rights, appear to have a more significant effect in closing the gender governance gap. IDEA provides empowerment training and network building for village women. </p>
<p>Furthermore, local government officials generally interpret gender mainstreaming as the availability of various programs for women. They don’t see women as active users of water, even though they are capable of using their experiences to contribute to decision-making on water management.</p>
<p>The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (<a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CEDAW.aspx">CEDAW</a>) confirms it is the state’s responsibility to ensure no public authority discriminates against women. Hence the government should be more active in ensuring women are included in water decision-making.</p>
<p>The government can encourage women’s participation by inviting them to meetings that discuss issues of water usage. The issues include the time required to collect water from the source and responsibilities (men, women, children) for water collection. Through such meetings, key decision-makers can consult with women to capture their water use and water management experiences.</p>
<p>Gender mainstreaming requires a more significant effort and more cooperation between government and NGOs to offer training and workshops. </p>
<p>Programs to train women in leadership and empowerment skills will encourage them to be involved in public meetings. These training programs and skills development are fundamental to increase women’s confidence to be actively involved in public decision-making processes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141773/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Para penulis tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi di luar afiliasi akademis yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>
When women have to spend hours getting water for their families, it comes at the expense of their incomes and their other contributions to their communities.
John Burgess, Professor of Human Resource Management, RMIT University
Endah Prihatiningtyastuti, Faculty member, Curtin Business School, Curtin University
Kantha Dayaram, Associate Professor, School of Management, Curtin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/133342
2020-04-13T19:49:37Z
2020-04-13T19:49:37Z
While towns run dry, cotton extracts 5 Sydney Harbours’ worth of Murray Darling water a year. It’s time to reset the balance
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324157/original/file-20200330-65518-1leq5nz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The rains have finally arrived in the Northern Murray Darling Basin. Hopefully, this drought-easing water will flow all the way down to the parched communities and degraded habitats of the lower Darling. </p>
<p>How much water goes <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-28/water-flows-in-first-major-test-of-murray-darling-basin-plan/12010166">downstream</a>, however, does not just depend on how much it has rained. </p>
<p>It also greatly depends on how much is extracted and consumed upstream, and the rules and enforcement around these water extractions.</p>
<p>Simplistic or knee-jerk responses to water insecurity, such as banning irrigation for “thirsty crops” such as cotton, will not fix the water woes of the basin. </p>
<p>The harder and longer path is to <a href="https://murraydeclaration.org/">deliver real water reform</a> as was agreed to by all governments in the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/water-reform/national-water-initiative-agreement-2004.pdf">2004 National Water Initiative</a> and that includes transparent water planning enshrined in law.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sweet-relief-of-rain-after-bushfires-threatens-disaster-for-our-rivers-129449">The sweet relief of rain after bushfires threatens disaster for our rivers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Basin cotton irrigators extract about five Sydney Harbours’ worth a year</h2>
<p>Irrigation accounts for about <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-8489.12288">70% of all surface water extracted in the basin</a>. </p>
<p>Australia’s water accounts tell us that in 2017-18, basin cotton irrigators extracted some 2,500 billion litres (about five Sydney Harbours’ worth) or equivalent to about 35% of all the water extracted for irrigation. </p>
<p>Most of this water was extracted <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/discover-basin/landscape/geography">in the Northern Basin</a> (covering southern Queensland and northern New South Wales). But increasingly cotton is becoming a preferred crop in the Southern Basin (southern NSW to South Australia). </p>
<p>Overall, the area of land in cotton and the water extracted for cotton increased by 4% in 2017-18 relative to 2016-17.</p>
<p>Cotton is a thirsty crop. According to the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4618.0">Australian Bureau of Statistics</a> cotton uses, on average, more than 7 million litres (or about three Olympic-sized swimming pools) per hectare. </p>
<p>At a global scale, the volume of water extracted by cotton irrigators to produce one kilogram of cotton fabric averages <a href="https://waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/Assessm_water_footprint_cotton_India.pdf">more than 3,000 litres</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325561/original/file-20200406-196131-dkvkcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cotton is a thirsty crop.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Increased water efficiency: good news for some, bad news for others</h2>
<p>Concerns over how much water cotton uses, and the high price of water in the basin, has incentivised cotton farmers to increase their cotton yield (in tonnes) per million litres of water extracted. </p>
<p>This has been achieved with improved genetics, management and more high-tech irrigation methods. According to Cotton Australia, <a href="https://cottonaustralia.com.au/cottons-water-use">much less water (only 19%) is flowing back into streams and groundwater from water applied to cotton fields</a> than two decades ago, when the return flows were 43% of the water applied. </p>
<p><a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6404/748">Increased irrigation efficiency</a> is good news for cotton irrigators, especially those that received some of the <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-resource-100517-023039">A$4 billion in public money</a> already spent to increase irrigation efficiency in the basin. But it is bad news for downstream irrigators, communities and the environment. </p>
<p>This is because a much greater proportion of the water extracted by cotton farmers now gets consumed as evapo-transpiration, and thus is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13241583.2019.1579965">unavailable for anyone or anything else</a>.</p>
<h2>We need to change the rules of the game</h2>
<p>Given these cotton facts, would banning the growing of cotton in Australia increase the water available? No – because the problem is not cotton irrigation per se, but rather the “rules of the game” of the who, how, and when water is extracted. These water sharing rules are determined at a state level in what are called <a href="http://www.water.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/549024/wsp_barwon_darling_background_document.pdf">Water Sharing Plans</a>. </p>
<p>Proper water planning is the only way to ensure a fair deal, deliver on the intent of the 2012 <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/basin-plan/plan-murray-darling-basin">Basin Plan</a> and keep levels of water extraction at <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/why-is-the-murray-darling-basin-so-important-and-how-did-we-end-up-at-this-point">sustainable levels</a>.</p>
<p>Water sharing plans are supposed to be consistent with the 2012 Basin Plan. But NSW has, so far, failed to provide its plans for auditing by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, missing the key July 1, 2019 deadline. </p>
<p>Following an <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/pumped/8727826">expose of alleged water theft in July 2017</a>, the NSW government created a <a href="https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/natural-resources-access-regulator/about-nrar">specialised agency</a>, the Natural Resources Access Regulator, that has greatly helped water monitoring and compliance in NSW. Despite its best efforts, there is still inadequate metering in the Northern Basin. And across the basin as a whole, most groundwater extractions are not properly monitored.</p>
<p>The actual rules about how much water can be extracted are substantially <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/07900627.2019.1674132?needAccess=true">influenced by some irrigators</a> in the consultation process before plans are implemented. </p>
<p>Such influence has resulted in some water sharing plans favouring upstream irrigators at the expense of downstream communities, such as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-19/walgett-has-two-rivers-but-no-water-left-to-drink/10558428">Walgett</a> and <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/rural/2019/03/09/wilcannia-the-town-with-no-water/15520500007800">Wilcannia</a>. These towns have been left high and dry despite the fact NSW law gives priority to town water supplies over other water uses.</p>
<p>According to the NSW Natural Resources Commission, the current Barwon-Darling Water Sharing Plan “effectively prioritises upstream water users” and also does not provide protection for environmental water from extraction. </p>
<p>The Natural Resources Commission also observed that extraction permitted under the plan:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>has affected those communities and landholders reliant on the river for domestic and stock water supplies, town water supply, community and social needs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A consultant’s report from 2019, written for the NSW government, also found no evidence in the Barwon-Darling water planning processes of reporting on performance indicators such as changes in stream flow regimes, ecological values of key water sources or water utility (for town supply) access requirements. </p>
<p>Sadly, the problem of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/damning-disappointing-debacle-in-state-s-water-sharing-plans-20200218-p541xg.html">poor water planning</a> is not exclusive to the Barwon-Darling, but exists in other basin catchments in NSW, and beyond.</p>
<h2>Holding governments responsible</h2>
<p>Any effective solution to the water emergency in the basin must, therefore, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/how-would-you-like-to-handle-it-the-minister-the-irrigators-and-a-flood-20200218-p541yv.html">hold governments responsible</a> for their water plans and decisions. This requires that a “who, what, how and when” of water be made transparent through an independent water auditing, monitoring and compliance process.</p>
<p>Simplistic responses to water insecurity, such as banning irrigation for cotton, will not fix the water woes of the basin. The harder and longer path is to <a href="https://murraydeclaration.org/">deliver real water reform</a> as was agreed to by all governments in the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/water-reform/national-water-initiative-agreement-2004.pdf">2004 National Water Initiative</a> and that included transparent water planning enshrined in law.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fish-kills-and-undrinkable-water-heres-what-to-expect-for-the-murray-darling-this-summer-126940">Fish kills and undrinkable water: here's what to expect for the Murray Darling this summer</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Three things that would make a difference</h2>
<p>As a nation we must <a href="http://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/alldoc/articles/vol13/v13issue1/561-a13-1-1/file">hold decisionmakers accountable</a> so the rules of the game do not favour the big end of town at the expense, and even the existence, of towns. </p>
<p>We also need to: </p>
<ol>
<li>stop wasting billions on irrigation subsidies that <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6404/748">reduce flows to streams and rivers</a></li>
<li>monitor, measure and audit what is happening to the water extracted and in streams</li>
<li>actually deliver on the key objects of the federal Water Act and state water acts.</li>
</ol>
<p>Enforcing the law of the land would ensure those who have the legal right to get the water first (such as town water supplies) are prioritised in the implementation of water sharing plans. It would mean state water plans are audited and actually deliver environmentally sustainable levels of water extraction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133342/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quentin Grafton received funding from The Murray-Darling Basin Authority in 2010 and 2011 and is a former Chair of the Socio-economics Reference Panel for the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. </span></em></p>
Knee-jerk responses to water insecurity won’t fix the basin. The harder and longer path is delivering real water reform, including transparent water planning enshrined in law.
Quentin Grafton, Director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/130467
2020-01-27T13:55:36Z
2020-01-27T13:55:36Z
Nile Basin states must build a flexible treaty. Here’s how
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311589/original/file-20200123-162199-fgy5vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Nile river in Cairo
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Grant Faint/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt are <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51133364">a step closer</a> to resolving their disputes over the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The dam – a huge project on one of the River Nile’s main tributaries, the Blue Nile in Ethiopia – is designed to generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity. Its reservoir can hold more than 70 billion cubic metres of water. That’s nearly equal to <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/an530e/an530e.pdf">half of</a> the Nile’s annual flow. </p>
<p>Filling the immense reservoir will diminish the flow of the Nile water.</p>
<p>Tensions have been particularly acute between Egypt and Ethiopia because <a href="https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=3Ns7DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=More+than+80%25+of+the+water+reaching+Egypt+comes+from+the+Blue+Nile&source=bl&ots=gW9Oiy8Fsl&sig=hkGZaSOToqULsQoD8S42kHTIlNk&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=More%20than%2080%25%20of%20the%20water%20reaching%20Egypt%20comes%20from%20the%20Blue%20Nile&f=false">more than</a> 80% of the water reaching Egypt comes from the Blue Nile. </p>
<p>Despite decades of concerted effort, <a href="https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nrj/vol59/iss2/13/">no comprehensive deal</a> between all <a href="http://nileis.nilebasin.org/system/files/Nile%20SoB%20Report%20Chpater%202%20-%20Water%20resources.pdf">11 countries</a> that share the Nile’s river basin has ever been reached. But, after rigorous discussions in the US, Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan issued <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm875">a joint statement</a> that lays the framework for a final agreement. The three countries agreed that the dam would be filled in stages, and that it would only take place in the wet season. </p>
<p>The framework also underscored the need for any agreement to be open to changes. This is important because the three countries must consider changes in weather patterns, among other factors, while developing the final draft.</p>
<p>Instead of allocating the Nile waters based on the assumption of a fixed, and often too optimistic, perpetual water supply, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt should do it <a href="https://iwaponline.com/wp/article-abstract/6/4/281/19656/Legal-and-institutional-adaptation-to-climate?redirectedFrom=fulltext">in accordance with</a> the social, economic and changing weather conditions in the Nile basin. </p>
<p>This is extremely important as existing studies and climate change models commonly predict potential changes in weather patterns and temperature. </p>
<h2>Changing weather patterns</h2>
<p>Studies suggest that there is likely to be an increase in <a href="http://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/14068/Nile%20Climate%20change%20fa.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">the basin’s average annual temperature</a>. This would lead to greater loss of water due to evaporation. Changes are also expected in the future rainfall, river flow and water availability in the Nile Basin, although there’s less certainty about these. </p>
<p>But there’s enough evidence to point to the need for flexibility around agreements on how the dam will be filled. For example, there must be allowances to respond to scenarios of increased water availability and flooding, or water scarcity and drought. </p>
<p>Building flexible and resilient legal and institutional arrangements into the new treaty is therefore key. These include drought provisions, flexible allocation strategies, amendment and review procedures, termination clauses and recognised river basin organisations.</p>
<p>Flexibility in watercourse treaties, due to the unknown effects of climate change, has been recommended by leading scholars in the field such as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1477-8947.00050">Stephen McCaffrey</a> and <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Legal-and-institutional-adaptation-to-climate-a-of-Fischhendler/045200c66ae3fbaddf0365af8916abec456b1ca3">Itay Fischhendler</a>.</p>
<h2>Drought provisions</h2>
<p>Drought provisions are a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02626667.2011.576651">common way</a> to improve the flexibility of treaties. Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt can include special provisions that allow for exceptional circumstances, like severe drought.</p>
<p>To deal with the hardships of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-the-future-there-will-be-more-rain-but-less-water-in-the-nile-basin-129360">projected</a> extreme drought years, the three countries will need to build more reservoirs and storage capacity. But given the tension the dam has caused, finding agreement on this is likely to be challenging. This is all the more reason to include specific clauses in the treaty about storage.</p>
<p>There should also be flexibility in how much water is allocated, instead of a fixed amount. There are a couple of ways this can be achieved. </p>
<p>A simple way is to require Ethiopia to deliver a minimum flow to Sudan and Egypt to <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000235678">maintain human health and basic ecological functions</a>. </p>
<p>The other option would be a percentage allocation. This would share possible water deficiencies, and surplus, proportionally among the three countries. Each country would get its agreed share of the total in a given year. </p>
<p>This would be the better option because it would <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02626667.2011.576651">respond</a> to both wet and dry conditions. </p>
<h2>Amendments and reviews</h2>
<p>To make the treaty flexible, it’s also important to provide for amendments and reviews of processes. In this way countries could address unforeseen circumstances. </p>
<p>For instance, Ethiopia promised, under the joint statement, that it will fill the dam’s reservoir during the wet season, generally from July to September. But the wet and dry seasons could change. </p>
<p>The treaty can establish what might <a href="https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1386&context=elq">“trigger”</a> adjustments or have set times for when a review should occur. </p>
<p>It must also have a termination clause which allows any riparian state <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1477-8947.00050">to terminate</a> the agreement, with a notice period. </p>
<h2>River basin organisations</h2>
<p>Managing water across boundaries needs river basin organisations. These are entities entrusted to manage water resources at the basin scale. They’re important because they can help introduce a level of flexibility in the arrangements between the riparian states.</p>
<p>A good example of how this can be done is the role played by a river basin organisation charged with applying the 1944 Colorado Treaty. The organisation was composed of an engineer commissioner from both parties – the US and Mexico – and was able to adapt, amend and extend institutional arrangements, including the main treaty.</p>
<p>In the case of the Nile basin, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt have two options. </p>
<p>They can establish a joint body in the treaty that will manage the operations of dams in their respective countries. But this would exclude the other eight Nile riparian countries. </p>
<p>The other, and arguably better, option is to manage all dams through the Nile Basin Commission – an organisation envisaged in the <a href="https://www.nilebasin.org/documents-publications/30-cooperative-framework-agreement/file">Cooperative Framework Agreement</a>. This was an attempt by riparian states to prepare a basin-wide framework to regulate the inter-state use and management of the Nile River. All the Nile basin states except Egypt and Sudan agreed to it. </p>
<p>This organisation has a wide range of powers, which include the ability to examine and decide how water is best used and distributed. Egypt and Sudan must accede to the framework agreement. And the treaty must empower the body to manage the filling and operation of the dams and reservoirs in the three countries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130467/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mahemud Tekuya receives funding from an open society foundation. </span></em></p>
Instead of allocating the Nile waters based on a fixed, perpetual water supply Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt must consider changes in weather patterns, among other factors.
Mahemud Tekuya, JSD/Ph.D candidate, University of the Pacific
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/130454
2020-01-24T13:39:15Z
2020-01-24T13:39:15Z
If it’s below 40 degrees in South Florida, the forecast calls for falling iguanas
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311728/original/file-20200124-81395-1atcoom.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=61%2C129%2C4155%2C2884&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Beware cold-stunned 'chicken of the trees.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Falling-Iguanas/1c9c5a58f8f24f6cb0a28552f256aa94/4/0">AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As <a href="https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20200121/palm-beach-county-prepare-yourself-for-arctic-blast-wednesday-morning">temperatures were dipping</a> this week, the National Weather Service <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSMiami/status/1219691736412246016">issued freeze warnings</a> for much of Florida and Georgia, adding a warning in South Florida for “falling iguanas.” University of Florida wildlife ecologist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bygBLL8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Frank Mazzotti</a> explains the physiology of cold iguanas and why many people in Florida aren’t shedding tears for the iguana-cicles lying around the region.</em> </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1219691736412246016"}"></div></p>
<h2>What happens to iguanas when temps drop?</h2>
<p>When temperatures fall into the 40s and 30s, green iguanas become cold-stunned. They <a href="https://www.springer.com/us/book/9780412403507">enter what’s called</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.11167-4">a state of torpor</a>. Their breathing slows down and so does their metabolism.</p>
<p>Used to more balmy conditions, this is how tropical reptiles protect themselves from cold temperatures. Torpor is an involuntary response, and the animals trade torpor’s benefit of conserving heat in cold conditions for an increased risk of being snagged by a predator.</p>
<p>Torpor causes green iguanas to lose muscle control, and since they live in trees, they fall out of trees. A several pound iguana falling on your head would definitely get your attention.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1219951774779498496"}"></div></p>
<h2>What should you do if you see a dazed iguana?</h2>
<p>If you witness falling iguanas, your best course of action is to do nothing. If the animal warms up quickly, it will recover on its own. If cold temperatures are prolonged, the iguana may die.</p>
<p>But please do not try to “rescue” any iguanas. Native to Mexico, Central and South America and some Caribbean islands, <a href="https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/reptiles/green-iguana/">green iguanas are an invasive species</a> in the southern United States and you cannot legally set them free here. The iguanas you spot in South Florida are descendants of animals brought here to be sold as pets.</p>
<p>If you want to get involved when you see a fallen iguana, a better course of action is to eat it. In their native range they are prized as <a href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/fl-reg-eating-iguana-south-florida-invasive-20180627-story.html">delicious food items</a> and are called chicken of the trees or bamboo chicken.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311729/original/file-20200124-81403-txewew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311729/original/file-20200124-81403-txewew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311729/original/file-20200124-81403-txewew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311729/original/file-20200124-81403-txewew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311729/original/file-20200124-81403-txewew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311729/original/file-20200124-81403-txewew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311729/original/file-20200124-81403-txewew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311729/original/file-20200124-81403-txewew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In South Florida, animal control includes exotic lizard management.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/captiva-island-exotic-lizard-management-program-iguana-news-photo/1189372908">Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why are some officials in Florida happy to see fewer iguanas?</h2>
<p>Officials believe green iguanas are rapidly increasing in numbers and <a href="https://www.eddmaps.org/distribution/viewmap.cfm?sub=12119">expanding in range</a>, though there are no concrete counts for how many live in Florida today.</p>
<p>For a long time, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520238541/iguanas">green iguanas</a> flew below the radar of management agencies. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1115226109">Unlike Burmese pythons</a>, for example, which eat mammals and birds, green iguanas did not pose an obvious threat to ecological resources. Any <a href="http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in528">damage they did</a> was confined to backyards where they readily consume landscape plants, burrow into seawalls and sidewalks and poop prodigiously.</p>
<p>But with more green iguanas on the loose, they are now commonly found on water management structures such as levees and pump stations where they actively burrow, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1445983">especially nesting females</a>. These infrastructure facilities control water levels in South Florida and keep neighborhoods dry while providing a water supply for both agriculture and residences.</p>
<p>Iguana-caused damage is not minor. For example, the City of West Palm Beach recently paid <a href="https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20200120/iguanas-not-just-nuisance-these-lizards-contributed-to-18m-repair-bill-in-west-palm">US$1.8 million to repair</a> a weir that was partially damaged by burrowing iguanas and to armor the low dam against further damage.</p>
<p>Removing invasive iguanas is now necessary to protect Florida’s ability to manage its water. So a cold snap that eliminates some of the iguana population might actually be good news in some quarters.</p>
<p>[ <em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130454/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Mazzotti receives funding from the South Florida Water Management District, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Department of the Interior. </span></em></p>
Green iguanas are an invasive species that seem to be spreading and proliferating in Florida. Used to warmer temps, they switch into torpor mode when the mercury drops.
Frank Mazzotti, Professor, University of Florida
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/122995
2019-12-04T13:27:19Z
2019-12-04T13:27:19Z
‘Blue’ space: Access to water features can boost city dwellers’ mental health
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304064/original/file-20191127-112522-w6vuzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5865%2C3494&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Access to the shoreline is great, but what about places not on the coast?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Béju (Happy City, Street Plan, University of Virginia)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Officials are increasingly recognizing that integrating nature into cities is an effective public health strategy to improve mental health. Doctors around the world now administer “<a href="https://theconversation.com/anxiety-and-depression-why-doctors-are-prescribing-gardening-rather-than-drugs-121841">green prescriptions</a>” – where patients are encouraged to spend time in local nature spaces – based on hundreds of studies showing that <a href="https://jennyjroe.com/category/green-health/">time in nature can benefit</a> people’s psychological well-being and increase social engagement.</p>
<p>Much of this research to date has focused on the role of green space in improving mental health. But what about “blue” space – water settings such as riverside trails, a lake, a waterfront or even urban fountains?</p>
<p>You probably intuitively know that being close to water can induce feelings of calm. And many poets and artists have attested to the sense of awe and magic that water can evoke. But can it deliver the same wide-ranging benefits that urban green infrastructure brings to mental health? <a href="https://bluehealth2020.eu/projects/">A few studies</a> have shown that water bodies score just as well – if not better – in supporting psychological well-being as compared with “green” nature.</p>
<p>So far the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2017.08.004">evidence is sparse</a>, though, and mostly limited to coastal settings in Europe. What if you’re in one of the 49 countries in the world, or 27 American states, that are landlocked with no ocean shore? For natural capital to deliver health benefits to people, it needs to be right next to them, integrated into the everyday fabric of their world.</p>
<h2>Targeting everyday well-being</h2>
<p>If you do have access to blue space, it can make you happier, reduce your stress levels, improve your quality of life and make you more sociable and altruistic.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2019.00071">This was the finding from one study</a> <a href="https://thehappycity.com">my collaborators</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9hTL_nkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">and I</a> carried out in West Palm Beach, Florida. A short walk along a downtown waterfront with a design intervention we devised improved both perceived and physiological stress, as measured by heart rate variability.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304061/original/file-20191127-112517-ba38lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304061/original/file-20191127-112517-ba38lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304061/original/file-20191127-112517-ba38lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304061/original/file-20191127-112517-ba38lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304061/original/file-20191127-112517-ba38lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304061/original/file-20191127-112517-ba38lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304061/original/file-20191127-112517-ba38lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304061/original/file-20191127-112517-ba38lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Fascination frames’ enticed pedestrians to linger on waterfronts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Béju (Happy City, Street Plans, University of Virginia)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our design intervention increased levels of shade and seating along the shoreline to improve comfort levels and incorporated a series of “fascination frames”: translucent picture frames fitted with historic waterfront scenes from the early 20th century that reminded visitors of this place’s aesthetic and cultural history. </p>
<p>This temporary pop-up intervention increased participants’ engagement with the shore, piqued their curiosity (an integral component of well-being), decreased their stress levels and increased their subjective well-being. And the people exposed to our intervention were more likely to report higher levels of altruism and feelings of belonging.</p>
<p>West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority is putting the study findings to use directing longer-term urban design changes at the waterfront for public health gains.</p>
<p>Researchers believe these kinds of health benefits arise through a number of pathways. There might a direct benefit, for example, from water’s ability to reduce heat stress in a hot climate – the way fountains cooled areas in 13th century Islamic Spain. Water can help reduce traffic noise, and so lessen the stress caused by a loud cityscape. Researchers also report a direct effect on stress regulation, finding that contact with nature <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph10094086">slows down the human stress response and induces calm</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304981/original/file-20191203-67007-14ksasn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304981/original/file-20191203-67007-14ksasn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304981/original/file-20191203-67007-14ksasn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304981/original/file-20191203-67007-14ksasn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304981/original/file-20191203-67007-14ksasn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304981/original/file-20191203-67007-14ksasn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304981/original/file-20191203-67007-14ksasn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304981/original/file-20191203-67007-14ksasn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fountains, like this Urban Splash fountain in Sheffield, U.K., provide visual and audio respite for city dwellers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">©Jan Woudstra, University of Sheffield</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People tend to be more physically active in environments where there is access to water, and you’re more likely to meet people there, either on an impromptu basis or for organized activities. Researchers think that the soft visual stimuli of water – the patterns of light falling on it as it flows – holds our attention without any conscious effort and allows recovery from cognitive fatigue, providing scope for reflection. This idea, called <a href="http://willsull.net/resources/270-Readings/ExpNature1to5.pdf">Attention Restoration Theory</a>, argues that fascination in the natural environment – in this context, the curiosity and wonder that water sparks – is a critical environmental cue in the process of psychological restoration.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I are now <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2019.1619893">using electroencephalography to explore</a> the neural signatures of different urban settings in people’s brains and to identify whether immersive blue-space environments – including smaller water features such as rain gardens – can offer similar benefits to psychological well-being as our green space research has shown.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304848/original/file-20191203-67002-1myltkk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304848/original/file-20191203-67002-1myltkk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304848/original/file-20191203-67002-1myltkk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304848/original/file-20191203-67002-1myltkk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304848/original/file-20191203-67002-1myltkk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304848/original/file-20191203-67002-1myltkk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304848/original/file-20191203-67002-1myltkk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304848/original/file-20191203-67002-1myltkk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bathing place in Cardigan Bay, near Aberystwith, circa 1800.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/9200119/54FC6FF3249CA7CAD58EA79E87025E9522446A02.html">National Library of Wales</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Targeting health problems via “blue care”</h2>
<p>The idea of water as a curing agent <a href="https://archives.history.ac.uk/history-in-focus/Sea/articles/walton.html">is not a new one</a>. Fans of Jane Austen’s “<a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/sanditon/">Sanditon</a>” will appreciate how sea bathing – and the fresh sea air – was prescribed by doctors in the 19th century to treat a range of maladies ranging from melancholy to heat stress. The popularity of English seaside resorts spread until the 1850s, when the trend for cold water submergence ended.</p>
<p>Today, hydrotherapy is still used to support recovery from physical injury and as a means of pain relief. But the application of “blue care” for psychological well-being and physical health has been somewhat forgotten.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/day103">recent research review identified only 33 studies</a> where blue care interventions, such as a beach activity, swimming, sailing, fishing or canoeing, were used to treat individuals with specific mental health problems – including PTSD, addiction and depression – and people with physical disabilities. Overall, these studies found that blue care interventions delivered direct benefits for health, especially mental health and social well-being.</p>
<p>Despite the 19th century belief, water therapy cannot cure mental health problems. However, it does have a potential role in alleviating some of the symptoms of anxiety and depression.</p>
<h2>Piggybacking on other water goals</h2>
<p>But, again, there is little evidence for all these blue health benefits beyond coastal settings. How might these approaches be developed in inland cities? How can urban planners better integrate access to water into people’s lives, no matter where they’re located?</p>
<p>My colleagues and I are eyeing what planners call the water-centric city, or “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jan/23/inside-chinas-leading-sponge-city-wuhans-war-with-water">sponge city</a>.” It’s a key strategy in climate change adaptation and in managing water resources in a sustainable and resilient way.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304068/original/file-20191127-180279-amze9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304068/original/file-20191127-180279-amze9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304068/original/file-20191127-180279-amze9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304068/original/file-20191127-180279-amze9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304068/original/file-20191127-180279-amze9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304068/original/file-20191127-180279-amze9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304068/original/file-20191127-180279-amze9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304068/original/file-20191127-180279-amze9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A waterway channel in Middelfart, Denmark, adds a natural element to the streetscape.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">©Schulze+Grassov</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://city.milwaukee.gov/WCC">Cities are experimenting</a> with new ways to deal with stormwater that combine hard and soft engineered systems for the capture, diversion, infiltration, cleansing and retention of stormwater. This includes rain gardens and exposed water channels that capture rainfall; at the same time, they add a softer layer to the street by incorporating perennial plants and grasses. Innovations like these invite people to linger in the streets, enjoy the water and be sociable.</p>
<p>Urban designers can add these relatively inexpensive and micro-level features to larger stormwater management projects and reap public health benefits on top of climate mitigation.</p>
<p>Led by the University of Washington, a team of researchers and I have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax0903">advanced a new framework</a> to help city planners and policymakers measure the mental health effects of adding – or taking away - nature in their city plans, with the goal of integrating nature into the public health agendas of future cities.</p>
<p>Understanding the impacts of both green and blue spaces can encourage cities to approach blue design in an innovative way. Including a wide range of interactive and passive water features – which also serve to manage stormwater – within our cities can increase opportunities for play, curiosity, animation and stress alleviation. </p>
<p>Blue urban design – alongside green – may well be an agent for promoting mental health and not just an amenity.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Roe received funding from the Van Alen Institute for the West Palm Beach study referred to in this article. </span></em></p>
Research into public health benefits of integrating nature into cities has focused on green spaces. New studies suggest water features are just as useful and can piggyback on other infrastructure goals.
Jenny Roe, Professor of Design and Health and Director of the Center of Design and Health at the Architecture School, University of Virginia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/126681
2019-11-13T19:06:20Z
2019-11-13T19:06:20Z
Up the creek: the $85 million plan to desalinate water for drought relief
<p>The deal to crank up Adelaide’s desalination plant to make more water available to farmers in the drought-stricken Murray-Darling Basin makes no sense.</p>
<p>It involves the federal government paying the South Australian government up to A$100 million to produce more water for Adelaide using the little-used desalination plant.</p>
<p>The plant was commissioned in 2007 at the height of the millennium drought. It can produce up to 100 gigalitres of water a year – enough to fill 40,000 olympic sized swimming pools. But has been used sparingly, operating at its minimum mode of
8 gigalitres a year, because of the expense of turning seawater into freshwater. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301170/original/file-20191112-178480-f1d1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301170/original/file-20191112-178480-f1d1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301170/original/file-20191112-178480-f1d1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301170/original/file-20191112-178480-f1d1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301170/original/file-20191112-178480-f1d1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301170/original/file-20191112-178480-f1d1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301170/original/file-20191112-178480-f1d1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301170/original/file-20191112-178480-f1d1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Adelaide Desalination Plant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11202753">Vmenkov/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Adelaide has continued to mostly draw water from local reservoirs and the River Murray, which on average has supplied about half the city’s water (sometimes much more). </p>
<p>But with federal funding, the desal plant will be turned on full bore. This will free up 100 gigalitres of water from the Murray River allocated to Adelaide for use by farmers upstream in the Murray Darling’s southern basin. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301212/original/file-20191112-178525-auvb3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301212/original/file-20191112-178525-auvb3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301212/original/file-20191112-178525-auvb3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301212/original/file-20191112-178525-auvb3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301212/original/file-20191112-178525-auvb3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301212/original/file-20191112-178525-auvb3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301212/original/file-20191112-178525-auvb3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301212/original/file-20191112-178525-auvb3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The southern Murray–Darling Basin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/water/aust-water-markets-reports/awmr-2015-16/southern-murray-darling-basin#region-overview">ABARES</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The federal government expects the water to be used to grow an extra <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-07/how-will-the-sa-desal-plant-revival-help-australian-farmers/11682044">120,000 tonnes of fodder</a> for livestock. The water will be sold to farmers at a discount rate of A$100 a megalitre. That’s 10 cents per 1,000 litres. </p>
<p>By comparison, the residential price for that <a href="https://www.sawater.com.au/accounts-and-billing/current-water-and-sewerage-rates/residential-water-supply">water in Adelaide</a> would be A$2.39 to A$3.70 per 1,000 litres. </p>
<p>The production cost of desalinated water is about <a href="https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/water/resources/desalination">95 cents per 1,000 litres</a> when there’s rainwater already stored, according to a cost-benefit study published by the SA Department of Environment and Water in 2016. That means the total cost for the 100 gigalitres will be about A$95 million. </p>
<p>So the federal government is effectively paying A$95 million to sell water for A$10 million: a loss to taxpayers of A$85 million.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301431/original/file-20191113-77363-3vm9vd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301431/original/file-20191113-77363-3vm9vd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301431/original/file-20191113-77363-3vm9vd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301431/original/file-20191113-77363-3vm9vd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301431/original/file-20191113-77363-3vm9vd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301431/original/file-20191113-77363-3vm9vd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301431/original/file-20191113-77363-3vm9vd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What do we get for the money?</h2>
<p>The discounted water provided to individual farmers will be capped at <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-07/drought-stimulus-sa-desalination-plant-murray-river-water-farms/11679136">no more than 25 megalitres</a>. The farmers must agree to not sell the water to others and to use it to grow fodder for livestock.</p>
<p>There are many different forms of fodder but livestock producers most favour lucerne hay because it is highly nutritious. But it is also more expensive than cereal, pasture or straw hay. </p>
<p>The amount of hay that can be grown with a megalitre of irrigation water depends on many things, but 120,000 tonnes with 100 gigalitres is possible in the right conditions.</p>
<p>In the Murray-Darling southern basin lucerne hay currently sells for <a href="https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/industry/farm-inputs-and-costs/hay-report">A$450 to A$600 a tonne</a>. That would make the market value of 120,000 tonnes of lucerne A$54 million to A$72 million. </p>
<p>It means, on a best-case scenario, the federal government will be spending A$85 million to subsidise the production of hay worth A$72 million to its producers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-drought-relief-package-hits-the-political-spot-but-misses-the-bigger-point-126583">Australia's drought relief package hits the political spot but misses the bigger point</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The reality of farming</h2>
<p>In practice farms and farmers are incredible diverse, so not all irrigators will necessarily grow lucerne. Alternative fodders such as pasture or cereal hay generally have much lower market values. Which meaning the value of the fodder produced may be much less than the best-case scenario.</p>
<p>It’s worrying that this policy shows such little regard for farming realities. It appears to have been crafted on the premise that every farmer has the same land, the same equipment and the same needs. </p>
<p>Dictating the water must be used for a single purpose runs counter to the needs of the agriculture sector. If farmers could put it to a more effective use, why not allow it?</p>
<p>In addition, it’s not clear how all the monitoring will be done to maintain compliance over such a restrictive regime. </p>
<p>What measures will prevent farmers buying the discounted water and then simply selling an equivalent amount of any carry-over allocation at the going rate of up to <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/water/dashboards/#/water-markets/national/state/at">$1,000 a megalitre</a>? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/drought-and-climate-change-are-driving-high-water-prices-in-the-murray-darling-basin-119993">Drought and climate change are driving high water prices in the Murray-Darling Basin</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>How will the government distinguish between the fodder grown with the 25 megalitres provided at low cost and any other fodder harvested on the same farm? How much will it cost to monitor and enforce such arrangements? </p>
<p>The difficulty of answering these types of questions is precisely the reason why countries in the former eastern bloc failed to adequately provide for their populations. Telling people what crop to grow, when to grow, how to water the crop and how it should be consumed has not worked in the past. Farm businesses that respond to prices and use inputs, including water, in a way that suits their long- term commercial needs are generally better off. </p>
<p>It seems a long way from the type of national drought policy Australia needs. It’s hard to see how a policy of this kind does anything other than waste a large amount of public money and disrupt important market mechanisms in agriculture in the process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126681/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lin Crase receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. </span></em></p>
The Australian government is effectively spending A$95 million so it can sell water to farmers for A$10 million.
Lin Crase, Professor of Economics and Head of School, University of South Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.