international alert series · 2018-11-08 · india the crisis in india is about institutions. water...

Educating Professionals . Creating and Applying Knowledge . Serving the Community

International Alert Series

The BIG IssuesWater Lessons

”There is a water crisis today. But the crisis is not about having too little water to satisfy our needs. It is a crisis of managing water badly - such that billions of people and the environment suffer.”

World Water Vision.

International Alert Series

- The BIG Issues -

Water Lessons


World VisionAusAid

The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre University of South Australia

Presented by

Professor Jennifer McKayDirector Centre Comparative Water Policies & LawsUniversity of South Australia, School of Commerce

1st August, 2006


1977 Mar Del Plata

Resolution II“All peoples whatever their stage of

development, their social and economic conditions, have the right to

have access to drinking water in quantities and of a quality equal to

their basic needs.”


Water

A precious resource subject to climate changeIncreasing demand from an industrialising and urbanising worldBalance between supply and demand an issueSupply driven engineering solutions not always feasibleNew supply sources a key issue recycled waterDemand is inelastic and risingWater projects do not cause wars – they are a catalyst for peace

Lessons Learned And Local Global Actions Needed

Australia and India focus of this talk

110,000 FarmersLarge commercial producers

Multiple tensof thousands

of SubsistenceFarmers


Commons Poem – A World Wide Problem Now

They hang the man and flog the womanThat steal the goose from the common,

But let the greater villain looseThat steal the common from the goose.

English folk poem, 1764


Water Accounting765,000 litres of water per tonne of wool and cotton416,000 litres per tonne of synthetic rubber235,000 per tonne of steel.5000 litres for an orange5000 litres for I kilogram of meat


Water in India


1 Billion People Lack Reliable Access to Clean Water

2.6 lack reliable access to adequate sanitationThe United Nations definition of high water stress - where consumption is 10% more than the renewable supply.1/3 of world now and 2/3 by 2025

New Delhi, 2006


Due to population growth and increased demands for agricultureUrban dwellers buy water from tankers at exorbitant prices

India Ministry for Water Resources

In India, drinking water is expensive and often purchased from water sellers


India Rainfall And Food Security

Over each year the rainfall is concentrated - 73% falls between June and September - hence agriculture depends on irrigation.70% of food grain is irrigated80% of the water is used for irrigationIndia suffers from federalism and disputes between states. Internal harmony is an issue because of introspective state policies.International water treaties work well with Pakistan.Problem with subsistence farming is that a drought or lack of water availability plunges the farmer into debt.Debt stays with the familyMany farmers have committed suicide.


Water is Taught Caste Prejudices

“Upper castes use the up stream water and lower castes often in the tail end where they do not get water.”

India – A million mutinies now2001 Nobel Laureate, V.S. Naipaul


Disputes within States are the main issue

“They are protesting against the Madhya Pradesh government's forcible eviction of more than a thousand Adivasi families to make way for the Maan Dam. All they're asking is that the government of MP implement its own policy of providing land for land to those being displaced by the Maan Dam. There's no controversy here. The dam has been built. The displaced people must be resettled before the reservoir fills up in the monsoon and submerges their villages.”

Excerpt from “Ahimsa” an essay by Arundhati Roy, 2002From: An ordinary person’s guide to Empire


Disputes within States are the main issue continued

Madhya Pradesh BhopalHunger strikes over the failure of the Government to provide land to 1000 Adivasi families who were displaced when the Maan Dam was built.The activists eventually ended the hunger strike when an independent committee was formed on resettlement. Up to 400,000 people are planned to be displaced due to the building of 135 medium and 3000 small dams on the Narmada River.


Suggested Solutions - India Participatory Irrigation Management – Water Users Associations (WUA)

Have been set up to give responsibility to farmers to maintain channels and share the water. India's farmers are subsistence but the country exports grains.12,000 WUA in Andhra Pradesh with up to 4090 members each. There are 10,000 WUA’s in Maharashtra. Many 1000’s of informal well organizations in Gujarat.


Participatory Irrigation Management - India

The early results from the research we have done shows that someWUA organisation types work better than others in achieving farmer participation and sharing the water.Research is being conducted to determine which type is most effective.


Issues In Participatory Irrigation Management

Issues include:Equity in water sharing there is a real problem with being a tail ender in one of the big schemes.Crop practices do not reflect the real scarcityEnvironmental issuesGroundwater which is under the common law under the exploitation rights of the land holder is overexploited ⇒ DrawdownsIn Gujarat some farmers have grouped together to drill well 800 meters to get water!!!

Source: ACIAR Project UniSA


India

The crisis in India is about Institutions.Water shed development activities for better use and conservation of resourcesNGO'S and self help groups need capacity building

There were no specific mechanisms to handle internal conflicts and the WUA’s relied mostly on imposition of ‘social pressure’ to resolve conflicts. Trust among members and the leader is the important element for success of any self-governed institution, and it was high in the WUA’s under study.Lack of effective institutional protocol to enforce the self-created rules accompanied by insufficient support from the government prevented the growth on a sustainable basis


Breakdown In Trust

In the study sites in Gurajat, Maharstra and AP we found instances of breakdown with people starving.This occurred where there was a lack of trust and conflict resolution measures. This is a bottleneck and needs to be addressed, using Shah’s (2005) expression, to “prevent the institution from being temporary - disappear/decline/stagnate disappearing”.The pressure has been to create Water users Associations in India to run and share out water.Results are that many of these bodies are socially sustainable and fair but not environmentally sustainable – whereas others are neither.The key is the trust among the members if that exists then the organisations are maintained and water is shared.


Water in Australia

The Deputy PM in August 2003 stated in the introduction to the National Water Initiative that:

“Australians use 250,000 litres per year which is about 30% higher than the OECD average”

(Anderson MP 29 August 2004).


Water Usage in Australia Summary


Australia’s over allocation

Groundwater resource usage Surface Water resource usage


Water Issues in Australia

Institutions/governance arrangements for water are complex and too introspectively State based.Need to have long terms priorities and harmonised institutions.

For example:There are a variety of standards and processes available for recycling water, but these standards are State based.


Australia FederationMuch of the Institutional disparity entrenched within the Australian Water Supply Industry is a legacy of Australian Federation in 1901. Section 100 of the Australian Constitution states:The Commonwealth shall not, by any law or regulation of trade orcommerce, abridge the right of a State or of the residents therein to the reasonable use of the waters of rivers for conservation or irrigation.


Australia Federation continued

For most of the last century, each State has structured and regulated its local Water Supply Industry with little coordination or consultation with the other State Governments.There are several hundred Water Authorities across the nation with widely varying Corporate Governance Structures, reporting requirements, and legislative frameworks within which to operate.Added to this, many have markedly differing clientele, catchmentenvironments, and infrastructure requirements. In short, they often have sharply differing perspectives and goals.


Australia – Water Institutions

Cooperative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures (CRC-IF)Initial phase of research used literature review, examination of web sites, and extensive industry consultation to identify basic characteristics of the existing corporate governance typologies of Water Supply Businesses (WSBs) within Australia and the attendant Environmentally Sustainable Development (ESD) reporting requirements. The second phase of the study utilised direct surveys of the Senior Management (Directors, Chief Executive Officers, Managers) of Australian WSBs to identify what they perceived as the main barriers to theachievement of ESD.


Australia – Water Governance Structures

225WA

242VIC

326TAS

22SA

1157QLD

11NT

799NSW

11ACT

Number of WSBs

Number of Types of

WSBsState

Typologies of Water Supply BusinessesLocal Government Regional Council (LGRC)Local Government Shire Council (LGSC)Local Government Town/City Council (LGCC)Local Government Owned Corporations (LGOC)Joint Local Government Organisation (JLGG)Water Boards (WB)Government Department (GD)Government Owned Corporation (GOC)Statutory Bodies (SB)Corporations Law Companies (CLC)Irrigation Trusts (IT)Undetermined (Und)Hybrid - SB/CLCHybrid - IT/CLC


Australia – Typology Of WSBsWe have over 14 distinctly different types of Governance Structure among Water Supply Businesses in Australia. Some are totally private – such as Murray Irrigation Limited – whereas others are Corporations or Government Owned.


The relative difficulty in implementing ESD Principles - Perceptions of Australian WSBs CEOs


Water Recycling - Types

Established recycling schemes can be found in Mawson Lakes (SA),Elsewhere semi treated water is regularly put back into rivers or dams or wetlands


Recycling Issues

Community acceptance is the big issue as far as recycled water is concerned – few people in Australia are comfortable with the notion of drinking it. There are different perceptions according to the amount of Natural input onto the purification of it


Mawson Lakes -recycling for toilet & outdoor use

No one will drink the class A water despite the fact that it is safe30% of those surveyed are willing to use it in the laundry. This result indicates a higher level of acceptance than was expected. However, it is still illegal to use recycled water in this manner in SA80 to 90% of those surveyed are willing and now do use recycled water for car washing and garden watering

Hurlimann and McKay, 2006. “What attributes of recycled water make it fit for residential purposes - the Mawson Lakes experience” Desalination 187 167-177.


Mawson Lakes

A problem with recycled water is that it often has different attributes than is desired. ie:

Some colour not wanted for clothes washingSome odour not wanted for clothes washingMore salt not wanted for garden wateringLower water pressure not wanted for garden watering

Hurlimann and McKay, 2006. “What attributes of recycled water make it fit for residential

purposes - the Mawson Lakes experience” Desalination 187 167-177


Community Acceptance a Real Problem

Recycled water leads to a number of Inter-sectoral Conflicts.In Toowoomba (QLD), there is considerable community resistance 62% voted NO to a proposed recycling scheme.The proposals have also encountered opposition from the local irrigators who see the proposals as potentially costing them their currently cheap source of irrigation water.Goulburn (NSW), on the other hand, appears to be rather more accepting of initiatives for recycling water, but this could simply reflect that they are more desperate for reliable water supplies.


Australia – Water Policy PhasesRelative Complexity Of Policies

Australia’s fourth Phase of Water Policy is still introspective, but it now incorporates community consultation Trust from the community in the WSB


Australia – Measuring Irrigation Water

Dethridge meters are more commonly known as Dethridge WheelsThey were invented in 1910They have been in wide spread use in Australian irrigation systems for over 60 yearsThere are approximately 60,000 still in use today. They have generally been considered to be cheap, reasonably accurate and easy to useOver time they became the de facto industry benchmark for flow measurement. Recent research has demonstrated, however, that they are not accurate. Indeed, they typically underestimate water flow by 19%.

Photograph generously provided by CSIRO Land & Water © CSIRO 2006


Dethridge WheelsDethridge Wheels are comparatively easy to construct. They typically have a metal drum that has folded “V” shaped fins affixed on the outside of the drum. Water flowing causes the drum to rotate and a counter tallies the number of revolutions – and hence the volume of water that has passed.


The current trend is for solar powered pumps and metres that have a much higher level of accuracy and automation. Unfortunately, these systems have their own problems as the solar panels that power the units are frequently stolen.

Solar Pumps and Metres


AcknowledgementsAdam Gray (UniSA)

Anna Hurlimann (University of Melbourne)Kirsty Willis (Marketing Science Centre)

Australian Centre for International Agricultural ResearchAustralian Water Association

CRC for Water Quality & TreatmentDivision of Business (University of South Australia)

Irrigation Association of AustraliaSchool of Commerce (University of South Australia)

CSIRO Land and Water Adelaide and Canberra.

And especially:CRC Irrigation Futures for project funding

international alert series · 2018-11-08 · india the crisis in india is about institutions. water...

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