No abstract

The reform of water pricing policies may represent an effective instrument for enhancing the efficient use of water resource. However, policy makers fear that a change in the pricing methods may cause income loss for some farmers, and that this income inequality may generate public discontent and policy inertia. The aim of this paper was to compare some pricing methods in order to measure their effects on income distribution. The analysis focuses on the income distribution among different types of farms, and the income distribution between different social groups (landowners, capitalists and workers) in the short term. A linear programing model based on expected utility theory is used to take into account the effect of commodity prices and rainfall variability, which are among the most relevant factors affecting farmers' income. According to the findings, water pricing schemes do not affect the income distribution among farm types, although a significant impact emerges on the distribution among social groups, and in particular on the wages of temporary workers. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 The Agricultural Economics Society

In most countries, groundwater resource is a public good, and the entitlement of use rights by the public authority to final users differs according to a country-specific legislative framework. In Italy, groundwater extraction has been regulated through non-tradable private licenses. At present, the public authority needs to reform the current legislative framework, in order to comply with the Water Framework Directive, aimed at the enhancement of the efficiency of the resource use. This research analyzes the effects of reforming the current framework based on non-tradable use rights, by comparing two different liberalization scenarios: an intra-sector market, and a regional market. Although positive economic benefits are generally expected from the liberalization of use rights at aggregated level, we want to analyze whether effects of the legislative framework causes uneven changes on some farm groups. The empirical case study refers to the Fortore river basin (South of Italy), where groundwater covers about 50-80% of current needs, and informal (though illegal) water markets across neighbor farmers already exist. From the findings, there is no evidence that the exchange liberalization of groundwater use rights leads to gains in terms of the value added and the farmer's revenue. In addition, in the case of an auction system regulated by the public authority, farmers whose water productivity is OPEN ACCESS Water 2011, 3 907 higher may be able to gain, while others may suffer some losses. In this case, resistances from farmers' associations towards the legislative framework reform may arise.

The management and treatment of hospital wastewater are issues of great concern worldwide. Both in the case of a dedicated treatment or co-treatment with urban wastewater, hospital effluent is generally subjected to pre-treatments followed by a biological step. A polishing treatment is suggested to promote (and guarantee) the removal of micropollutants still present and to reduce the total pollutant load released. Activated carbon-based technologies and advanced oxidation processes have been widely investigated from technical and economic viewpoints and applied in many cases. In this study, the potential exploitation of these technologies for the polishing treatment of hospital effluent is investigated by combining a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis with a Strategic Orientation (SOR) analysis. This approach allows a coherent strategy to be extracted from the SWOT-SOR data, increasing the chances of success of each technology. It emerges that both technologies present relevant and sometimes similar strengths and can present opportunities. At the same time, activated carbon-based technologies are more likely to contain the main identified threats than O3/UV technology. The study also finds that, for both technologies, further research and development could improve their potential applications in the treatment of hospital wastewater.

This paper presents and discusses the results of a study carried out in Ecuador, where the zootechnical sector represents one of the country’s most important economic activities. It is, however, the source of many environmental problems, including the release of untreated liquid effluents and odorous emissions, and the production and disposal of solid wastes. The main aim of this study was to propose a treatment train for the zootechnical farm wastewater, combining natural systems (i.e., lagoons and subsurface flow beds) with conventional technologies and a cost-benefit analysis. With reference to a specific case study, the different steps of the treatment train were designed and the corresponding construction, operational and maintenance costs evaluated. To better assess the technical and economic feasibility of such a proposal, a cost-benefit analysis was carried out. The social benefit was evaluated by means of the contingent valuation method and a focus on the methodology and collected results was reported. The main findings discussed, in terms of selected treatments, their costs, and the financial and economic analysis of the project, could be useful for administrators, decision-makers and all technicians involved in planning and management of zootechnical farm wastewaters in developing countries, in particular in Latin America.