‘Too Little, Too Much, Too Dirty’: The Evolution of Water Risk Governance Networks in the Intermediate City Of Guwahati, India

Fanaian, Safa; Khosla, Radhika; Kaaronen, Roope Oskari; Garrick, Dustin

doi:10.2139/ssrn.4227735

Cited by 1 publication

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“…The world faces a water crisis. Whether it be too little, too much or too dirty water (e.g., Dixon, 1990;Fanaian, 2022), freshwater consumption limits are rapidly approaching (Gerten et al, 2013) or may already have been exceeded (Rosa et al, 2019;Grafton et al, 2023). The consequence is that up to four billion people currently face severe water scarcity at least 1 month each year (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2016).…”

Section: The World's Water Crisismentioning

confidence: 99%

The Price and Value of Water: An Economic Review

Grafton¹,

Manero²,

Chu³

et al. 2023

Camb. prisms Water

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This review examines key economic concepts in relation to the price and value of water for the supply and demand of household water. It responds to a series of questions about water and how it is used. These include (1) Why water is (or is not) priced and valued (or not)?; (2) What are the key economic concepts for pricing water?; (3) How is water priced and how are water supply assets valued for full cost recovery?; (4) Who bears the costs and enjoys the benefits of water use?; and (5) When is the price of water expected to change? Examples are provided to demonstrate the universality of the economic concepts while highlighting how their application must be bespoke and account for different socio-economic contexts and bio-physical conditions where water is supplied and demanded. Impact statementWe demonstrate how key economic concepts have the potential, if effectively applied, to be transformational in relation to the who, what, where and when of how water is used globally. This opportunity arises because much of the world suffers from either too much (flooding), too little (hydrological droughts) or too dirty water that shortens and diminishes the quality of life of billions of people and degrades environments. Business as usual for water must change, given the projected increase in the world's population of about 2.5 billion over the coming decades, cascading risks from climate change with its myriad of interactions with water, rising global water use, declining aquifers in large food-producing regions, degrading riparian environment due to overextraction, and water pollution. Appropriately pricing and, separately, valuing water for economic efficiency and for more equitable and just outcomes, along with responses to longstanding water governance failures, offer potentially very large global benefits and would support the delivery of SDG 6, 'water for all'. '…(s)upplies and demands for water are not absolutely determined by natural forces and engineering requirements but rather are to be measured in terms of the economic balance of all needs and resources of the community…Where water is scarce and expensive (in terms of other resources that must be sacrificed to make more water available), it becomes justifiable to construct elaborate facilitiesto minimize intake, to recirculate quantities withdrawn, and to avoid uses that are consumptive'.

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