The era of water waste
and water at throwaway prices is near its end, and procrastinating politicians will need to act. It’s time to set a price that more accurately values our most precious natural resource. The OECD and the
World Bank are moving to this point of view, and have recently published reports suggesting the setting of a better price for water.
Sadly, progress has been trumped by a debate that has been polarised and over simplistic. Yet the experience of South Africa teaches us that this does not need to be a binary decision. Its introduction of a household monthly allocation via its free basic water subsidy programme allows for essential sanitation, cooking, and drinking water, while
charging the full cost of the
infrastructure for additional and non-essential use.
Other countries can learn from this step pricing
approach that keeps the ideologically-inclined (like me), regardless of ideology, content. It recognises that not all water use should be regarded as equal. While it is a basic human right to have access to subsidised (or free) water for hygiene and hydration, why should filling a swimming pool or washing your car or watering a lawn be priced in exactly the same way? Full cost recovery for these activities will not only ensure that we are more careful and ethical in our use, but will also, crucially, help improve our leaky and outmoded infrastructure. In the poorest areas, it will also
help to extend pipes so that water reaches more homes.
But any improvements in domestic supply and use will come to nothing unless we alter our approach to agriculture radically. Farming takes up 70 per cent of global water usage. Setting aside the huge volumes of embedded water in the products we buy, it is here that the greatest difference can be made. But progress has been frustratingly slow so far. And politicians are the great flaneurs of agricultural policy.
With the global population set to increase from six billion to 11 billion by 2050, or maybe sooner, and with little sign that action to stem population growth and consumption will happen anytime soon, improving agricultural productivity is fundamental to helping
address water shortages and
increasing crop yield. Measures such as no tillage-farming, improved drainage, drip and sprinkler irrigation and
crop yield enhancement can all increase output, many of them at low cost.
A rise in water prices for non-essential use would also improve efficiency. A recent OECD report into water management in agriculture, for example, has shown that, in areas where the price of water for agriculture has increased, agricultural production has been unaffected. It highlights the example of Australia, which was able to cut irrigation and water use by half without a loss of output.
More interesting is the story of the aflaj, ancient irrigation systems in
Oman, with tradable water
rights and more than 4,000 years of efficient and sustainable water use.
Water should have an adequate price for any use as a commercial good but different principles
apply for water as a means of maintaining health and well-being and environmental benefit.
It is the responsibility of all involved in water management and agriculture to help farmers find ways to improve their water efficiency. This should take the form of training, and the promotion of water
stewardship, technical help or assistance through micro-finance. After all, industry uses twice as much water as households, and often in a less efficient way. And farming is one of a few of the most important
of professions, where anyone – literally – can
practice, without any qualifications or experience at all.
Governments, too, have to recognise water for the precious resource that it is, and price it accordingly. If
last year’s focus on South Africa and the World Cup can help highlight the benefits of flexible pricing, this will – despite the terrible performance of the England football team – have been a successful World Cup. Meantime the UN have passed a resolution which acknowledges that access to clean, safe water is a basic human right. All countries, bar two, put their full weight behind it. The UK and the US abstained. Read in to that what you will.
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