Water security - a useful concept? What is needed to achieve it? by Mike Muller, GWP Technical...
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Mike Muller mike Mike Muller Colombo February 2011
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Transcript of Water security - a useful concept? What is needed to achieve it? by Mike Muller, GWP Technical...
Mike Muller mike
Mike Muller Colombo February 2011
Have we escaped the water box?
Heard a great deal about economics and hydrology
But much less about social issues,
Almost incidentally, political challenges of irrigation are largely about livelihoods and poverty, so virtual water trade can produce the food but cannot feed the poor and landless
And not much critical analysis of institutions
Except that they are not generally not effective
Not achieving what we need to achieve, but is that
Because of old goals?
Whose problem? “theirs” problem or “ours”?
Institutional design, the elephant in the room?
What does “water security” tell us? Language is important ...
“The wars of the next century will be for water”,
“unless we change the way we manage water”.
Ismael Serageldin, 1996
Former VP Sustainable Development, World Bank
Founder of the World Water Council
Head of the Alexandria Library
Language is important What is meant by water security? Household?
Reliable services
Health
Community? Resilience to disasters
Vulnerability of economy
National? survival of the state and nation
Environmental? Ecological survival, from local to planet
So what are our water resource management goals?
How water resource development & management supports economies
Flow
Time Reliable Flow
Reliable Flow
Maximum flood flow
Maximum flood flow
Management and
Infrastructure interventions
7
Gariep Dam
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
12/17/2
010
12/19/2
010
12/21/2
010
12/23/2
010
12/25/2
010
12/27/2
010
12/29/2
010
12/31/2
010
1/2/2011
1/4/2011
1/6/2011
1/8/2011
1/10/2
011
1/12/2
011
1/14/2
011
1/16/2
011
1/18/2
011
1/20/2
011
1/22/2
011
1/24/2
011
Date
Dis
char
ge
85
90
95
100
105
110
115
120
125
Cap
acity
(%)
Gariep Inflow Gariep Outflow Gariep (%)
From theory to practice … Ethiopia: Rainfall and GDP
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
80
19
82
19
83
19
84
19
85
19
86
19
87
19
88
19
89
19
90
19
91
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
year
pe
rce
nta
ge
-30
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
25
rainfall variation around the mean
GDP growth
Ag GDP growth
Ethiopia: Rainfall, GDP and Agric. GDP
World Bank
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
80
19
82
19
83
19
84
19
85
19
86
19
87
19
88
19
89
19
90
19
91
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
year
pe
rce
nta
ge
-30
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
25
rainfall variation around the mean
GDP growth
Ag GDP growth
Ethiopia: Rainfall, GDP and Agric. GDP
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
80
19
82
19
83
19
84
19
85
19
86
19
87
19
88
19
89
19
90
19
91
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
year
pe
rce
nta
ge
-30
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
25
rainfall variation around the mean
GDP growth
Ag GDP growth
Ethiopia: Rainfall, GDP and Agric. GDP
World Bank
Reliable
supplies =
More investment and
greater productivity
Framing the issue : a definition “Water security”: “…the availability of an acceptable quantity and quality
of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems and production, coupled with an acceptable level of water-related risks to people, environments and economies.”
Not the same as ‘food security’ and ‘energy security’, reliable access to sufficient supplies.
“water security” also captures destructive aspects of water floods and droughts as well as quality
And broader environmental and biodiversity goals ...
Which would you rather be run over
by?
Depends where you live
Water is context specific
Water management is a complex business
Offtake for sugar mill and village
(return channel, warm treated
water, just downstream)
Onward flow to poor
people & neighbors
Water for nature conservation –
National park
Weir, interferes with
environmental function
Water for agriculture
– commercial cane
Flood line –
development
constraint
Framing the issue To achieve water security, need
Investments in infrastructure to store and transport water, treat and reuse waste water
robust institutions, able to take and implement decisions
information and the capacity to predict, plan and cope
Does “water security” help to clarify our goals?
better include social issues, poverty
And does it support structured thinking about the institutions best able to help us to achieve them
CONCLUSIONS
Water security may be useful paradigm
Tests:
does it help us to address the broader
developmental challenges of poverty and
social inclusion?
does it guide us as to the structure of the
institutions that we may choose to use?
