Proceedings of Workshop N.3 on Water Value Impacts on The

PREFACE Prof. Rafael Rodriguez-Clemente (CSIC-Spain) MELIA Coordinator Managing water resources and demand in the Mediterranean area is changing dramatically these recent years. There are many components to this change: a shift away from sole reliance on finding new sources of supply to address perceived new demand; a growing awareness on the importance of preventing and mitigating water conflicts; a growing emphasis on incorporating ecological values into water policy; a re-emphasis on meeting basic human needs for water services and associated social issues; and a conscious breaking of the ties between economic growth and water use mitigated through economic instruments and allocation of scarce water for higher value activities, usually at the expense of certain forms of agriculture. A reliance on physical solution continues to dominate traditional water planning approaches, but this approach is facing increasing opposition due to the progressive consciousness of the negative long term ecological impact of some of these solutions. At the same time, new methods are being developed to meet the demand of growing population in the Mediterranean without requiring major new construction or new large-scale water transfers. Focus is gradually shifting to explore efficiency improvements as a mean to save resources, implementing options for managing demand and reallocating water among users to reduce gaps and meet future needs. A meaningful change towards a new approach and a new way of thinking has to begin with an open discussion of the ultimate ends of water policy. It is time now to place a high value on maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem when using water resources. There are growing calls for the costs and benefits of water developments to be distributed in a more equitable manner. And more and more efforts must be made to understand and meet the diverse interests and needs of all relevant stakeholders. As an alternative to new infrastructures, efforts are now underway to rethink water planning and management, putting emphasis on the principles of integration between water policy and the three main dimension of sustainable development: environmental, cultural, social and economic. However, also the new alternative approaches fail if they are not consolidated through the exercise of participatory management, communication among interested stakeholders, water players and citizens, application of subsidiarity, building of a common knowledge, and increasing mutual awareness of interested parties. Unfortunately, besides the impact on the ecosystem due to the natural water withdrawal, the situation shows today that water production systems (urban, agricultural, and industrial) perform poorly in the Southern and many parts of the Northern and Eastern Mediterranean. In many places, lack of policies or low awareness and inadequate management has led to dramatic misuse and misallocation of water in the different uses. There is a need to deal with the local and regional management of water resources within a comprehensive framework, in which policies can be formulated, project can be prepared and integration can be envisaged applying as much as possible the “subsidiarity principle” and its application at the river basin level and even beyond. Without sufficient water supply, any intensification of urban, agricultural and industrial inputs and outputs remains a risk to be avoided, especially by low- income water users (like for example farmers or small communities). To secure water is also a precondition for the application of modern low-water consumption technologies. Management needs to be improved, both at users and system levels. In practice, these 1/107 improvements will continue to prove hard to realise, and they will require more time to debate and consensus reaching than improvements in the physical infrastructure and techniques. However, regardless the type of water resources developments pathways, the most recent literature and field experience have revealed the need for integrated efforts in water management supported by national institutions and both regional and international organisations, focusing on the following points: establishment and application of water management policies coherent with the emerging need of ensuring sustainable development; developing coherent national-regional policies that include strategies of developing limited water resources; improving the efficiency of public administration at the local and central level; appraising water actions from the point of view of culture, economics, environment (including health); overseeing the promotion and enforcement of national legislation by applying, if necessary, sanctions for damages to the aquatic environment; setting guidelines for best practices; setting new and more coherent water pricing and/or operation and maintenance cost recovery depending on each country’s socio-economic characteristics; and water governance; creating a knowledgebase to settle water competition among users and at trans- boundary scale; promote at all levels of the education system awareness on the water problems and its management, in order to raise the societal water culture. Some solutions lie outside the conventional “hydrology” concepts. Trade and negotiated change in practices enabled by multi-stakeholder dialogue is the way forward, thus further increasing the importance of political processes, the definition of water value and the knowledge and enabling conditions for such definition. 2/107 Scientific committee Dr. Sahnaz Tigrek P.18 – METU-WRC (Middle East Technical University – Water Resources Center) Mail: [email protected] Turkey Prof. Alaa El-Din Abdin P.32 – MWRI (Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation) Mail: [email protected] Egypt Prof. Nickolas van de Giesen P.46 – TU Delft (University of Technology) Mail: [email protected] Netherlands Prof.. Nicola Lamaddalena P.02 – IAMB (Instituto Agronomico Mediterraneo of Bari) Mail: [email protected] Italy Prof. Bernard Drobenko Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale - Faculté de droit de Boulogne sur Mer Mail: [email protected] France Gaëlle Nion P.07 – IOW (International Office for Water) Mail: [email protected] France 3/107 Organizing Committee Prof. Rafael Rodriguez-Clemente (CSIC, Spain) Dr. Maroun El-Moujabber (CIHEAM-IAMB, Italy) Prof. Alaa El-Din Abdin (MWRI, Egypt) Prof. Nick van Giesen (Delft-TU, Netherland) Dr. Şahnaz Tiğrek (METU, Turkey) Gaëlle Nion (IOW, France) Eng. Juan Miguel González-Aranda (CSIC, Spain) Macarena Munoz-Ruiz (CSIC, Spain) Local Organizing Committee Dr. Şahnaz Tiğrek (METU) Mrs. Reşide Adal Dündar (METU) Mrs. Gonca Karaca BİLGEN (GAP-RDA) Mr. Onur Dündar (METU) Mr. Burak Yılmaz (METU, Es Proje) Miss Tuçe Aras (METU, Ekon Inds) Miss Özge Göbelez (Ada Cons.) 4/107 Valuing Water from Social, Economical and Environmental Prospective Muhammad SHATANAWI* and Sawsan NABER** * Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jordan, Jordan, email: [email protected] ** Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jordan, Jordan, email: [email protected],jo Abstract: The increasing demand on water due to population and economic growth has put pressure on water quality and quantity and therefore is increasingly being valued as economic resource. Valuing water depends on quantity and quality as well as the behavior of people and market. The social, health and environmental values of water are important factors that should be considered in the valuation process. Providing water to people in enough quantity and good quality for drinking and sanitation purposes to meet basic need is human right. Water has been treated as an economic good according to 1992 Dublin statement: "water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognized as economic good". This is different from water pricing when pricing has to deal with recovering the costs of infrastructure, management and operation. This may lead to economic pricing of water, which will damage the interests of poor and made irrigated agriculture unfeasible. Valuing water for domestic purposes in Egypt and irrigation water in India using different valuation techniques has shown the limits of willing to pay by end-users. Water pricing policy in Jordan aims at water conservation and recovering the cost of operation and maintenance. Key words: Water valuation, water prices, pricing policy, human rights Introduction The issue of water has been ranked highly on the global political agenda as water scarcity has become a threat to human survival and sustainable development. Human activities and development process have exerted huge pressure on the already exhausted water resources. The world leaders, scientists and policy makers have realized that unsustainable management and inequitable access to water resources cannot continue. In many parts of the world like the Middle East, demand are far exceeding supplies while in other countries in Africa excess to fresh water is limited. According to WWAR, about 1.4 million people worldwide have no access to clean and drinkable water while about 2.5 million has no or poor sanitation conditions. Growth in population has created pressure on water resources by increasing water demand and pollution. During the last century, the world population has double while water consumption has increased five times. Demographic changes like migration and urbanization has demanded for more water quantities and created more need for water services. Changes in social behavior such as improvement in

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