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Water Scarcity Via the Adaptive Capacity of Its Political Economy

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Water Scarcity Via the Adaptive Capacity of Its Political Economy THE ABILITY OF THE MALDIVES TO COPE WITH FRESHWATER SCARCITY VIA THE ADAPTIVE CAPACITY OF ITS POLITICAL ECONOMY by Jayne Millar Occasional Paper No 44 Water Issues Study Group School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London September 2002 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Maldives population numbers and predictions. 24 Table 2. Improvements in rates of infant mortality and life expectancy at birth in the Maldives. 25 Table 3. Fisheries sector – key indicators. 34 Table 4. Changes in the structure of the Maldives economy 1987-1999 (%). 35 Table 5. Tourist arrivals, average length of stay and number of tourist resorts in the Maldives 1992-1999. 38 Table 6. Sources of Water Use on Tourist Islands. 42 1 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Representation of Turton and Ohlsson’s basic hypothesis showing how water scarcity generates an adaptive response. 12 Figure 2. Model showing the transition from supply-sided phase to demand management phase in a political economy. 13 Figure 3. The five paradigms of water management. 15 Figure 4. Small island freshwater lenses. 23 Figure 5. Sources of drinking water by atoll (percentage of atoll population). 27 Figure 6. The five paradigms of water management. 30 Figure 7. Changes in the structure of the Maldives’ economy 1987-1999. 36 Figure 8. Contribution of tourism to GDP. 37 Figure 9. Tourist arrivals (000’s) 1992-1999. 39 2 LIST OF MAPS Map 1. The Maldives – country map. 22 3 ABBREVIATIONS ADB Asian Development Bank CIA Central Intelligence Agency GDP Gross Domestic Product HDPE High Density Polythene Tanks IWMI International Water Management Institute IWRM Integrated Water Resource Management LDC Less Developed Country MENA Middle East and North Africa MPHRE Ministry of Planning, Human Resources and Environment MWSA Maldives Water and Sanitation Authority NGO Non-Governmental Organisation SIDS Small Island Developing State UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development UNDP United Nations Development Program UNEP United Nations Environment Program UNESCO United Nations Economic and Social Council UNESCAP United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific UV Ultra Violet VSO Volunteer Service Overseas WIER Water Is an Economic Resource WTO World Tourism Organisation 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am hugely grateful to my tutor, Professor Tony Allan, who sparked off my interest in water and water policy during his classes on the subject. He has been both encouraging and enthusiastic when teaching and supervising me over the past year. I am also grateful to Mr. Leon Miles, a VSO volunteer working with the Maldives Water and Sanitation Authority, for his email communications on water provision on local islands. These emails provided vital data to support my analysis, as did the information provided by the Ministry of Tourism in the Maldives and the emails from some of the island resorts. On a more personal note, I would like to thank my parents for providing unlimited emotional and financial support not just over the past year but also the previous twenty- four. Finally, I want to thank Dave Skinner for proof reading this dissertation and all the essays that preceded it throughout the year, and for supporting and putting up with me during all the stresses of the last year. 5 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Aims and Objectives of Study The aim of this dissertation is to examine the issue of environmental vulnerability, specifically freshwater scarcity, on Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The ability of SIDS to cope with freshwater scarcity via a strong political economy primarily fuelled by tourism will be discussed. Focusing on a case study of the Maldives, this study will show that being water short, a first order scarcity, is not important and that what is essential is the ability of the political economy to adapt to the scarcity. This will be shown using Turton and Ohlsson’s (1999) theory of ‘adaptive capacity’. Tourism has become the biggest economic sector on many SIDS, including the Maldives. Therefore, the successful management and control of resort development and tourist numbers is essential. In the Maldives, the government has enforced strict controls to ensure that tourism will remain a key contributor to the islands’ GDP. This in turn is helping the country avoid impacts of what resource analysts have termed ‘water scarcity and water poverty’ (Turton and Ohlsson 1999) 1.2 Outline Chapter 2, a literature review, will classify the literature used in this study and outline the theoretical framework that will be used in chapter 4. Chapter 3, methodologies, aims to provide a review of how the study was carried out and to outline the main difficulties and drawbacks. A description of both tourism and freshwater management in the Maldives will be provided in chapter 4. Tourist islands and local inhabited islands will be separately assessed. The types of freshwater available on both, and the alternatives to groundwater abstraction, will be quantified and evaluated. The allocation and management of the freshwater has been inspired by different policies and one of the purposes of the study will be to show when shifts in policy approach took place and to what extent these shifts fit with relevant social and political theory. A second purpose is 6 to show the willingness of the Government of the Maldives to move from a supply to a demand approach within water management. This study will also demonstrate how the government has adopted the belief that water is an economic resource and acknowledged its environmental value, in line with Allan’s (2001) model of the five water paradigms. Turton and Ohlsson’s (1999) theory of social adaptive capacity will be applied to the Maldives by examining the importance of tourism to the Maldives’ economy and also how economic benefits are contributing to the sustainable development of the whole country. Chapter 5 will conclude the study by outlining the main results. The remainder of this chapter will contextualise the study by examining the uniqueness of SIDS; why they must be considered as a ‘special case’ when discussing sustainable development, particularly in relation to water and tourism management. 1.3 The Uniqueness of SIDS As a group, SIDS are more vulnerable than any other group of developing countries to both environmental and economic shocks (Barbados Conference 1994). Chapter 17 of Agenda 21 (Rio 1992) refers to SIDS as a ‘special case’. Both in terms of the environment and development, they tend to be ecologically fragile and vulnerable, and they have very specific problems that need to be assessed when planning sustainable development. Their small size, limited resources, high population growth, low economic diversification, geographical dispersion and isolation all put them at a disadvantage (Gortazar and Marin 1999). Kaly et al. (2002) state that because of the small size of SIDS, their human and natural environments have limited capacity to absorb shocks. Further, the effects of hazards present in other areas of the world will be more pronounced and cause greater damage – for example natural disasters and global changes in trade and markets. Tourism was identified at the 1994 UN Barbados Conference on Islands and Small Island States as a strategic sector and the main driving development force for many island regions. Tourism is one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world, and is 7 starting to become one of the leading economic sectors on many islands. Tourism’s economic achievements are usually set against a background of narrowly focused economies, limitations imposed on industry by relative isolation, high transport costs and the small-scale nature of most activities. Thus, there tends to be a dependence on imports. Agriculture has often been restricted by climate and soil conditions which restrict variety, and by shortages of chemicals and machinery (Lockhart 1997). Lockhart believes that it is for these reasons that measures to encourage the expansion of tourism have been prominent in the economic development plans of island states. Islands have found it relatively easy to attract tourists. The last 30 years have witnessed significant developments in air travel, the advent of low-cost charter flights and the growth of incomes in sending countries (Lockhart 1997). In many cases economic dependence on tourism is so great that some SIDS are very vulnerable to external shocks, such as recessions in sending countries, which decrease the amount of disposable income available for foreign travel. Briguglio (2001) refers specifically to the high degree of economic openness in SIDS; this renders these states particularly susceptible to economic conditions in the rest of the world. Kaly et al. (2002) claim that it is this greater vulnerability that sets SIDS apart from most other countries, and this in turn results in greater impediments to sustainable development. “Tourism has contributed much to the development of Small Island Developing States, and, as one of the only few development options for those small states, will continue to be very important. However, if not properly planned and managed, tourism could significantly degrade the environment on which it is dependent.” (Barbados Conference 1994) This statement made at the UN Barbados Conference highlights the fragile balance that characterises island tourist destinations. Few would dispute that indiscriminate tourism development can have devastating impacts. Pigram (1995) refers to tourism as a ‘resource based activity’, this means that it interacts with natural systems and has the capacity to initiate far-reaching changes on the environment. Most island tourism focuses on ‘sun, sea, sand’ beach tourism; this is dependent on the maintenance of pristine 8 environments, including beaches, reefs, lagoons and biodiversity. With so many island destinations for the consumer to choose from, islands must prove year after year that they are worth returning to. Notwithstanding these obstacles and concerns, islands generally embrace tourism as one of the best and, in some cases, the only development strategy available to them (Conlin and Baum 1995).
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