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p. 14 of 19 BACK | NEXT Emerging Global Water Issues Water Quality, Pollution, and the Environment A Double-Edged Sword: Flood and Droughts Geographical Variability in Water Resources Shared Waters Heightened Awareness of Water Issues Elements of a Water Strategy Imperatives for Wise Water Management From Development to Water Resource Management From Public Good to Priced Commodity Future Water Resource Projects ADB's Evolving Role in the Changing Context

Water in the 21st Century : Imperatives for Wise Water Management

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From Public Good to Priced Commodity

Improving the efficiency of water use is indispensable. In the United States, contrary to all expectations, total water use has declined by 10 percent since 1980, even with population growth and a continued increase in economic wealth. Industrial use has declined by 40 percent from a peak in 1970, while industrial output and productivity have both increased. Similarly, in Japan, where industrial output has soared since the 1970s, total industrial water use has fallen by 25 percent. These reductions have been achieved through technological improvements (using less water to produce the same goods) and a change in the composition of industries making up the sector. The potential to reduce industrial use through further innovation, improved technology, and cost incentives is 20-30 percent. Comparable saving is possible in developing countries.

Residential water use, although only a small part (about 10 percent) of total water use, can be reduced without sacrificing living standards. Readily available means include improving the efficiency of household appliances, better pricing structures, use of recycled water for certain applications, and especially reducing unaccounted-for water due to leaks and nonmetered connections in aging distribution networks. In many cities, such as Dhaka, Jakarta, and Manila, nonrevenue water exceeds 50 percent of water use.

The single largest variable in future water use for human needs is irrigation. According to the UN's Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, irrigation in Asia and the Pacific accounts for 80 percent of total withdrawals, compared with 70 percent globally. By far the largest share of investments in agriculture during the green revolution era went into irrigation schemes. These were often-and remain-heavily subsidized. The adopted technology was generally at the lowest end of the scale: as much as 60 percent of the water is lost through leakage and evaporation before it even reaches the crop and an additional 20 percent may be lost on the field.⁶ There are few incentives for the service providers or the farmers to improve the efficiency of water delivery and use in such schemes where water is free or priced well below its cost.

Agriculture's contribution to national income is declining in all DMCs. The agriculture sector is, therefore, coming under increasing pressure to release water to meet other, more productive needs. For producing high-value crops in water-scarce areas, new irrigation techniques have been shown to be highly efficient and cost-effective. Even simple improvements in surface canal systems, which are used almost exclusively in developing countries, can lead to impressive gains in efficiency. Efforts to increase efficiency in water use could, however, have serious impacts on poor farmers, who may not be able to finance technological improvements. Hence, special assistance may be required to help poor farmers move up the technological ladder. Potentially greater saving can be achieved in delivering water, and the incentives for such improvements should be structured in such a way that the major beneficiaries (those who will avail of the "saved" water) contribute their share of the costs.

Groundwater irrigation presents a special case of too much of a good thing. Rapid expansion of groundwater irrigation during the last two decades, initiated using public funding but now largely driven by private investment, provided remarkable increases in yield, productivity, and area of irrigated crops in parts of rural Bangladesh, PRC, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan. However, unregulated extraction over vast areas has caused extensive and rapid lowering of the water table and, in coastal areas, contributed to saltwater intrusion. In other parts, overwatering (combined with inadequate drainage) is bringing the water table dangerously close to the ground surface, rendering the surface saline and unusable. The productivity of some areas is now so threatened that large investments will be needed to avert complete collapse of the resource base, as described in the box below.

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