River basin studies have been undertaken in collaboration with national partners in the Brantas River Basin in Indonesia, the Dong Nai River Basin in Vietnam, and the Maipo River Basin in Chile. In these studies, an integrated economic, institutional, and hydrologic framework is used to examine the interactions between water management, farmer production decisions, food production, urban and industrial water demand, and resource degradation. The economic benefits and environmental impacts of water use in the river basin are evaluated for different water management regimes, including markets in tradable water rights. Production and benefit functions are used to evaluate water use in both the agricultural and urban-industrial sectors. The results of these analyses and discussions with various stakeholders are used to assess the impact of alternative water allocation strategies on agricultural and economic growth and rural livelihoods.
At both the river basin and local level, some water allocation decisions require tradeoffs with winners and losers, but in many instances, other ways of handling water allocation can lead to "win-win" solutions. Identifying these will require careful scientific assessment of consequences of existing transfers based on both modeling and institutional analysis.
In East Java, water resources are the main limiting factor for sustainable economic development, and within East Java, the Brantas River Basin is a uniquely important site for analysis of integrated water resources management at the river basin level. The Brantas river plays a vital role in the region and for the country as a whole. The main river has a length of 320 kilometers, and the catchment area extends over 12,000 square kilometers (25 percent of East Java). Almost 14 million people (43 percent of the population in East Java) live in the basin area. The total area of irrigated paddy fields comprises 345,000 hectares. The Brantas River Basin also features several hydropower stations, providing 233 Megawatts, and dams for flood control.
The basin faces several challenges in current and future water management: the basin population increased from 10.0 million to 13.7 million between 1970 and 1990; at the same time, water consumption per capita per year doubled from 400 to 800 cubic meters per second. Further consumption increase is anticipated due to current and projected increases in living standards of the basin population. Reducing groundwater over-extraction in major urban areas will also increase surface water demand.
As the competition among alternative uses increases, water savings from irrigated agriculture, especially during the dry season, will increasingly have to be transferred to urban and industrial uses. However, irrigation requirements already cannot be fully met during the dry season, at the same time as the resource is wasted in domestic uses. In addition, industrial effluents lead to increasing water pollution in the Brantas River, and lack of wastewater treatment and agricultural chemicals exceed the river's assimilation capacity and threaten water quality. Water pollution becomes a major threat to human health during the dry season, when river flows are greatly reduced. Many of the aquifers are also polluted, primarily by human waste, but the share of industrial waste is increasing.
The research project will contribute to the overall goal of ensuring sustainable management of agriculture and natural resources, fostering an integrated approach to water resources management and service delivery, increasing agricultural productivity, and catalyzing a self-sustaining rural development process, that will contribute to poverty alleviation through the support of decision-makers in the region in the analysis of policies influencing irrigation and water resources management in selected Asian countries.
The project consists of three components:
- River Basin Component - assessing water allocation mechanisms and institutional structures for river basin management and effects on irrigation management,
- National Level Component - assessing the effects of taxation, pricing policy and irrigation investment on the incentives for irrigated farming, and
- Integrated Impact Analysis - developing and applying tools to assess the effects of water allocation mechanisms and macroeconomic policies on the basin economy.
The Dong Nai River Basin is the third largest basin in Vietnam with a catchment area of about 40,000 km2 and annual runoff of 32 BCM. The primal importance of the Dong Nai basin derives from the fact that it contains the largest city and commercial center in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, as well as the most rapidly expanding of the three economic growth poles in the country.
In 1998, the Dong Nai basin accounted for 15% of Vietnam's gross agricultural output, 51% of total industrial output, and contributed 39% to the country's service sector. Challenges facing water management in the basin include intensive agricultural production and resource use and rapid industrial development and urban growth, which place growing pressure on urban-industrial water demands and hydropower production. Intersectoral competition is increasing rapidly with the population of HCMC and surrounding areas expected to reach 8 million by 2015. Water transfers out of the Dong Nai basin to increase irrigation and economic development in the dry coastal areas, as well as in the lowlands of the Vam Co Dong system might further aggravate the situation.
Moreover, at present, water allocation in the Dong Nai basin is still largely managed along sectoral lines; and there is little coordination for inter-provincial water allocation. The establishment of a River Basin Organization in the Dong Nai basin could be a first important step to overcome some of the obstacles to sustainable and comprehensive development of the basin water economy.
The project consists of three components:
- River Basin Component - assessing water allocation mechanisms and institutional structures for river basin management and effects on irrigation management,
- National Level Component - assessing the effects of taxation, pricing policy and irrigation investment on the incentives for irrigated farming, and
- Integrated Impact Analysis - developing and applying tools to assess the effects of water allocation mechanisms and macroeconomic policies on the basin economy.
Students monitoring water quality at Escuela Valle de Lluta, Chile
Water resources that meet sufficient quality standards are necessary to sustain human, animal and plant life and are an essential component of economic activity. While resources are adequate at the aggregate level; spatial, temporal or seasonal and quality constraints create challenges in meeting increasing demand for water in different sectors. The rapid increase in demand for water for non-irrigational purposes driven by growing income and economic growth is affecting rural water supplies. In addition to reduced water supply, deteriorating water quality is also becoming a major issue affecting rural livelihoods (Emerging Water Quality Problems in Developing Countries).
At the macro level, IFPRI is incorporating water quality impacts into integrated economic-hydro models and is developing extensions to look at water quality impacts of industrial and agricultural activities. At the local level, tailored approaches, including demand management, education, and economic incentives are needed. IFPRI is using this approach in a project on Enhancing Rural Water Security through Improved Water Quality Management, Maipo River Basin, Chile.
Over the past decades, Chile has experienced rapid agricultural and economic growth. However, water and sewage treatment have not kept up with rapid development and together with growing agricultural water pollution levels are adversely affecting rural communities and the environment.
The Maipo River Basin, located in a key agricultural region in the metropolitan area of central Chile, is a prime example of a "mature water economy" with growing water shortages and increasing competition for scarce water resources across sectors. The basin is characterized by a very dynamic agricultural sector - serving an irrigated area of about 127,000 ha (out of a total catchment area of 15,380 km2) - and a rapidly growing industrial and urban sector - in particular in and surrounding the capital city of Santiago with a population of more than 5 million people. More than 90% of the irrigated area in the area depends on water withdrawals from surface flows. Annual flows in the Maipo River average 4,445 million m3. River fluctuations are predominantly glacial in nature, with considerable flows in summer (Nov.-Feb.) and very pronounced reductions in winter (April-June).
In the mid-1990s, total water withdrawals at the off-take level in the Maipo River Basin were estimated at 2,144 million m3. Agriculture accounted for 64% of total withdrawals, domestic uses for 25%, and industry for the remaining 11%. The basin includes 8 large irrigation districts with areas of 1,300-45,000 ha. Irrigated area in the basin has been gradually declining due to increasing demands by the domestic and industrial sectors for both water and land resources, among other factors. By the mid-70s, urban Santiago had already encroached on more than 30,000 ha of productive irrigated land. However, the closeness to the capital city also provides a profitable outlet for high-value crop production both for the local market and for the dynamic export sector.
Undertaken to develop a prototype integrated economic-hydrologic river basin model and apply it to a well-known water-scarce area, where water rights trading was a common feature of water resource allocation, the Maipo case study has the following objectives:
- Awareness building of water quality situation in rural communities through establishment of affordable school water quality monitoring programs in selected schools in the Maipo River Basin.
- Analysis of the costs and benefits of water quality outcomes from alternative water allocation and uses by sector based on the incorporation of water quality functions into an integrated river basin model for the Maipo river basin.
- Citizen’s report for water quality management for the basin.
- Guidelines for enhanced water quality management and affordable school monitoring programs that can be used in other river basins in developing countries.
The project was undertaken in collaboration with the University of Chile, CONAMA Earth Force and financed by Alcoa Foundation.