The water paradox: scarce and valuable but inefficient use and poo political decisions - who should we blame? Carruthers J. in

Carruthers J.

in

Dupuy B. (ed.).

Aspects économiques de la gestion de l' eau dans le bassin méditerranéen Bari : CIHEAM

Options Méditerranéennes : Série A. Séminaires Méditerranéens; n. 31 1997

pages 479-483

Article available on lin e / Article dispon ible en lign e à l’adresse :

--- http://om.ciheam.org/article.php?ID PD F=CI971560

--- To cite th is article / Pou r citer cet article

--- Carruthers J. Th e water paradox: scarce an d valu able bu t in efficien t u se an d poo political decision s - wh o sh ou ld we blame?. In : D upuy B. (ed.). Aspects économiques de la gestion de l'eau dans le bassin méditerranéen . Bari : CIHEAM, 1997. p. 479-483 (Options Méditerranéennes : Série A.

Séminaires Méditerranéens; n. 31)

---

http://www.ciheam.org/

http://om.ciheam.org/

lan Carruthers

Wye College

-

University London Ashford,

SUMMARY

-

Water is now scarce and valuable but those who command the bulk of its use still waste too much of it and those politicians who could reallocate it to higher value uses are poorly briefed by their technical advisers. It is argued that economics has an important but strictly limited role to play in setting options for choice. All civil society, and perhaps especially the professional societies and universities, have a crucial role to play in creating and assessing alternatives and in guiding political choice.

Keywords: Water allocation, government role, technical advice.

RESUME

-

En tant que ressource, l'eau devient rare et acquiert de la valeur. Pourtant, ceux qui contrôlent la majeure partie de son utilisation gaspillent encore de trop. Les responsables

polifiques qui pourraient réallouer ceite ressource à des utilisations plus intéressantes ne bénéficient pas assez de l'apport solide d'experts techniques. Cet article expose comment les outils économiques peuvent jouer un rôle important mais strictement limité dans la mise en

place d'options de choix. Toute société civile, et peut-être surtout les sociétés professionnelles et les universités, ont un rôle crucial àjouer pour créer et évaluer les alternatives et pour guider les choix politiques.

Mots-clés: Allocation de l'eau, rôle du gouvernement, conseil technique.

is no fiesh left in the of these quite local,

that is not valued used by someone. national and some in

An now have a

A wise and assessment and

between the

demands impossible to often is a gov-

a policy and the ability to con-

480 Carruthers

vince the might be lo-

cated, to abide by that the

case that it is the of such as those

to technical options

to the politicians, to in as non- technical way as is possible, the

of choosing option 'a' than the lb', and to expose the by which they

judgements.'

These have to be is possible

in long

gone when development was the sole ince of the with the financial

analyst the in the back-

making and often unhelpful com- ments to the effect that the of is too low.

Today with and with

petition them many specialists need to be invited to the including

social development analysts, public health

will such opment.

each specialist, in making

judgements, should take account of the outcome of the analysis of all the specialists but is

and calling

activity and with tentative

all and with the

fmal plans allocating to

ing politicians with options.

to play in the

ing, the and institutional

concepts and analytical that can help delineate the options.

concepts such as but

too much should not be claimed its A

but it is so in the

light of the

ancient the situation is as it

is and yet the is and

and lobbies want to be able to on a tap at any time of the day night and have as much as they need, often at a low

even cost.

the capacity to be able to

to so that is avail-

able 24 and to meet any peak.

those dwelling in the flood plains want the dams left empty to floods. Envious eyes

cast because the vast bulk of

the is that

and it is often obvious that it is inefficiently man-

attempting to the efficiency of

which is essential if to justify holding

onto it is that

faces technical the

small amounts of salt always in

not the

but slowly building up in the soil to toxic levels.

is up and into

The diminished flows often

ingly being polluted because they unable to

cope with an and

some of the land is being lost as

Technical solutions to these well known but it would that the

lems not yet to be that

the political will is not that the management capacity to them is defective.

to solve lead to a solution of the of a

but it will

lems. than half of the population of the coun-

the of the

nean twenty of age. Even if is massive economic a move to the

gion the

it is that employment is inevitably still going to be social and political

lie in

the but

ingly they must turn attention to the of sustainable jobs. Only in is the

of jobs to

enough to the scale em-

Each job in a new mod- million dol- the

high technology scheme could be built

the job

and even

the families of not

live in the

if is to fulfil its poten- tial in this

of schemes has to match the

the availability of

skills. is often the

sion with its use.

to its is

people settled, the of economic activity

and how Until the 1950's popu-

lation if at all, and

little

Today all this

it seeks to expand the to take advantage of advances

in to dis-

tant but the

is mands sonal

New uses such as

in and

ies. As volumes of available

decline and as the pollution so new

is the fo-

and

to

is the the

with the demon- in allocating and effectively.

To date the best that can be said the in to allocation is what Scottish law

is not

full to

but is much faith that it will

out the and often is

still in a way to an

extent that inputs

not. We do know, example, that the

ket in in the absence

of scale public schemes, the

up to 100 times the We

know that is no

lation of then

is com- the pumping costs to

and which in time can the

We can also be that attempts to

into the be

with it is

difficult to in the field accu-

and The equivalent

the yet to be

low

available but they expensive to install and maintain. What is needed is that is cheap

that will stand up to silty to conditions in the field, that will

but will the

high that

tempts to supply have been aban-

doned.

it is to escape the conclusion that the

main enthusiasm in the

the

than in faith in the

482 Carruthers

nism. of

sonably claim that they have failed to plan and (in

planning, planning, evalua-

tion phases, and in the of budget alloca-

tions, and because

of weak political

actions. politicians would claim that they

have been officials.

political claims have some

that in we

have moved fiom

development as an to an

acceptance that it has elements of eco- nomics, finance, and that even have a le- gitimate What we do not seem to have

in

tions is an acceptance that the political dimension is dominant and that we have a

sibility to visions choices

to the political We need to to

spect the of political

in them. once

politicians have made a choice - example to in- fees a condition of an national loan, they have a duty to

mentation of that decision despite the evident will

setting out pathways the management of

valid but views of the of institutions.

such as that

see in many cannot be seen as a even by the political who

Even the guru of the

Smith, 200 that defence, ad-

of justice and public a weak fail in these tasks.

Today many economists would add to

basic coping with collective goods (eg flood police and

would fail to to the socially optimum level;

is a

between and social costs and benefits (eg costs and benefits as when

a pollution into a

fumes into the

schemes benefit fiom of

dams); coping with which

too

and finally to

act on behalf of the

safety nets against

abject if in-

come and wealth.

We that

by officials but they also need con- to ability to choose.

have a special to play with in- depth and analysis, and evaluating in an independent fashion the

tions and the Civil

society - all in the

a fiee so-

have a in

help to of

seems most likely

that will have most influence

views will a the

badly she told the nation in a now

famous is no

always and good de- cision will closely examine them. Whilst

and economics all lead us to the

conclusion that and its man-

agement is in the final. analysis a political well

the technical in

visions the political decision

Technical specialists, such as the bulk of the dele- gates to this symposium, should, en- gage in with politicians in detailing

the and to al-

actions allocating and managing what

is an valuable

if the politicians will not come to us of

explicitly with the own volition then

to join modem

the

'.

example, it is that the volume of in the Nile is not sufficient to meet the

of demand, quite fi-om issues involved in the complex of evaluating

and managing the of the Nile, including the examined in

J A Allan (1995) The Nile:

,

2 . The situation Afìica of the

the

of policy options' John (1992) Democracy, Governance

and London