Dividing the Water, Sharing the Benefits : Lessons from Rural-to-Urban Water Reallocation
Rural regions are often seen as key sources of urban water supply, creating pressure for reallocation and potential hotspots of competition for water between cities and agriculture. How effective and equitable is reallocation from rural to urban re...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/383181561530825618/Dividing-the-Water-Sharing-the-Benefits-Lessons-from-Rural-to-Urban-Water-Reallocation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32050 |
| Summary: | Rural regions are often seen as key
sources of urban water supply, creating pressure for
reallocation and potential hotspots of competition for water
between cities and agriculture. How effective and equitable
is reallocation from rural to urban regions, and what have
we learned from the global experience? This synthesis report
examines the drivers, processes, politics, and outcomes of
reallocation based on a review of the literature and
insights from four in-depth case studies where governments
have reallocated relatively large volumes of water from
rural to urban regions: Melbourne, Australia; Mokopane,
South Africa; Monterrey, Mexico; and São Paulo, Brazil. The
findings suggest that water reallocation can play an
important role in regional development. However,
reallocation projects have also been controversial because
of distributional conflicts regarding who wins and loses.
The concept of benefit sharing, long applied to
transboundary river basin management, offers a framework for
designing effective and equitable reallocation processes,
shifting the focus from dividing the water to sharing the
benefits among rural and urban regions. The report
identifies seven key lessons for realizing the potential of
reallocation and limiting the risks. |
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