Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

This chapter investigates the role of water users associations (WUAs) in managing the Fergana Valley’s irrigation system at a local level. WUAs were established in the Uzbek section of the Fergana Valley only from the early 2000s onwards and are generally not regarded as having been effective to date, although individual instances of modestly successful WUAs indicate their future potential as viable entities for collective modes of water management. This chapter begins by explaining the origins, purpose and structure of WUAs in the Fergana Valley as set out in policy guidelines and then contrasts this with a study of how they are working in practice. In the concluding section, the effectiveness of WUAs in the Uzbek section of the Fergana Valley is assessed in terms of criteria derived from the literature. This chapter reveals that Uzbekistan’s WUAs lack the funding, water user representation and resources to tackle the major structural problems confronting Fergana Valley’s post-socialist irrigation system. Their heavy dependence on powerful institutional regimes for irrigation and for agriculture also severely restricts their action. There exist important exceptions, where WUAs are exploring innovative ways of coping with the enormity of their tasks, in isolation and in collaboration, but these represent only a small minority of WUAs in the region and are, to a large extent, dependent on temporary donor funding.

Water pricing is seen as an important element in efficient water resource management. By providing information about water resource scarcity, water prices can make explicit the value of water and can set adequate incentives for water users to use water more sustainably. However, designing efficient water resource pricing schemes is dependent on many prerequisites that are hard to fulfil. In this chapter, we contrast the prerequisites of water pricing with real-world contexts in the Fergana Valley. We show that many prerequisites for water pricing are not met in this area, so that water pricing reforms are unable to perform the functions usually associated with water prices. Nevertheless, it is possible to articulate a number of steps toward a reform of the agricultural sector which may at least point the way towards a more sustainable use of water resources.

This chapter aims at providing an overview of the uses and the state of the water resources in the Lower Jordan Basin. The years 2007/2008 serve as a base line to describe the specific situation, marked by a succession of drought years during the first decade of the twenty-first century. An overview of the major treaties and agreements between the riparians and implications on the water management situation is presented. The nature of the relations between the different parties is analysed.

The sustainable supply of natural water available in the water basin feeding the Dead Sea (comprising of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority) will soon drop below 100 cubic metres (m) per person per year. This has resulted from upstream diversions that over time have deprived the Dead Sea of more than 90 % of its historical inflow and led to a progressive decline of its water level with detrimental effects on the surrounding environment and infrastructure. We examine four alternatives to stabilise or restore the Dead Sea and evaluate the costs associated with each alternative. We also offer a mechanism to pay for the reclamation alternatives based on a surcharge levied on all upstream diversions (including water consumed by the potash industries). The surcharge rates associated with the four alternatives range between zero and USD 0.10 per m.

Over two decades, many have regarded the idea of a Red Sea–Dead Sea (RSDS) Conveyance Project to save the Dead Sea as a golden opportunity for Jordan. It held promise of providing the Kingdom with desalinated water to meet its long-term needs. Now, with the project’s potential abandonment, Jordan needs to consolidate and accelerate reforms to close its deficits and improve water sector sustainability until a long-term bulk solution is found. Addressing how these challenges might be dealt with, this chapter focuses on politics. Analysis of Jordan’s water reforms over 20 years shows that the sector’s limited ability to achieve its goals is rooted in a wider problem – the Kingdom’s organisation of political power. The chapter explores how an evolving “political compact” between Throne and people, underpinned by patronage, permitted an increasingly powerful neo-patrimonial, anti-reformist elite – a resilient “shadow state” – to influence policies and control the economy including in due course water resources. The water problem cannot therefore be remedied only through improved water management. Taking account of the link between political dynamics and governance, the chapter sets criteria for implementing reforms that, if met, would gradually free policymaking and institutions from shadow-state influence, providing context for effective water solutions. A final section, addressing the need for a nationwide coordinated approach to comprehensive water reforms that could provide a path to water security, discusses how Jordan might accelerate policies underway, implement deeper reforms and pursue further options – locally and regionally – to address medium- and long-term challenges.

This chapter focuses on water policy reforms and the introduction of a new water pricing policy in Israel. These reforms have to be seen in combination with measures to extend the available water sources that have been introduced in Israel in recent years. The effects of the Israeli demand and supply management policy on the use and availability of the water resources is investigated, and the potential transferability of the Israeli experiences to other countries in the region is examined. We also discuss the contribution of the water policy reforms as part of possible options and alternatives to the planned RSDS Conveyance Project.

This chapter represents the summary of the common analysis within the Interdisciplinary Research Group . Lessons learnt, research gaps and recommendations are presented as the outcome of the analysis of the two case studies Fergana Valley and Lower Jordan Basin and as a conclusion from the cross-analysis based on the evaluation framework and the considerations outlined in Chap. (Bismuth et al., Research in two cases studies: (1) Irrigation and land use in the Fergana Valley and (2) Water management in the Lower Jordan Valley. In: Huettl RF, Bens O, Bismuth C, Hoechstetter S (eds) Society water technology: a critical appraisal of major water engineering projects. Springer, Dordrecht, 2015, in this volume).