Great Economist Special Issue on Water

The Economist recently had a really good special issue on Water. The special report outlines the man of the the major issues facing water resources management today.

The report starts off with a thorough plea that water needs to be managed in order to properly address ongoing and worsening water shortages around the world. This is followed by good coverage of the problems of sanitation and the significant gains in human well being and economic growth that could come from better access to toilets and basic sanitation. There is then a deft side step to the public versus private utility debate wherein the author argues that the need is for responsive utilities sometimes these are public sometimes they are private. There is then a somewhat muddled coverage of the need for better farm water management that touches on groundwater management as well. There is a decent profile on Singapore with an allusion to how better water resources management has led to a clean water industry in Singapore.

The report then moves to a discussion of the efforts to improve water "efficiency" in China but notes that drives towards efficiency often have the counter intuitive result that efficiency often times does not actually "save" water. Following the concundrum of efficiency the authors focus on the fact that often times small dams are more useful and profitable than big dams but that politicians like big projects because no-ones names a rainwater cistern after anyone. This problem rings true to anyone who has read Sol Resnick's Irrigating India.... Next is a rather deft essay on the importance of a proper price on water to make its use efficient and also allow realistic production of tradeable commodities where water is most available.

No coverage of water would be complete in the modern media without coverage of water wars and this report is no exception it covers ongoing international disputes well. It goes further and posits that water disputes are generally resolvable when conflicting parties find ways to maximize benefits among the participants. The report finishes with a plea for reasonable pricing of water, better management and a continued drive for efficient use of water.