Water Management in Israel: The Conspicuous Absence of Water Markets
- Resumen
- Almost all of the State of Israel can be characterized as ¿drylands¿ ¿ with precipitation levels of only 500 mm/year or less. These lands were largely ¿barren¿ and the country¿s soils highly eroded some 60 years ago. Like much of the near-east, the negative impact of human settlement on land productivity in a Mediterranean climate was considered to be inevitable. Today, however, some 35% of the country¿s lands are either cultivated or afforested. (An additional 25% are set aside as nature reserves.) This complete reversal of historic fertility trends was possible due to policies that aggressively developed water resources, with enormous investment in water infrastructure and subsidies for agricultural water users. Rather than using water pricing or markets to control the demand for water, decision makers focused on expanding water supply. Later, demand management was limited to diffusion of irrigation technologies and reduction of municipal water wastes. The expansion of water supply was achieved initially through the transfer of water through a national water carrier and later through the intensive utilization of waste water. Drip irrigation and the establishment of 200 irrigation reservoirs have made present rate of 72% of effluent utilization possible. Given the focus on supply, water quality and compliance with environmental standards was largely ignored by government agencies for most of Israel¿s history. This has begun to change with increased resources devoted to enforcement and a strengthening of standards. The focus on supply, however continues to this day with national water strategies relying on desalination to expand fresh water supplies by some 25% during the coming decade. <br/> Economic analysis will surely find certain inefficiencies in Israel¿s past and present water policies. Yet, in retrospect, Israel¿s approach can be considered to be a rational strategy which allowed the country to use water to promote other national objectives (e.g., immigrant absorption, settlement of the periphery, combating desertification, food security, etc.) over pure economic efficiency. Israel¿s successful development of desalination facilities has led to recent changes in certain accepted norms of its traditional water development strategy ¿ for example, increased privatization of water production and supply as well as subsidy reduction and differential rate pricing for consumers. Yet, it is unlikely that the traditional policy orientation will change dramatically. As present inefficiencies in Israel¿s traditional policy are relatively modest and as water promises to be a critical factor in future peace negotiations, non-market management strategies will probably continue for the foreseeable future. Indeed it is unlikely that markets will be welcome as a mechanism for resolving conflicts between Palestinians and Israelis over water due to the desire of Palestinians to enjoy full sovereignty over water resources and Israel¿s aforementioned commitment to additional national objectives, beyond efficiency, in its utilization of water resources.
- Autor
- Tal, Alan
- Palabras Clave
- Israel, Agua, Comercio y consumo, Planificación hidrológica, Abastecimiento de agua
- Idioma
- Inglés
- Documentos
- Ponencia ( 7 pag, 466 Kb )
- Presentación
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- Existe un Video disponible en el Centro de Documentación