Pricing Irrigation Water : A Literature Survey
As water scarcity and population pressures increase, more countries are adopting water pricing mechanisms, as their primary means of regulating the consumption of irrigation water. The way to allocate water efficiently is to "get the prices ri...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2000/09/693037/pricing-irrigation-water-literature-survey http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19785 |
| Summary: | As water scarcity and population
pressures increase, more countries are adopting water
pricing mechanisms, as their primary means of regulating the
consumption of irrigation water. The way to allocate water
efficiently is to "get the prices right", but how
to accomplish this is open to debate. Water pricing methods
are sensitive to the social, physical, institutional, and
political setting. To assess the costs and benefits of a
particular irrigation project, the pricing method must be
tailored to local circumstances. The author's survey of
the resource economics literature on irrigation services and
pricing, will be useful for developing comprehensive
guidelines for water policy practitioners. He synthesizes
accumulated knowledge about the implementation, and
performance of various water pricing methods used over the
past two decades: volumetric pricing (marginal cost
pricing), output and input pricing, per area pricing, tiered
pricing, two part tariffs, and water markets. As water
scarcity and population pressures increase, more countries
are adopting water pricing mechanisms as their primary means
of regulating the consumption of irrigation water. The way
to allocate water efficiently is to "get the prices
right", but how to accomplish this is open to debate.
Water pricing methods are sensitive to the social, physical,
institutional, and political setting. To assess the costs
and benefits of a particular irrigation project, the pricing
method must be tailored to local circumstances. The
author's survey of the resource economics literature on
irrigation services and pricing, will be useful for
developing comprehensive guidelines for water policy
practitioners. He synthesizes accumulated knowledge about
the implementation, and performance of various water pricing
methods used over the past two decades: volumetric pricing
(marginal cost pricing), output and input pricing, per area
pricing, tiered pricing, two part tariffs, and water markets. |
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