摘要:

The focus of this special section are the problems and issues regarding water development in developing countries. A significant number of the populations in developing countries do not have access to satisfactory water supplies. This problem is especially acute in the rural areas. The planning process has routinely failed to lead to successful projects. Often the projects do not pass the simplest of benefit‐cost analyses. Further, the institutional framework that is developed for the administration of the projects is often flawed. The papers in this special section address these issue

ISSN:0043-1397    

DOI:10.1029/92WR02988

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Water projects in less developed countries (LDCs) frequently are poorly operated and maintained. As a result, project benefits and development impacts fall short of plans. The problems begin in the project identification, design, and construction stages: donor and host country biases lead to inappropriate projects, unsustainable technologies, and shoddy construction. Later operation and maintenance are then difficult or impossible. Causal factors include donor desire to build monuments and sell technology, provision of excessive capital to favored sectors or institutions, and an unwillingness to require a reasonable quid pro quo from the host country. Host country factors include excessive administrative centralization, lack of rewards for good operation and maintenance, and widespread corruption in forms that seriously distort allocative efficiency. Until individual actors on both sides can be motivated to pursue the long‐run good of the LDC, Third World water projects will continue to have low or negative net payoff

ISSN:0043-1397    

DOI:10.1029/92WR02989

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

In many parts of the developing world investment in water resources takes a large proportion of the available public investment funds. As the conflicts for funds between the water and other sectors become more severe, the traditional ways of analyzing and planning water investments has to move away from project‐by‐project (or even a river basin‐by‐river basin) approaches to include the relationships of water investments to other sectors and to overall national development policies. Current approaches to water resources investments are too narrow. There is a need for ways to expand the strategic thinking of water sector managers. This paper develops a water resources planning methodology with the primary objective of giving insights into the linking of water sector investments and macroeconomic policies. The model optimizes the present value of investments for water resources development, while embedding a macroeconomic model into the framework to allow for an examination of the interactions between water investments, the growth in the agricultural sector, and the performance of the overall economy. A case study of Bangladesh is presented which shows how strategic thinking could lead to widely differing implications for water investments than would conventional water resources systems planning

ISSN:0043-1397    

DOI:10.1029/92WR02990

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Crafting institutions related to the supply and use of irrigation systems require skills in understanding how rules, combined with particular physical, economic, and cultural environments, produce incentives and outcomes. If the users and suppliers of irrigation systems design their own institutional arrangements to cope with the physical, economic, social, and cultural features of each system, the variety of institutional arrangements could be immense. Examining specific rules of particular systems, however, is like focusing on specific blueprints of successful irrigation projects around the world. Recent theoretical and empirical work on institutional design has attempted to elucidate the core design principles used in long‐enduring, self‐organized irrigation institutions throughout the world. By “design principle” is meant a characteristic that helps to account for the success of these institutions in sustaining the physical works and gaining the compliance of generations of users to the rules in use. By “long enduring” is meant that the irrigation system has been in operation for at least several generations. Eight design principles identified in prior research are discussed a

ISSN:0043-1397    

DOI:10.1029/92WR02991

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The poor performance of many government or public irrigation systems is well documented. This study uses a model including internal and external assurance, commitment, and fairness to explain the performance of irrigation in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Maharashtra State in India. The suggested approach is superior to ones based on the concept of “free rider” or government failure. The analysis shows that the Philippines and Maharashtra have developed ways to improve assurance concerning the actions of government and other irrigators which has improved irrigation performance. In contrast, Sri Lanka and Nepal have provided little assurance in their government irrigation systems and performance is p

ISSN:0043-1397    

DOI:10.1029/92WR02992

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Using data from a large representative sample of rural households in one region of the Philippines, we estimate the determinants of the rental value of dwellings using the bid‐rent approach to the hedonic price model. Our particular interest is in the relative valuation these households place on owning a private source of water and distance to a public or communal source. We find that low‐, middle‐, and high‐income households value an in‐house piped water source highly relative to other characteristics of their homes. Middle‐ and high‐income households value a deep well or piped water in the yard, although at a substantially lower level than piped water in the house. It is somewhat surprising to find that, except in the case of high‐income families, households appear to gain little or no utility from having a communal source of water, such as a river, lake, or public tap, closer to their homes. As a consequence, public water policies that emphasize improving the quality and proximity of communal sources would be inappropriate for the region represented

ISSN:0043-1397    

DOI:10.1029/92WR02995

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Large quantities of financial and human resources have been devoted to improving rural water supplies in developing countries over the past two decades. Many projects have been successful, but many have failed to meet the needs of the intended beneficiaries. Evidence of the failures lies in the unused and poorly maintained systems that are scattered throughout rural areas of the developing world. The current situation in water supply in rural Kerala, India, reflects this general observation and can be described as a “low‐level equilibrium trap.” Water systems provide a low level of service with few yard taps. The monthly tariff for water from household connections is low. With few connectors and low tariffs, little revenue is generated beyond subsidies provided by the government. The water authority can afford to maintain the system up to a level at which the reliability of service is low, forcing consumers to supplement piped water from traditional sources. This study analyzes contingent valuation data collected in three areas of Kerala to evaluate the possibility of lifting the system out of this trap. The analysis shows that by making a few critical policy changes, encouraging private connections and financing those connections through higher tariffs, the system can ratchet up to a “high‐level equilibrium” in which there are many connectors, monthly revenues are greatly increased, and consumer welfare improves. Such a system would be better financed, making it possible to improve the reliability and quality of

ISSN:0043-1397    

DOI:10.1029/92WR02996

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This paper provides an analysis of public policy relating to the rural water supply sector in the Punjab, Pakistan. Based on household survey data, it shows that rural water policies have not kept pace with the rapid economic development in this region and that in the absence of adequate public investment households find private sector alternatives to meet their water needs, often at high economic and environmental cost. Using the contingent valuation method for benefit estimation, it is also shown that household willingness to pay for reliable improved services is much higher than assumed. In fact, full cost recovery is quite feasible in many areas of the Punjab. It is recommended that rural water sector strategy be changed from a centralized, supply‐oriented focus to a decentralized, demand‐oriented pol

ISSN:0043-1397    

DOI:10.1029/92WR02848

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Financial sustainability of rural water systems in the Philippines is evaluated based on a comparison of willingness to pay for improved water and the costs of service delivery. Willingness to pay estimates indicate that user fees are unlikely to be sufficient to cover the full cost of service and subsidies are necessary, at least for a major portion of capital costs, or the water systems will become unsustainable because of insufficient resources. Sustainability is more probable when care is exercised in selecting villages for improved water services. Economies of scale lead to lower unit costs in larger villages. Willingness to pay is greater for household connections than for public faucets. Willingness to pay increases with income and wealth, family size, education, and dissatisfaction with traditional water sources.

ISSN:0043-1397    

DOI:10.1029/92WR02997

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

A framework is presented for the analysis of rent‐extracting behavior by multiple agents involved in the provision of municipal water supplies in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is shown that such behavior can dramatically affect the terms and conditions under which water service is offered to the public. A water supply system based on limited numbers of public taps, relatively few house connections, and water vendors can generate substantial monopoly rents that can be appropriated by both public and private agents. Most professionals involved with water supply projects in developing countries typically assume that the objective of municipal water authorities is to serve the public interest. In fact, agents involved in the water delivery system may pursue strategies designed for private gain, which can have important and pervasive implications for how a water system is actually designed and operated. Proposals to change the technical, engineering aspects of a water distribution system can thus threaten the interests of powerful groups. Effective public policy and donor involvement in the water sector must be based on an understanding of the structure of water markets and the political power supporting existing institutional arrangement

ISSN:0043-1397    

DOI:10.1029/92WR02998

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY