Steven N. Schonberger discusses broadening approaches to incentives for sustainable and efficient water management. Incentives have been used for millennia to manage shared water resources through various legal codes and religious figures. Now, incentives are interlinked with macroeconomic, energy, food security, and social policies. To improve water management, a more comprehensive approach is needed that addresses scarcity of organizational capacity and accountability in water sectors. Investments should strengthen resources assessment, basin management, and support decentralized management with new technologies. Ultimately, the planet must be viewed not as endless resources but as a fragile, isolated system that requires care.

1. BROADENING OUR APPROACH TO
INCENTIVES FOR SUSTAINABLE
AND EFFICIENT WATER
MANAGEMENT
Steven N. Schonberger
Sector Manager for Water and Agriculture
Middle East and North Africa Region
The World Bank
ICARDA Conference Session 1
24 June 2013
Cairo

2. “Incentives” defined
• Something, such as the fear of punishment or the
expectation of reward, that induces action or motivates
effort

3. Incentives have been with us as long as civilization
itself–mainly to avoid conflicts amongst water users
• Khnum, God of Water in Ancient Egypt
over 5000 years ago
• Yu the Great’s rules to control flooding
of neighbor’s fields in China over 4000
years ago
• Code of Hummarabi regulated water
distribution in Mesopotamia almost
4000 years ago
• Laws of Manu 2200 years ago
governed shared water resources in
Hindu Society
• Justinian Code regulated riparian
rights in the Roman Empire 1500
years ago

4. Now, incentives come from many
directions and are inter-linked with issues
in other sectors

5. For example, macroeconomic concerns…

6. which require more effective cost recovery,

7. …growing focus on the water-energy nexus,

8. …and food security policies which respect
fiscal as well as water saving objectives,
Source: Larson, World Bank 2013

9. …while meeting immediate social
expectations.
• Youth unemployment:

10. But scarcity remains the ultimate incentive!
• Scarcity is the fundamental economic problem of having
seemingly unlimited human wants and needs in a world of
limited resources

11. We are very familiar with physical scarcity…

12. …which already constrains water use in
this Region,…

13. …likely worsening with climate change.

14. However, to improve water management, we
need a more comprehensive approach to scarcity.

15. Scarcity of organizational capacity is generally a less
severe constraint in the Region…

16. …as services reach most of the population.

17. However, scarcity of accountability…

18. is emerging as a principal constraint to better
water sector performance.

19. This suggests an urgent need to invest in the
supply of accountability in water management…
• Public expenditure for water in MENA ranges from one to
five percent of GDP.
• Investments focus on development of water sources and
construction or rehabilitation of treatment and conveyance
systems.
• Limited effort to strengthen water resources assessment
and monitoring, basin management, utility reforms,
organization of users.
=> Limited impact on the sustainable or
efficient use of water resources

20. … with more attention to policies which share
accountabilities amongst stakeholders…

21. …and integrate innovative technologies in support
of those responsibilities.

22. So we should challenge ourselves in today’s
discussions to respond, inter alia, to:
• How are the complex macroeconomic and inter-sectoral
aspects of water incentives being identified and
addressed in countries?
• What is planned and what are the experiences to-date in
increasing the supply of accountability through more
decentralized water resources management and service
delivery, as well as introducing new technologies to
support planning, monitoring, and more sustainable and
efficient resources use?

23. But of course, the ultimate incentive is the
realization that we can no longer look at the
Earth as an endless expanse of resources…

24. “This planet is not terra firma. It is a delicate flower and it must be cared
for. It's small. It's isolated, and there is no resupply. This is our home, and
we are mistreating it.”
but rather…