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Water Trading: Irrigation Technology Adoption and Economic Impact of Transboundary Water Reallocation

  • Author / Creator
    Danso,George K
  • The overall purpose of the study is to evaluate how water trading could improve water use efficiency in southern Alberta, Canada and how benefits of water reallocation could be achieved in the Nile River basin in Africa. The impact of water scarcity has become more prominent in these areas in recent years because of increasing population growth, urbanization rates, and unexpected changes in climate patterns. The ability to supply water to meet the needs of multiple sectors of the society is a compelling challenge to policy makers in the developed and in the developing world.
    In the first paper, the gain of adopting efficient irrigation technologies as a major water conservation strategy is assessed in southern Alberta, Canada. Water trading is modeled with a choice of irrigation technology adoption. Simulation results show that farmers will be willing to use efficient irrigation technologies when the net gains from adoption are higher than the cost of adoption. However, the adoption of most efficient irrigation technologies is more likely to occur when water conservation-induced polices are provided in the South Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB).
    In the second paper, the economic impact of altering the current agreement governing the Nile River Basin is assessed. The Nile River basin is still governed by the 1959 agreement signed between Egypt and Sudan, without the upstream countries. With this agreement, of the annual average 84 billion cubic meters (BCM) of Nile River water, 66 percent is allocated to Egypt and 22 percent to Sudan with the remaining 12 percent going to surface evaporation and seepage at the Aswan High Dam in Egypt. The simulation results show that under certainty conditions, reallocation of water to Ethiopia would have minimal impact on the economies of Egypt and Sudan. However, under stochastic conditions, a greater negative impact is observed in the agricultural sector while in both countries the industrial and services sectors improve. Overall, there is a net welfare gain of 3.1 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of all the three countries under certainty conditions of water reallocation. Under stochastic conditions, however, there is a 0.53 percent net welfare loss of GDP to the three countries with water reallocation. These results tend to suggest that if these countries could cooperate, it would be possible to mitigate the negative impacts of water reallocation on Egypt and Sudan.

  • Subjects / Keywords
  • Graduation date
    Fall 2014
  • Type of Item
    Thesis
  • Degree
    Doctor of Philosophy
  • DOI
    https://doi.org/10.7939/R3B682
  • License
    This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.