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NMSU’s Water Policy Analysis
Research Capabilities
• Frank A. Ward, Professor
• NMSU College of Agriculture, Consumer, and
Environmental Sciences
• Guests: Comisión Estatal de Aguas del Estado
de Querétaro
• September 27, 2010
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Water Policy Challenges
• Global
– Water conservation to promote food security for
growing population
– Eliminating water poverty
• Drinking water
• Sanitation
– Peaceful sharing of transboundary waters
– Finding flexible institutions to allocate water with
• Drought
• Climate change
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Water Policy Challenges
• New Mexico, USA
– Low cost safe water supply for rural areas.
– Meet delivery requirements to TX and MX
– Maximize economic benefits produced by very
scarce water (about 1 MAF/year in RG Basin)
– Affordable water conservation
– Efficient transfers from farms to cities
– Water rights adjudication
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Water Policy Challenges
• Queretaro, MX
– Sustainability of groundwater pumping
– Pricing water for justice and sustainability
– Low cost measures for safe and reliable supplies
in rural areas. (e.g., solar pumps)
– Sustainable surface water use
• Panuco Basin
• Lerma-Santiago
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Informing policy with science
• Integrated River Basin Analysis (IRBA)
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Hydrology
Agronomy
Economics
Institutions and Policies
• River Basins in Queretaro
– east-bound Panuco Basin, drains to Gulf
– west-bound Lerma-Santiago, drains to Pacific.
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Hypothetical Basin
Watershed runoff
Compact Obligation
Reservoir
Fish and wildlife
Irrigated crops
Hydropower
Groundwater
Flooding
Urban water supply
Treaty obligation
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Rio
Grande
Basin
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Basin Schematic Uses
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Engages stakeholders
Promote stakeholder consensus
Promote stakeholder debate
Summarizes sources, uses, and values
Tool for policy analysis
Tool for policy experiments
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Hydrologic
Economic
Agronomic
Institutions (compatibility, needed adjustments)
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Rio Grande de Santiago, Mexico
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Informing policy with science
• Data
– Supplies (headwater flows)
• Past patterns
• Future patterns (climate change)
– Demands
• Past
• Future
(cities, agriculture)
(growing cities, changing agriculture)
– Technology
• Past
• Future
(old)
(new)
– Population, Demographics (past, future)
– Economic Value of water in alternative uses
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Informing policy with science
• Policy choices (institutions)
– Promoting conservation
• Agriculture
• Urban use
– Adjudicating water rights
– Establishing Water markets
– Pricing
• Social justice
• Revenue sustainability
• Economic efficiency
– Regulating groundwater pumping
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Informing policy with science
• Policy choices (infrastructure)
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Pipes into homes
Small scale water filtration
Facilities (e.g., treatment, recycling, reuse)
Private groundwater development
Supply solar panels for pumping
low flow showerheads
Build, expand reservoirs
Rehab ditches
Radio telemetry
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Recent Research findings
(NMSU)
• Rio Grande Basin, US-MX
– Subsidizing drip irrigation can increase water use
– Two-tiered pricing can conserve water while
promoting social justice
• Nile Basin, Egypt
– Water trading can increase income by 5-7%
• Balkh Basin, Afghanistan
– Investing in better water shortage sharing
institutions: raise farm income and food security
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Toshka Project, Egypt
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Afghan Irrigation
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Planned Research (NMSU)
• Rio Grande Basin, US-MX
– What does it cost to use water sustainably?
– What are the benefits of water rights adjudication?
– Groundwater storage / recovery
• Nile Basin, Egypt
– Least cost ways to accommodate Egypt’s growing
populations
• Euphrates (Turkey, Syria, Iraq)
– How to promote development in Iraq with falling
supplies (drought, dams, climate change)
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More Water Use Benefits, Iraq
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Comments?
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