Information about water is as essential to life as the water itself. It aids decision-making by converting uncertainty into risk, which is
more manageable. It reduces ignorance and uncertainty, which are important
ingredients of market failures. It enables a better choice of infrastructure to
be made. It is also the basis of water democracy, giving citizens and users
more control over their lives and making public institutions more accountable
for their actions.
Despite this, this paper will argue that not enough information is
produced. From a social viewpoint, insufficient resources are invested in the
supply and dissemination of water information. From an economic perspective,
water information is under-supplied, due essentially to its characteristic as a
public good. This points to the important role of public agencies (and
philanthropists) in rectifying this market failure. Globally, there is an
important role for international action to supply public information goods and
specifically to overcome the problem of ‘underfunded regionalism’.
The generation of information for water management is an economic
activity, and thus cannot be random or undirected. Economic principles can be
used to help orient research towards socially valuable aims.
The benefits of providing greater information are illustrated in five
areas:
- Information for water resource planning and use, for which there is
evidence of a worldwide decline. The benefits of this for poor farmers are
illustrated by the Mali Agrometeorological Project. Suggestions are made for
improvements in data collection and the development of new indicators.
- In the realm of water governance, better information is needed for
Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and for monitoring progress towards
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Better data can be incorporated into
cost-benefit studies to make the case for better sanitation.
- For the citizen: information enables public access to vital
information for public health and safety, such as flooding. It also equips water
users with data to empower them in dealings with authorities and service
providers.
- For improved management of water services, better data is needed to
monitor the state and performance of national water sectors and services and to
create a level playing field between public and private operators.
- Turning to business and trade, further research on virtual water and
water footprints would have an important influence on international trade
policy, while the development of water sustainability indicators would assist
private businesses and civil society watchdogs.
Finally, reference is made to the new System of Environmental-Economic
Accounting for Water (SEEAW), promoted by UN agencies, which will provide a
comprehensive framework for the inclusion of water information into national
income accounts. The SEEAW will enable the state of water to be quantified and
fed into conventional measures of national income and economic performance –
the first and indispensable step to gaining the serious attention of national
policy makers.
Table of Contents of the study:
Overview and abstract (page 1)
1. The production, consumption, and benefits of
information (page 2)
2. Information for water-resource planning and use (page 4)
3. Information for water governance (page 6)
4. Information for the citizen (page 8)
5. Information for the management of water services (page 9)
6. Information for business and trade (page 11)
7. A comprehensive national accounting framework for water (page 13)
