NMSU’s Water Policy Analysis Research Capabilities

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. Informing policy with science • Integrated River Basin Analysis (IRBA) • Hydrology • Agronomy • Economics • Institutions and Policies • River Basins in Queretaro • east-bound Panuco Basin, drains to Gulf • west-bound Lerma-Santiago, drains to Pacific.

7. Rio Grande Basin

8. Basin Schematic Uses • Engages stakeholders • Promote stakeholder consensus • Promote stakeholder debate • Summarizes sources, uses, and values • Tool for policy analysis • Tool for policy experiments • Hydrologic • Economic • Agronomic • Institutions (compatibility, needed adjustments)

9. Rio Grande de Santiago, Mexico

10. Informing policy with science • Data • Supplies (headwater flows) • Past patterns • Future patterns (climate change) • Demands • Past (cities, agriculture) • Future (growing cities, changing agriculture) • Technology • Past (old) • Future (new) • Population, Demographics (past, future) • Economic Value of water in alternative uses

11. 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

12. Informing policy with science • Policy choices (infrastructure) • 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

13. 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

14. Toshka Project, Egypt

15. Afghan Irrigation

16. 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)

17. More Water Use Benefits, Iraq

18. Comments?