Water Supply
Water , the economy , and development : New insights on a complex challenge
By Scott Michael Moore preliminary results on four research projects using a wide range of data focusing on :
• how water shocks impact agricultural productivity and cropland expansion ;
• how water supply disruptions affect firms ’ bottom lines ;
• how water shocks experienced in early childhood affect later-life economic and health outcomes ;
Photo : Asian Development Bank via Flickr Creative Commons
In the World Bank Water Practice , we often talk about how issues like flooding and droughts threaten our mission to end poverty and boost shared prosperity . But how much do we actually know about how these floods and droughts - “ water shocks ” - impact farmers , firms , and communities ? Perhaps adaptation in the economy has limited such impacts . Or maybe policies have led to economies being more vulnerable to such shocks .
To explore these questions , we recently gathered with leading researchers and policymakers in Oxford , UK , and concluded that while preliminary findings indicate water shocks definitely represent a major challenge to sustainable development in surprising and unexpected ways , there ’ s still much more we can do to strengthen the evidentiary basis for development policy . For the past half year , a team led by Richard Damania , Global Lead Economist for the Water Practice , has been working to better understand the linkages between water shocks , the economy , and development . Their research will form the basis of a report tentatively titled “ Uncharted Waters : New Insights on a Complex Challenge ,” that sheds new light on how water shocks , and water infrastructure , impact people , farms , forests , and firms – taking a crosssectoral approach , going from the macro to the micro level , to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics at play across settings and issues .
During the Oxford workshop , the team presented
• how water and sanitation infrastructure helps buffer cities from water shocks . Participants included leading experts on flood control policy , econometric analysis , policymakers and representatives from the UK Department for International Development ( DFID ).
While much of the discussion focused on refining the team ’ s methodological approach , perhaps the liveliest discussion centered on the policy implications of the team ’ s report .
Oxford water expert Dustin Garrick and Australian National University Professor Quentin Grafton , coauthors of a chapter in the report , led a discussion on how to help policymakers incorporate the results of the report into decision-making . Garrick and Grafton proposed a new framework called JADE ( Just and Allocative
Figure 2 : Global Lead Economist Dynamically Efficient ) to Richard Damania speaks at the event help water policymakers held at the Oxford Martin School develop policies that balance economic development and equity , and led World Bank , DFID , and Oxford University participants in an exercise for applying JADE to several real-world situations ,
32 Africa Water , Sanitation & Hygiene • March - April 2017