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A water rights trading approach to increasing inflows to the Aral Sea

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Title A water rights trading approach to increasing inflows to the Aral Sea
 
Creator Bekchanov, Maksud
Ringler, Claudia
Bhaduri, Anik
 
Subject water rights
water market
water allocation
water management
ecosystems
environmental flows
irrigation water
economic aspects
hydrology
models
rivers
flow discharge
land use
farmers
development
 
Description Tremendous development of irrigation since the 1960s combined with unbalanced water resources management led to the destruction of the ecosystems in the delta zone and the gradual desiccation of the Aral Sea, once the fourth largest freshwater lake of the world. Command-and-control based water management in the Aral Sea Basin (ASB) inherited from Soviet times did not create any incentives for investing in improved irrigation infrastructure, adopt water-wise approaches, and thus maintain flows into the Aral Sea. This study examined the potential for market-based water allocation to increase inflows to the Aral Sea while maintaining stable agricultural incomes. We find that a water trading system can improve inflows to the Aral Sea but would require significant compensation for agricultural producers. Agricultural producers can use the compensation payments to cope with reduced water supply by improving irrigation and conveyance efficiencies and by developing alternative rural activities such as livestock grazing, agro-processing, and cultivation of low water consumptive crops. We also find that a water trading system would be more efficient if it includes both trade among irrigation sites and between sites and instream uses.
 
Date 2018-04
2016-11-01T13:39:47Z
2016-11-01T13:39:47Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Bekchanov, Maksud; Ringler, C.; Bhaduri, A. 2015. A water rights trading approach to increasing inflows to the Aral Sea. 34p. (Online first). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ldr.2394
1085-3278
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/77525
https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.2394
Managing Resource Variability and Competing Use
 
Language en
 
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Limited Access
 
Publisher Wiley