THE VALUE OF WATER: AN OVERVIEW OF MAJOR ISSUES

Managing water conflicts ultimately concerns values. Values and perceptions toward how to use and prioritize water in various locations change over time as social demographics and needs change. Today's enhanced discussion of water as an economic good, among other characteristics, has brought more attention to how water services are priced and how markets might be a means to prioritize and/or reallocate water uses. Because such prioritization and reallocation decisions involve trade-offs among values, they are often at the heart of water conflicts. This appendix briefly describes various values associated with water uses and conflicts. It then provides studies on international water pricing in treaties.

THE DUBLIN STATEMENT AND UNITED NATIONS AGENDA 21

The Dublin Statement, issued from the International Conference of Water and the Environment (ICWE) held in Dublin, Ireland, in January 1992, was a primary catalyst of the debate over treatment of water as an economic good (ICWE, 1992). Resulting from the call from 500 participants from 100 nations for fundamental new approaches to the management of freshwater resources, the Dublin Statement included within it the principle that “water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognized as an economic good” (ICWE, 1992, Guiding Principle No. 4). This was the first explicit recognition of water as an economic good, and this principle is often found quoted in literature that has ensued since its establishment.