Water security and sustainable development
Prof. Dr. Mishal Abid Khalaf
Department of Agricultural Economics
Water is the backbone of life in any spot on the earth, and it is one of the most important economic resources that must be owned publicly after air, although its disposal should take into account the public interests of the community, and it is not permissible to damage it or use it in a way that harms its safety. And sustainable development means using the society's natural resources to ensure the preservation of the rights of future generations. Therefore, any sustainable development in any country must preserve the most important economic resource for life, represented by water in terms of quantity and quality.
Water security is to ensure that all members of society have access at all times to sufficient and usable quantities of water required for it. As water security is a priority in many countries of the world that suffer from the scarcity of their water resources. Scientists have set the water poverty line at 500 m3 per person annually and considered 1000 m3 of fresh water per capita as a level to achieve water security, and it may be linked to food security, which reports indicate that the production of food per capita annually requires more than 2000 m3 of water. Therefore, Iraq currently has its water security on the line as long as its annual water revenues that can be used are less than 40 billion m3, as a large part of the water revenues are subject to evaporation and others change in the soil and additional quantities are necessary to maintain the flow of rivers to their ends. Any country that uses 40% of its total water imports annually is considered one of the countries that suffer from severe water scarcity in the country according to the water scarcity index or the so-called water sustainability index.
Iraq needs an Iraqi water security council consisting of competencies with experience and delegated powers to help them manage the external water file and link it to mutual interests, as well as benefit from the laws that govern the distribution of water between the riparian countries and expedite this file before preparing the modifications carried out by the neighboring countries of Iraq the riverbeds are a reality that imposes new conditions that cannot be ignored in the future and will not be in the interest of the Iraqi negotiator. It must be efficient and rational in the use of incoming water, balance between water imports and uses, and set priorities for those uses, not exceeding the quantities of replenishment in the water, while ensuring strategic storage of water to meet the years of drought.
This requires that administration take into account the aspect of water supply through managing the water file in a way that maximizes the water supply in the country by increasing external water imports on the one hand and increasing the quantities of water harvested at home on the other hand. On the other hand, the water demand file must be managed in a scientific manner that increases the productivity of the water unit and is distributed among the different uses according to the values ??of its marginal products. The administration must remember that a unit of water has a cost and value, and it must have a price.
The unit of water found anywhere, whether in the river, in streams, or in irrigation canals, or in storage tanks at the bottom of deserts, in lakes, or in pipes in homes, bears the cost of part of it. Pollution through dams, regulators, dredging, management, water harvesting efforts and expenses. Therefore, everyone working in this file must calculate the cost of a unit of water, which may vary from year to year and from place to place.
It must also be remembered that a unit of water has a value represented by the value of the marginal product achieved in alternative use opportunities. Therefore, it must be used in opportunities that achieve greater values ??so that the value of water is not less than its cost, but on the contrary, that value must often be higher than the cost of a unit of water, and work must continue to raise that value through improving water use techniques and reducing waste.
Some countries may need to set a price for a unit of water, which is what the water user must pay for the unit of water used. The uneven support prevents excessive use of water. As well as the role of laws and legislation in regulating water use operations to ensure sustainable development, and the most important of all remains to work to raise awareness of the importance of water and the importance of preserving it through the media and civil society organizations in the country.