About Lesson
- Water is essential for consumption and production purpose.
- Water policy is an important issue for environment economists because demand and supply depends on so many technical and ecological parameters.
- Policy makers for France, Germany, and the Netherlands were among the first to use the ecosystem approach to water resource policy.
- Water has been considered a free good
- In many cases, ignorance about protection of water cycle, misuse, lack of management and legal structures are the main cause of water scarcity or stress.
- Although water is scarce in some countries because of low rainfall, many of the current water shortage are due to the lack of adequate policy, particularly with respect to pricing. In some countries like Costa Rica, Laos, Nepal, rain is abundant but water is scarce.
- Water supplies for the majority of the population are directly determined by the rainfall patterns.
- Only 19 % of the total population has access to piped water.
- Irrigation is predominantly rain-fed. The combination of soil loss and water demands on the water resources has resulted in deterioration of conditions in 18 of the 43 main watersheds of the country.
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