Increased Use of Fresh Water:
Policy Pressures and Policy Options

The policy pressures that contribute to the environmental problems associated with the increased use of fresh water

- Inappropriate water pricing policies
- Inappropriate or non-existent regulatory policies that fail to respect local natural resource management and environmental needs
- Scale economies that encourage the use of a large volume of inputs, including water, leading to a large volume of outputs, including wastewater
- The concentration of production and processing close to areas of demand which tend to be highly populated areas, creating problems of waste water disposal

Policy options that can reduce the use of fresh water and limit the output of wastewater in these systems are

Environmental regulation:

- Improvements in wastewater management - the polluter pays
- Limiting the use of water inputs
- Regulatory policies to reduce level of waste water emitted
- Safe minimum standards for waste water emitted
- Effluent controls

Zoning policies to encourage relocation away from urban residential areas – establishment of industrial parks with infrastructure to handle wastewater and the building of central treatment plants

Adapting pricing, subsidy and taxation policies to ensure efficient use of water resources,

Investment incentives/transitional subsidies to encourage building or improvements to water treatment plants and facilitate adoption of new minimum standards

Encouragement of R & D to enable more efficient utilisation of water and treatment of wastewater

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