Economics of Water Management in Southern Africa

This book presents a valuable new tool for water management - water resource accounting - which significantly advances the economic analysis of water. Water resource accounts integrate detailed information about water supply and use with national income accounts to show the economic use of water, costs and tariffs paid, and the economic value of water for different economic uses. Based on the UN's handbook for environmental accounting, this book describes the implementation and policy application of water accounts in three African countries - Botswana, Namibia and South Africa - and discusses how they have been used by water managers. The book compares water use across the three countries, explaining the differences in water resources and water policy. In addition to the comprehensive outline of physical and monetary water accounts for each country, the authors provide an extensive discussion of water valuation as well as addressing a number of issues of regional importance, including water accounting for an international river basin and the impact of trade on each country's water use.