Water resources sustainability: an ecological economics perspective

Sustainability is both a vague and politicizedterm, yet it is precisely because the worldcommunity has rallied around sustainability and sustainable development as normative goals of ecological-economic performance that the stakes are high for defining the concept in a manner that is true to its spirit. To do so, one must counteract definitions that either suit particular interests or are so broad and vague that most of what people do for self-interested reasons fits within them. Like other fields, water resources has struggled to bring the concept of sustainability to bear in the realm of practice. For example, what allocation of water in the Klamath River basin best achieves sustainability? Are plans to pipeline fossil ground water from the Ogallala of North Texas to the growing cities of Dallas and San Antonio consistent with sustainability? Is it sustainable to forego renewable hydroelectric power in hopes that it will prevent the extinction of a strain of chinook or coho salmon? Is the recent completion of the Three Gorges dam project on the Yangtze River an example of sustainable development? How sustainable is it to live in a world where about one billion people lack access to safe drinking water and two billion lack access to the basic benefits of the sanitation revolution (DeVilliers 2000)? To bring life to the concept and goals of sustainability, it must guide us toward the best answers to these questions. Building a functional and operational definition of sustainability is the challenge. Ecological economics helps us make more sustainable water resources decisions in three important ways. First, it provides a needed theoretical revision to neo-classical economic analysis. Second, this theoretical perspective points us toward better methodologies for measuring the value of water in competing uses. Third, it helps us identify the program of institutional reform that has the best chance of delivering more sustainable water resources management practices