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Abstract:
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"The basin scale has been promoted as the optimal management unit in order to internalize external effects caused by multiple water uses. Most recently it has been advanced as part of the European Water Framework Directive. Yet, eventually the scale of water management is socially and politically construed, and the question is whether the basin scale is equally adequate for different climatic and locational contexts and what specific institutional arrangements should look like.
"To address these questions it is necessary to examine very different conditions. To this end this paper presents a comparative analysis of water management in the Elbe Basin, shared by the Czech Republic and Germany and the Kidron/Wadi Nar Basin shared by Israelis and Palestinians. The two basins differ fundamentally in size, climate, topography, settlement patterns and political framework conditions. In the case of the Elbe Basin, an ex post analysis of the effectiveness of the existing institutional arrangements was carried out. In the Kidron/Wadi Nar Basin the economic viability and the political feasibility of alternative management options were analyzed ex ante.
"The paper finds that in the case of the Elbe Basin a river basin management approach was quite successfully adopted by establishing an international coordination mechanism. The cost-benefit analysis for the Kidron/Wadi Nar Basin shows that a basin approach where wastewater is being treated on the basis of gravity flows performs worse than a scenario where all the wastewater produced in the Kidron/Wadi Nar Og/Muqalek area is jointly treated in one wastewater treatment plant in the Kidron Valley/Wadi Nar. Hence, due to economies of scale a pure basin approach is not desirable from a physical-economic perspective.
"However, if the options are analyzed from a political perspective, it turns out that neither the first best Kidron/Wadi Nar solution nor the second best basin solution are likely to be realized, as both of them are subject to objections by influential Israeli and Palestinian stakeholder groups. Instead, the most feasible approach appears to be a two-plant solution based on outsourcing where the Jerusalem wastewater is being treated in the Og/Muqalek basin and the remaining Palestinian wastewater in the Kidron/Wadi Nar. This, however, implies that the river basin management approach can not be considered as universally applicable. Instead, climate, water uses, settlement patterns, basin size and political framework conditions play a critical role for the choice the adequate scale and the design of institutional arrangements for the management of water resources."
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