Economic Incentives to Promote the Abatement of Nile Pollution

Abstract

From Introduction:

"The abatement of Nile pollution is a serious concern in Egypt's development. Four factors support this assertion, (i) demand for water exceeds available freshwater; (ii) water demand is increasing over time; (iii) opportunities to increase the water supply are limited; and (iv) although reuse of returning water to counteract the growing water shortage is a viable option, it is not used often enough. The government has tried to improve water quality for reuse while avoiding adverse impact on the environment. But recent studies indicate that efforts made so far to protect water quality have not achieved the desired goals. Hazards associated with the degraded quality of returning water necessitate the search for policy instruments to boost the effectiveness of water quality management. This paper is a contribution to that search.

"This paper recommends the adoption of positive economic incentives for the design of quality management policy and demonstrates the effectiveness of improving the quality of returning water. It relies on local and international research findings for its recommendations for modifying existing production techniques to eliminate or at least reduce polluted inputs or processes and to find an economic use for emitted pollutants to transfer it to an economic "good." The approach depends on motivating firms to adopt the proposed modifications, leaving the responsibility of policy execution and information dissemination to the government."