Oil Price Problem is really a Water Issue
Recently, one of the hydrolic engineering professors spoke to a class of mine. He was working with an organization in Israel trying to secure water for the palistinian people. Basically, the organization consisted of the Palestinian Water Authority, the Isreali Water Authority, and some outside engineers and other professionals. Despite working for months, nothing ever came of it because no one was willing to budge or comprimise. (namely the idea was to fix leaking pipes and transfer the water saved to the palestinians.) As I was thinking about it, I came across this article by Fred Singer. Basically he explains that there is no problem with supply of oil from the middle east except that they are normally at war. A peaceful middle east, brings good prices worldwide. Many of the fights in the middle east are started over water, like we say, "Wiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting."
The problem with water in the middle east is that no one is willing to compromise. It's the same type of issue we have with irrigation water. Privitization is one answer, but I believe that with help from outside sources(perhaps the UN or other world organizations) working with the local water authorities could help privide a solution without causing too much commotion. Although difficult, with time I feel like it would be successful.
posted by Nicole and Andy @ 10:06 AM
4 Comments:
I think it would be a mistake to get the UN or other large NGO's involved with this scenario. For one thing there is definitely a lot of resistance to market based allocation schemes by these groups (see my post on the UN a couple of days back). If we adopt an allocation scheme for the water problem that is not market based the likelihood of its efficiency and effectivenss is low. Governments and organizations, ability to measure and allocate scarce resources is nonexistent. The belief that we can devise a mechanism to allocate is a farse, the most reliable way for efficient allocation is by far the spontaneity of the market. Unfortunately I dont see the UN helping in this endeavour.
I agree that getting the U.N. involved would not help the situation. The solution to the problem lies in that video we watched a week or so ago in class that discussed newly implemented water markets in the philliphines and in the dominican republic. Those markets were set up to meet the requirements of the local culture and norms. It also talked about how extravegant engineering wonders often fail because the system doesn't fit with the local customs. The same kind of local planning by local people must take place. The smaller the western influence in it all the better it will work. How you get it all started though is another question.
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I think that it is worth a shot trying to use organizations such as the UN,governments, or private groups to allocate and manage water, especially if the people aren't able to put their heads together and work towards solving the problems. Obviously it couldn't make things any worse than they are at the present time. Maybe a market would allow flexibility by permitting private groups to buy rights and allocate water to the areas that are neglected.
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