The Economics of Water Management in Southern Africa: An Environmental Accounting Approach

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.

By demonstrating the usefulness of water resource accounts, this book makes a major contribution to the literature on water economics and management, sustainable development, and to the development of environmental accounting in general. The Economics of Water Management in Southern Africa will appeal to a wide readership including:

• environmental and development economists
• NGOs concerned with sustainable development
• environmental advocacy groups
• professionals (economists and environmentalists) working in Africa on water and sustainable development issues
• water professionals
• national accounts experts and statisticians.