Strategic Policy Options to Improve Irrigation Water Allocation Efficiency: Analysis on Egypt and Morocco

irrigation technologies available for irrigation. Using techniques available today, farmers could
cut their water demands by 10-50% (Postel). However, both technology diffusion and water
allocation efficiency improvement have not been easy without appropriate policy and economic
instruments.

In seeking policy and economic instruments regarding the scarcity of water, competing
views held by economists and policy makers from different countries and regions. Many
stakeholders believe that access to water is an inalienable human right, a social necessity, and
that water is critical for maintaining a stable, healthy social and economic environment for many
regions. However, others tend to view water as a private good: one that should be allocated
through competitive market prices. The notion that water should be considered as an economic
good gained prominence at the Dublin conference on Water and the Environment in 1992 (ICWE,
1992). This idea was a compromise between those who tend to treat water as private good and
those who view water access as a basic human right (Perry, Seckler, and Rock).

Briscoe; Perry, Seckler, and Rock; and Hellegers further clarified the confusion about
treating water as an “economic good” as distinguished from valuing and charging for water.
They recognized that treating water as an economic good is not about setting the appropriate
price for water, but rather about making right choices for allocating water (Hellegers). If the
choice is made based on a socio-economic trade-off, then economic efficiency is only one of the
basic criteria in helping make good decisions about the optimal use and allocation of water
among potential users (Hellegers). This argues that a multidisciplinary approach should be taken
to address the issue.

However, invention and implementation of such approaches and policy options for
allocating water to more productive uses remains a challenge in both developed and developing

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