Examining social inequalities in water resources planning: A case study of a rural community of Cochabamba, Bolivia
Abstract
Stress on water resources is an increasing concern as populations are growing, incomes are rising, and food demand is increasing. These resources are already over-committed. Water deprivation has consequences on people's well-being. Access to water and the existence of poverty are often interlinked. Water management analyses often miss this connection because they operate at a scale that cannot capture socio-economic differences between groups. This study includes social equality aspects in water planning analysis by disaggregating a technical model into smaller spatial units to capture inequalities on water-rights and upstream/downstream interactions in a farming community of Bolivia. Two models were developed. A single object model (as would be typical in a watershed model) where agricultural demands are aggregated at the community level. A differentiated model by location in the canal system and water rights type. Results show that inequalities are often missed in typical watershed models - and could be missing the hardships of some farmers, and marginalized communities. The aggregated model shows that 60% of the water demand was satisfied. The disaggregated model shows that several groups receive less than 20% of their water demand, while others receive almost 100%. These inequalities are hidden in an aggregated model. An evaluation of future climate change scenarios showed that water demand coverage could decline by 15% in the dry season. The implementation of planned strategies, however, could counteract that decline by increasing supply and storage facilities; the model showed that implementing these strategies could raise water demand coverage up to 80% for some groups, despite this improvement, other groups would still face shortages. By showing inequalities in a disaggregated model, decision-makers can test out policies to ensure they are fair and effective.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMGC31J1350F
- Keywords:
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- 0402 Agricultural systems;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 0414 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 1630 Impacts of global change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1803 Anthropogenic effects;
- HYDROLOGY