ABSTRACT
One of the most critical challenges facing humankind is to secure a continued supply of freshwater in the context of overexploited supplies. 1 The old adage that ‘whiskey’s for drinking, water’s for fighting over’ 2 presages what is to become an increasingly geopolitical problem, particularly in arid and semiarid regions affected by droughts and climate variability that are also subject to development pressure. To meet these challenges, governments have traditionally turned to supply measures in order to distribute available resources between a range of pressing consumptive needs. It is now recognised, however, that water scarcity not only reduces the amount of water available for various consumptive uses but also reduces the amount and regularity of water available for water-dependent ecosystems. Governments are therefore transitioning to regulatory approaches that enable complex trade-offs between human and ecological needs. 3 Existing water-allocation and transfer frameworks have been repurposed to achieve ecological goals, and governments and private actors have cooperated in the development of market-orientated environmental water allocation frameworks (MEWA frameworks) to recover water for the environment. This book presents the first comprehensive examination of the role of law in supporting the use of voluntary water transactions for this purpose.
