Valuing Water Amidst Climate Change

The United Nations report Valuing Water tackled water’s ‘true’ value to help us make better decisions about protecting, sharing, and using it.

But how can we measure the value of water measured, who determines it, and to whom is it worth it? 

While these questions may seem simplistic, the answers are quite the opposite. The bottom line is that no one ‘true’ value of water exists.

Instead, its value is determined or measured in myriad ways based on factors like where water is located, its level of abundance or scarcity, its quality and availability, its purpose, and the benefits it produces.

According to economic theory, the value of a good is determined by its scarcity. When there is unlimited need but limited resources, one can feel the scarcity and appreciate its value.

Today, over 2 billion people live with water scarcity, and around 3.4 billion, or 45% of the global population, do not have access to managed sanitation facilities. Independent assessments project that by 2030, the global water deficit will reach 40%. Global challenges like climate change will further worsen the situation.

Besides its economic value, water also has a cultural worth.

New Zealand passed the Te Awa Tupua Act of 2017 to recognise the Whanganui River as “an indivisible and living whole from the mountains to the sea”.

How, then, should we value water? The report groups the valuation of water into five interrelated perspectives:

1. Valuing water sources in situ water resources and ecosystems;
2. Valuing water infrastructure for water storage, use, reuse or supply augmentation;
3. Valuing water services, mainly drinking water, sanitation and related human health aspects;
4. Valuing water as an input to production and socio-economic activity, such as food and agriculture, energy and industry, business and employment, and
5. Sociocultural values of water include recreational, cultural and spiritual attributes.

The various methodologies and approaches to valuing water are complimented with experiences from different global regions, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the Pan-European region, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, and the Arab region, which presented opportunities to reconcile the value of water through a more integrated and holistic approach to governance, financing, and methods to address knowledge, research, and capacity needs.

To read the entire UN report, click the link below: