Posted on May, 02 2007

A WWF primer on water allocation, water rights and water markets, by Tom Le Quesne, Guy Pegram and Constantin Von Der Heyden, WWF-UK.

Globally, many freshwater ecosystems are suffering from massive over-abstraction. Which water allocation and rights systems can best secure environmental flows while meeting social needs?

This ‘primer’ is intended to provide preliminary guidance on the approaches to water allocation around the world, the current thinking on key issues, and provide pointers to further reading. The primer aims to offer a review of central concepts, rather than innovative thinking or state-of-the-art analysis.