MITIGATING WATER SCARCITY IN ISRAEL – A COMPUTABLE GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM ANALYSIS

Jonas Luckmann, Khalid Siddig, Dorothee Flaig and Harald Grethe

No 133942, 52nd Annual Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, September 26-28, 2012 from German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA)

Abstract: Water is a scarce resource in Israel. With fluctuating supplies and an increasing demand, the need for using alternative water sources such as reclaimed wastewater, brackish groundwater and desalinated seawater increases. This paper investigates the economy-wide effects of a de-clining supply of natural fresh water (ground and surface water) and the increasing utilization of alternative water sources (recycled wastewater, brackish water, desalinated seawater). To ac-count for different production structures and usage options, a single country Computable Gen-eral Equilibrium (CGE) model is used, in which several water activities produce differentiated water commodities. These water commodities are used as intermediate inputs in other produc-tion activities or are consumed by households. Results suggest that especially the agricultural sector would be affected by a reduction of natu-ral fresh water availability, as it is the largest water user. However, the effect can be mitigated if substitution possibilities with alternative water sources are increased, especially the desalination of seawater can contribute to this. The rest of the economy is affected to a lesser extent, as water is only a minor input in other sectors and the water sector itself is small compared to the whole Israeli economy.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Resource/Energy Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 12
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ara and nep-cmp
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:gewi12:133942

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.133942

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