Valuing Water Quality with Adaptation: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Jordan

Seth Morgan, Justin Baker, Jennifer Orgill-Meyer and Marc Jeuland
Additional contact information
Seth Morgan: Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, USA§Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, USA
Justin Baker: #x2020;RTI International, Research Triangle Park, USA
Jennifer Orgill-Meyer: #x2021;Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, USA

Water Economics and Policy (WEP), 2021, vol. 07, issue 01, 1-40

Abstract: Though water scarcity threats are increasing in severity across many regions of the world, allocation often remains inefficient — as in Jordan, the site of this study. One commonly discussed solution for increasing resource availability in water-scarce regions is the use of recycled wastewater for irrigation. Yet, despite significant potential benefits, an oft-cited concern with wastewater reuse is its potential impact on water quality. This paper examines the impact of this solution by exploiting a natural experiment arising from complementary infrastructure investments that introduced recycled wastewater to a new region of the Jordan Valley. We study farmer preferences for wastewater reuse, as well as farm adaptation and profitability. We find no evidence of negative impacts on farm revenues or costs over the short term, and observe signs of adaptation via the shifting of production toward less-salinity sensitive crops. Contingent valuation measures of the willingness to pay for reliable recycled water supply across newly treated and comparison areas indicate resistance to the expanded reuse of wastewater, however, which suggests that farmers may believe that this shift will entail more substantial long-term costs. Furthermore, the stated willingness to pay and short-term marginal productivity of water estimates appear unrelated. These results suggest the need for caution in interpreting short-term adaptation and preference responses to policies that substantially alter irrigation choices and behaviors, and point to the need for longer-term studies of wastewater reuse.

Keywords: Water productivity; wastewater reuse; irrigation; willingness to pay; revealed preferences; contingent valuation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S2382624X2150003X
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:wepxxx:v:07:y:2021:i:01:n:s2382624x2150003x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S2382624X2150003X

Access Statistics for this article

Water Economics and Policy (WEP) is currently edited by Ariel Dinar

More articles in Water Economics and Policy (WEP) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().