Water is an essential need for communities; it is the essence of life and the basis of economic development.
The statement above is seemingly very simple and straight forward however its implications spread wider. What happens when the water resources are limited? Should water resources be regulated or rationed? If so, how should this be done? How can social justice and economic development with regards to water be translated into policy?
Malta is a small Island surrounded by sea with a semi-arid almost arid climate and a high density population. It is also has an expanding economic development with a policy structure aimed towards boosting industry. This means that due to climate and size limitations, the inflow of water into the resource pool is below what the outflow is.
The Mental Model
In order to target the increasing water demands the Maltese government invested in the infrastructure needed to tap into the mean sea-level aquifer (Ghyben-Herzberg lens) therefore increasing the supply to balance demands. However, this inflow was not enough and was later supplemented by the construction of various desalination plants around the Island. This therefore increased the cost of water, a limiting factor to economic growth.
Regardless of the developing infrastructure, the legislation controlling water use was full of grey areas creating various loop holes including the lack of restrictions when it came to the use of private boreholes. This legal lacuna led to the propagation of uncontrolled private boreholes which extracted water for agriculture, factory functions, private pools... etc.
The Unintended Consequence
In the process of aiding economic development by turning a blind eye towards private borehole extractions, the existence of the resource itself became compromised. The uncontrolled extraction of water keeps increasing at an unknown rate degrading the aquifer. By extracting water at a quicker rate than that of its recharge means that the delicacy of the freshwater lens is further compromised through sea-water intrusion leading to the salinisation of the aquifer.
This unintended consequence occurred mainly due to the lack of knowledge in recharge rates and extraction rates. The lack of control, which was there in order to aid economic development led the system to run wild, giving warning signals too far down the line for early action to be taken. Unfortunately the economic growth cycle also become dependent on water as a free resource which complicates the formulation and execution of new policy.
Good description of the situation and its importance early on. Clearly the Maltese Government is the actor and there has been a poor policy in place that resulted in more ground water extraction via boreholes. This mainly led to depletion of aquifers i.e the unintended consequence here.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the mental model and unintended consequence descriptions (based on your CLDs) , I would add a sentence each to “close” the description. For example a sentence that would explain the dynamics relating extraction to economic development, and a sentence that would close the loop from salinization to groundwater extraction.
CLD is simplistic enough in describing the situation and CLD conventions have been used well. The policy was indeed narrow and overlooked how aquifers were connected to the problem.
I’m not sure if I’m entirely correct (because you’re the geographer) but I have some suggestion on your CLD. About the recharge rate, I figure that it is not the rate that is changing but only the duration that the aquifer takes to recharge. So I would use a variable called recharge duration.
Anyway nice job Rach. I like the topic discussed and your blog background.
A very interesting subject and I can safely say that it is a very complex subject, therefore there are other unintended consequences that you did not tackle. I am not going to tell you what you should have included in the CLD or what not because I know that what you have included is what you wanted to focus on.(and you did a good job in this matter)
ReplyDeleteone other example of unintended consequence is:
although the authorities aim was to make sea water more drinkable, they did not see the impacts of the desalination plants. that is they did not take care to the fact that desalination plants contribute to global warming as they are powered by fossil fuels. this can have another effect that is that Malta may need to pay CO2 emission fees.