What If People Were Paid to Use Less Water?

In Oct. 2017, women filled bottles with water in Zagora, Morocco during a water shortage. Experts blamed the shortage on growing populations, climate change and agricultural choices.
In Oct. 2017, women filled bottles with water in Zagora, Morocco during a water shortage. Experts blamed the shortage on growing populations, climate change and agricultural choices. Issam Oukhouya/AP

What If People Were Paid to Use Less Water?

  1. ZACHARY BURT
 MAY 10, 2018
Pilot programs in Morocco and California are rewarding people financially for conserving water, rather than charging them for excessive consumption.
From Sao Paulo and Cape Town to Beijing and San Diego, water demand in cities around the world is outstripping supply. Urbanization, developing economies, and shifting precipitation patterns are some of the causes, all with the same result: diminishing water availability in cities all over the world. We need a global rethink, one that starts with turning markets upside down.
A group of university and private partners is working with two water utilities, one in Sonoma, California, and the other in Marrakesh, Morocco, to pioneer a new approach, based on rewarding conservation, rather than charging for consumption. Water markets are hardly new. Farmers trade water in Chile, Australia, and California—revealing the worth of this liquid asset. These markets encourage conservation and ensure that water flows to its highest value crop, whether berry, dairy, barley, or wine. If this is true for farmers, why would it be any different for cities?
In our pilot projects, in two very different locations, water users are now being paid for the water that they save. Participants that save water earn a Water Conservation Credit (WSC). In Sonoma, 100 gallons = 1 WSC; in Marrakesh, 1,000 litres = 1 WSC.
A WSC is awarded to anyone who decreases their usage compared to an individual baseline, a Water Mark. The WSC is volumetric, fungible, and it can be “cashed in” for credit to one’s bill. Water Marks can be set based on historical water rights, past water usage, or customer class (such as commercial, private or non-profit); they can even be set based on the average volume available, if equity is prioritized. In times of drought, Water Marks can be lowered, if need be.
Rate hikes are like a stick, but a WSC is like a carrot and there are two reasons why these carrots might be especially useful: WSCs can reflect the larger, social value of water; and WSCs are more politically appealing to implement. I’ll illustrate these advantages using the two projects.
Valley of the Moon, California—Setting the Social Value of Water
The social value of water in California reflects its worth to all Californians and covers all of water’s uses, including ecosystem health, clean drinking water, and healthy productive farms. Right now, water meters only value the consumption of water, favoring those uses attached to a meter; but what if we could also value water that is not consumed at all, and kept in the ecosystem or a groundwater table instead? WSCs have all the advantages of conservation-oriented tariffs, but in addition, they can act as bridges helping the rest of society understand the pressures on each water supplier. The WSC program in Sonoma County was enabled by the Valley of the Moon Water District (VOMWD) and is being implemented by a startup company, AquaShares. The way AquaShares has structured the market in VOMWD, anyone can buy WSCs whether they live in Valley of the Moon or not, while savers can cash theirs in for monetary credit, or sell them.

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