Reducing water loss could save millions
Gothataone Moeng | Thursday October 10, 2013 23:01
Presenting on behalf of the Ministry of the Environment, Wildlife and Tourism at the Gaborone Declaration conference this week, Dr Jaap Arntzen said the reduction of water losses could have associated direct economic growth opportunities of between P0.2 million and P14.5 million.
Arntzen was presenting on Botswana's foray into using environmental accounting to improve national decision-making.
Environmental accounting is a system of looking beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of economic growth regarding natural resources by putting a price on the natural resource in order to allow governments to figure out the cost that they would incur if that resource were lost.
Arntzen said Botswana started its environmental accounting systems by prioritising water accounting because of the need to rethink how water is used, managed and valued in the country.
As a scarce resource, and with growing demand and supply limitations, water increasingly limits economic development, he said. There was thus a need to put water management at the forefront of the national development agenda and to demonstrate the economic value of water and the financial implications of a water policy.
Arntzen said more water management opportunities include the re-using and recycling of treated wastewater, encouraging the use of saline and treated wastewater in sectors such as mining and construction and encouraging greater water efficiency in households and government offices.
The Botswana Water Account is part of the World Bank's Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES).
Arntzen said beyond WAVES, the Department of Water Affairs plans to establish a water accounting unit. He said their experiences with accounting systems show that the process should be policy-driven, and that it requires partnerships within government and within the private sector.
Setting up natural capital accounting systems is in fulfilment of the Gaborone Declaration of May 2012, signed by 10 African heads of state, a set of concrete principles and development goals that move the value of natural capital to the centre of development planning.