Management options - Integrated Water Resource Planning - page 164

a traditional way of community decision-making (musyawarah), which aims
for consensus (Klock and Sjah 2011; Sjah 2007). Participants explain their
needs and the rationale, and then attempt to reach agreements that they feel
are fair for all, by giving away some rights while receiving some benefits.
Agreed rules for sharing water are generally but not consistently recorded
in local laws (awig-awig). Some WUAs though are concerned about drying
springs and water being allocated to the regional government water distri-
bution company and bottled water companies for potable water, leaving local
users feeling vulnerable to an increasingly unreliable water source. While
government endorses the community-based WUA system, water allocation is
also subject to issues of national importance and other regulations and laws.
Hence, legitimate other users are also given permission to access the good
quality spring water.
Baldwin and Sjah (2012) argue that applying Ostrom's principles tailored
to the local situation could improve outcomes. One suggestion is to engage
WUAs in 'payment for environmental (or ecosystem) services' (PES) schemes
between upstream providers and downstream beneficiaries. Another is to
apply the tradition and skills associated with musyawarah used by WUAs to
multiple levels of decision-making that include WUAs as well as government
agencies.
Case study - Water trading in Australia
The term water trading as used in Australia refers to the buying, selling
and movement of rights to take water from a water resource, rather than
the buying or selling of water itself. It can involve change in ownership
and/or change in the location of extraction under the water right. For
example:
O a person can buy land and at the same time buy the water right currently
associated with that land. In this case an ownership transfer occurs but
there is no change in the location of extraction;
O a person can move a water right they own from one location to another
some distance away. In this case there is a change in location of extraction
but no change in ownership;
O a person can buy a water right and move it to take water at a different
location. In this case both an ownership transfer and change of location
occurs.
Australia's National Water Commission (NWC) has commissioned several
reports and studies about water trading in Australia. According to NWC
(2011: 18), water markets stem from the basic idea of a 'cap and trade' system
in which:
O the cap represents the total pool of the resource available for extraction,
consistent with sustainable levels of extraction;