green water credits

ISRIC Green Water Team

Godert van LyndenSjef Kauffman

Zhanguo Bai

Green Water Credits

A business model for sustainable land and water management

Int’l Annual UN-Water Zaragoza Conference 8-10 Jan. 2013 Preparing For The 2013 International Year Water Cooperation

G. Van Lynden

Introduction: the Tana Basin

The Tana basin covers an area of 126,026 km2 = 22% of Kenya’s area

The basin has 34% of Kenyan surface water, and 24% of Kenyan groundwater

Tana River is the biggest and longest river in Kenya, with a length of 1,012 km

It originates from Mt. Kenya and the Aberdares, and drains into the Indian Ocean


G. Van Lynden

Water demand: major users

The “Big Four” account for 75% of water use: KENGEN, Nairobi City, NIB, Private irrigatorsOther major water users are towns like Nyeri, Embu, Meru, Thika, Garissa, 70% of Kenya’s electricity requirements are produced in Tana. The five big dams produce 593 MW80% of Nairobi’s fresh water comes from Tana Basin (Ndakaini and Sasumua Dams)The large irrigation schemes, i.e. Mwea, Bura & Hola are located in Tana16% of total surface water is abstracted


G. Van Lynden

Water Quality & Quantity

The average annual flow in the Tana river is 5,000M m3,

The Tana supplies about 32% of total national water resources

Mt. Kenya and Aberdares Range respectively provide 49% and 44% of the total water flows in the Tana

The remaining 7% is provided by Nyambene Hills and other minor catchments.

Per capita water availability estimated at 520 m3


G. Van Lynden

Current land management practices show wasting of rain water by :

• high rates of surface runoff enhancing flash floods and erosion, and

• large losses by evaporation of water directly from bare soil (up to 60% of rainfall!)

Blue water can be better managed by good soil & water management:

• reducing runoff and erosion,• more infiltration, • less unproductive evaporation,• more water for plant growth

More water cannot be created, but:


G. Van Lynden

Financing: Bridging the Incentive Gap

WINFarmers know the benefits from green water management, but this is too little to cover the costs/ labour

WIN

Green Water Credits bridge the incentive gap:

Compensation by water users to water providers for specified water

management services


G. Van Lynden

Legal and institutional arrangements

Multi-party agreements between upstream land managers and downstream water users (e.g. hydropower, domestic water, irrigators, government);

In Kenya arrangements between WRUA’s/WRMA, WSTF, industrial and commercial users (KenGen, NWC, NIB);

The Green Water Credits Commercial Sustainable Investment Package addresses:- Production (primary agricultural production);- Protection (soil and water conservation) and- Profit (access to markets and marketing agricultural produce)


G. Van Lynden

Costs and benefits sharing


G. Van Lynden

4 Integrated Work Domains

1.Biophysical

2.Socio-economic

3. Institutional

4.Financial


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Bio-physical aspects


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Kenya: Estimated increase in hydro-power from green water management (50% cut in erosion/siltation)

Masinga gfedcbKindaruma gfedcbKiambere gfedcbKamburu gfedcbGitaru gfedcb

Hydropower GenerationScenario: upland_management, All months

1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019 2022 2025 2028

Thou

sand

Gig

ajou

le

200

180

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

100 000 GJ =

51 000 barrels oil

= $ 5.8 million


G. Van Lynden

LESSONS LEARNT

Benefits

• Significant and simultaneous gains can be achieved in upstream (crop) production and in downstream water supply and quality;

• Long-term economic revenues for the four main sectors (rainfed agriculture, irrigation, domestic and hydropower) can be in the order of US$ 8 million per year, even assuming implementation of SWC measures in only 20-25% of the watershed.

• This is mainly thanks to reduced surface run-off and erosion, increased groundwater recharge and sub-surface flow, and associated decreased sediment content. It does not even include the economic benefits of avoided damage because of reduced floods;


G. Van Lynden

• GWM practices can help to restore soil organic matter levels. This contributes to CO2 mitigation and enhances production;

• It presents a substantial potential financial source (in the order of 48-93 million US$ over a 20 year period), which may additionally sustain farmers’ need for investments in soil and water management.

Institutions and regulations

• The GWC approach aims to make SWC work at basin scale within an upstream-downstream relationship. It must therefore link up with related existing projects and programmes.

• It is important to enhance the process of awareness creation about the upstream-downstream interrelationship among national and international stakeholders by continuing information dissemination on the value of green water flows and the linkage between upstream soil and water management and downstream blue water.

LESSONS LEARNT


G. Van Lynden

LESSONS LEARNTInstitutions and regulations

• The GWC approach aims to make SWC work at basin scale within an upstream-downstream relationship. It must therefore link up with related existing projects and programmes.

• It is important to enhance the process of awareness creation about the upstream-downstream interrelationship among national and international stakeholders by continuing information dissemination on the value of green water flows and the linkage between upstream soil and water management and downstream blue water.

• It is essential to have an iterative process in connecting stakeholders, institutions, banks, and researchers in workshops to discuss common interests and develop a country-specific GWC-approach by joint learning. An example of the joint learning process is the replacement of the original narrow vision of cash payments to farmers by a wider investment approach that takes into account production, protection, and profit over both the short- and long-term.

• The Green Water Credit approach is a bottom-up multi-stakeholder process; local level implementers (like WRMA in Kenya) and its catchment plans need to get recognition. The GWC plan must be developed by the local land users. The community is the development unit in a catchment to get soil and land conservation management improved: “the things are happening in the village”.

• At the closing workshop for the Detailed Project Design stage in Nyeri, Kenya, local stakeholders were well represented by representatives of many Water Resource Users Associations (WRUAs), as well as some major downstream institutions (KenGen, Nairobi Water, Equity bank, Water Services Trust Fund) .


G. Van Lynden

LESSONS LEARNTFinancial Mechanism

• The GWC project in Kenya demonstrates that an acceptable and long-lasting improvement in soil and water management by smallholders requires simultaneous investments in three components that together form the Green Water Credits commercial sustainable investment package, the GWC Climate Change Adaptation Fund :

- Production (primary agricultural production);- Protection (soil and water conservation); and- Profit (access to markets and marketing agricultural produce);

• A Green Water Credits CCA Fund is required for the investments in improved water and land management. These investments upstream are supported by public and private funds. In particular in the initial stage public and international funds will be required to bridge the time lag between initial investments and the return of the benefits – especially downstream;

• In order to function properly and to guarantee transparency and trust between the involved parties, a professional entity needs to be charged with managing the Green Water Credits Fund, such as Equity Bank or the Water Services Trust Fund in Kenya. In Morocco, the Municipalities, drinking water companies and/or ABHS would plough back user fees into such a fund.


G. Van Lynden

LESSONS LEARNTLivelihoods

Green water management will contribute to improved crop production by reducing soil erosion and evaporation. This will not only make more water available to the plants (green water) but also maintain soil fertility and organic matter and reduce the required input of fertilisers otherwise – if applied at all – flushed away with the surface runoff and eroded soil. All this leads to better crops, hence enhanced food security and improved livelihoods. Further implementation and achieving impactThe project has worked out three options (plus a variant of option 3) for implementation of the GWC approach in Kenya. As yet, it is still unclear which option will be effective to reach impact. Highly motivated stakeholders assisted by knowledge brokers are essential for successful implementation.


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CONCLUSIONS

GWC is a trans-disciplinary approach towards sustainable utilization of land and water resources through a multi-stakeholder process:

• Linking soil properties and land use with water flows availability and quality;

• Linking upstream land users with downstream water users, showing their interdependency,

• Linking downstream effects of soil and water conservation with the investments made upstream.


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Implemented in

• Kenya, Upper Tana Basin (Phase II, 2008 till Dec. 2011: Project Design), IFAD/Swiss funds. New project proposal (Dutch funds)

• Morocco: Sebou Basin (Phase I, 2009 till Dec. 2011: Proof of Concept), IFAD funds

• Algeria (Project preparation), Dutch funds

• China, (Starting July 2012), Dutch funds

• S. Africa: shown serious interest

Results


G. Van Lynden

More information...

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