Public Attitudes to Inequality in Water Distribution: Insights From Preferences for Water Reallocation From Irrigators to Aboriginal Australians

• Published in: Water resources research Vol. 55; no. 7; pp. 6033 - 6048
• Main Authors: Jackson, Sue, Hatton MacDonald, Darla, Bark, Rosalind H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01-07-2019
• Subjects: Acquisition; Attitudes; Contingent valuation; Economic conditions; Environmental organizations; Environmental surveys; equity; Governance; Households; Indigenous peoples; Indigenous rights; Jurisdiction; Moisture content; Murray‐Darling basin; Native peoples; valuation; Water allocation; Water content; Water distribution; Water engineering; Water governance; water justice; Water markets; Water rights
• ISSN: 0043-1397; 1944-7973
• DOI: 10.1029/2019WR025011

Water allocation regimes that adjudicate between competing uses are in many countries under pressure to adapt to increasing demands, climate‐driven shortages, expectations for equity of access, and societal changes in values and priorities. International authorities expound standards for national allocation regimes that include robust processes for addressing the needs of “new entrants” and for varying existing entitlements within sustainable limits. The claims of Indigenous peoples to water represents a newly recognized set of rights and interests that will test the ability of allocation regimes to address the global water governance goal of equity. No study has sought to identify public attitudes or willingness to pay for a fairer allocation of water rights between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous people. We surveyed households from the jurisdictions of Australia's Murray‐Darling Basin, a region undergoing a historic government‐led recovery of water, and found that 69.2% of respondents support the principle of reallocating a small amount of water from irrigators to Aboriginal people via the water market. Using contingent valuation, we estimated households are willing to pay A$21.78 in a one‐off levy. The aggregate value calculated for households in the basin's jurisdictions was A$74.5 million, which is almost double a recent government commitment to fund the acquisition of entitlements for Aboriginal nations of this basin. Results varied by state of residency and affinity with environmental groups. An information treatment that presented narrative accounts from Aboriginal people influenced the results. Insights from this study can inform water reallocation processes.
Key Points
About 70% of 2,695 respondents from Murray‐Darling jurisdictions support reallocating water from irrigators to Aboriginal communities
Respondents were willing to pay A$21.78 in a one‐off household levy (aggregate value, A$74.5 million)
Results did not reveal strong preferences for how allocated water should be used by Aboriginal communities