Integrated Water Resource Management, Sustainability, and Pollution Abatement in Malawi: An Ecological Economics Perspective

Introduction

Studies on IWRM in the third world and Malawi in particular such as Chiluwe and Nkhata (2014), and Gleick (1998) focus on water governance and institutional mechanisms as part of the ecosystem in order to ensure sustainability of the resource. The missing link in critics of IWRM is recognising that water is an intricate part of the ecosystem and therefore sources of water such as rivers and aquifers should be treated as a natural capital (Gleick, 1998, Wackernagel and Rees, 1997). Wackernagel and Rees (1997) define natural capital as ‘a stock of natural assets that is capable of producing a sustainable flow’. Water is a catalyst for development, a contributor to national and natural income and a replenishable current (asset) stock which is renewable (Wackernagel and Rees, 1997). It is thus imperative to prevent water pollution, ensure that rivers continue to flow and also to prevent groundwater depletion (Gleick, 2000, Postel, 2000). Local authorities and agencies responsible for water distribution are therefore expected to ensure the sustainability of this ecological service through sound management of water schemes, availability of treatment and purification facilities in order to prevent water related and water borne diseases which are symptomatic of developing countries such as Malawi (Gleick, 1998, Postel, 2000, Gleick, 2000).

The Dublin Principle of “managing water at a lowest level possible” need to factor in the management of water as part of the land. The other consideration is to treat water as part of the vital ecosystem. This will assist in strengthening pollution abatement measures and thus deal with externalities whilst ensuring that physical and economic scarcity is not perpetuated (Gleick, 1998, Chiluwe and Nkhata, 2014, Postel, 2000). Ecological scarcity is deepened by water withdrawals for agricultural and industrial use. The construction of large dams which are more than 15 metres high, negatively affect ‘ecological functions of rivers and freshwater ecosystems’ (Postel, 2000). Poorly prepared and unfunded local authorities face challenges in dealing with ‘ecological degradation’ of water resources which affect sustainability and results in ecological suicide. Agricultural use of water often results in fertiliser spillages to groundwater sources, aquifers and rivers whilst domestic water use may result in faecal matter being discharged into rivers when waste water treatment facilities break (Gleick, 1998). There are no substitutes for equitable, renewable, ecologically sound and sustainable water resources (Wackernagel and Rees, 1997).

Water is biophysical in nature and pollution reduces it to just another factor of production as postulated by classical economists (Christensen, 1989), and Malthus (1815-1836), Ricardo (1817) and other neoclassical economists tend to include water as a subject of diminishing return in its various stages of the water cycle (Stern, 1997). Christensen (1989) challenges the classical theory of production by including ‘the low-entrophy energy and materials extracted from environmental systems and eventually returned as waste’ in his definition of the biophysical nature of water. This approach allows one to deal with diseconomies and double externalities which have an impact on sustainable development (Rennings, 2000). The value of water within sustainable development debates (Farber, Costanza and Wilson, 2002), ecosystem functions, goods and services (de Groot, Wilson and Boumans, 2002) and weaknesses of ecological footprint (Fiala, 2008, van den Bergh and Verbruggen, 1999) are some of the arguments which add light to poor pollution abatement and controls in the water and sanitation sector in Malawi.