Improving irrigation and drainage policies to achieve water quality goals in the new millennium

Irrigation and drainage activities can generate off-farm impacts when constituents in surface runoff or subsurface drain water degrade the quality of receiving waters. Efforts to improve water quality in rural areas have increased in recent years in both industrialized and developing countries. The goals of those efforts, the parameters of concern, and the policies implemented vary among countries according to the initial water quality conditions, the technology of agricultural production, and the level of economic development. In the industrialized countries, current efforts to achieve incremental improvements in water quality may, in some cases, generate costs that exceed incremental benefits. However, the benefits may accrue to a large number of residents in non-farm areas, while the direct costs are imposed on a smaller number of farm residents. In developing countries, the potential gains from water quality improvements often exceed incremental costs, but financial and political constraints may limit the implementation of effective programs. We provide in this paper an economic perspective regarding efforts to improve water quality in areas where irrigation and drainage activities generate off-farm impacts. We include examples from California and Egypt that illustrate some of the pertinent issues.