Summary and Recommendations

Until the 1980s, water resource management in agriculture in most OECD countries focused on the physical supply of water. Emphasis was on infrastructure “supply-side” technical solutions and harvesting the maximum amount from the resource. This technical-based path to water resource management is now being complemented with the accent on sustainable based water resource management and greater reliance on “demandside” economic solutions. A turning point in this shift in the policy agenda was the Dublin International Conference on Water in 1992, where it was stressed that “managing water as an economic good is an important way of achieving efficient and equitable use, and of encouraging conservation and protection of water resources”.