Incluye bibliografía

Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Abstract -- Executive summary -- Water allocation and trading in the Cariri region - Ceará, Brazil -- The Siurana-Riudecanyes irrigation subscribers association and water market system -- The water market in the northern Colorado water conservancy district - institutional implications

For the use of water markets to introduce improved water resources management, the existence of adequate institutional arrangements, is one of the key elements of success. The papers compiled in this report, describe, and analyze three cases from different settings, and, point out similarities, and differences, showing that various options exist for effective water resources management, through the use of market mechanisms. Similar features are found in all three cases, and deemed necessary for the adequate functioning of water markets: the existence of a user-based management approach, with structures providing transparency, and accountability among members; well-defined measurable, and enforceable water use rights, including those concerning return flows; and, adequate knowledge of the resource available for trading, either from a known, and controlled source, or from supplemental resources transferred from other basins. Implementation of a water market, still implies both government involvement, and active water user participation, to register, and enforce water deliveries, and, a measurement system, with adequately maintained water delivery infrastructure. The examples illustrate that a water market can be adapted to local economic, social, and cultural conditions, without serious repercussions on its functioning, and, provide insight in the institutional aspects of water markets.