Crop and livestock production in Afghanistan is constrained by weak infrastructure, poor information, and inadequate institutional capacity to manage water to sustain food security and support farm income. Afghan decision-makers currently lack the information and its application to evaluate the economic performance of alternative irrigation institutions. This analysis develops and applies a framework that informs water decision-makers on profitable and food-secure uses of land and water resources in the Balkh River Basin of Afghanistan. Several arrangements for allocating water among a system of irrigation canals are analysed for their impacts on land and water use, farm profitability, and food security at both the canal and basin levels. Findings show that total water supply and institutional arrangements for allocating water shortages have important influences on farm income and food security. The methods used and results found provide a framework for informing decisions on the sustainable use of land and water for improved food security and rural livelihoods in the developing world's irrigated areas.

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During the 2011 drought, Texas electricity prices rose as generators with water-intensive cooling technologies cut back production. We investigate the effect of exceptional drought on electricity supply and emissions using a fixed-effects model on intra-hourly ERCOT data from 2010 to 2017. We find that the effect of exceptional drought on electricity supply varies with the cooling technology type used by the generator. Generators with water-intensive cooling technologies respond to exceptional drought conditions by raising their average offer prices. However, generators that use dry cooling technologies do not raise offer prices but do increase the total quantity offer during exceptional drought periods. These changes in offer prices lead to lower emissions plants being dispatched during exceptional drought in ERCOT. Given that exceptional drought intensity and duration are forecasted to increase over the coming decades, our findings provide valuable insights for state policymakers seeking to regulate the electricity market in our study area.

Household willingness to pay (WTP) for reductions in water hardness was estimated using a defensive investment framework. Using total dissolved solids data observed in municipal water supplies in combination with product-by-store level point-of-sale scanner data on consumable water softening product sales, we reveal preference estimates of WTP for water hardness reduction and quality control. Using instrumental variable regressions, we show that household marginal WTP increases as the observed total dissolved solids in municipal water increases. Estimations show that on average a household is willing to pay approximately $12 annually to reduce municipal water hardness, which is around 4% of the average annual water utility bill in the United States. Aggregated county WTP estimates vary geographically. Households have a nonnegligible WTP for water hardness reduction, which has important policy implications for optimal water hardness management by municipal water authorities and those policies aimed to target salinity management within surface and subsurface water supplies. Particularly, this paper informs municipal water managers of the demand side of water hardness issues and that desalination can be a solution to solve water hardness issues in some areas but not everywhere. Key Points:• Based on a random utility framework, we show household willingness to pay for reductions in municipal water hardness • Results contribute to the literature on point-of-use water treatment and our understanding of desalination • Our estimates provide a better understanding of the demand for water softness and desalination management

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