Socioeconomic valuation of water in public irrigation projects

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate and analyze the ability of irrigators from the Perímetro Irrigado do Baixo Acaraú, state of Ceará (Brazil) to pay for raw water under deterministic conditions in 2010, as well as to determine the regarded ability to pay under the social and economic project evaluation standpoint. The primary data were gathered through questionnaire application to irrigators, technicians and entrepreneurs making part of the project. The method used to evaluate the water, aiming to determine the ability of irrigators to pay, was the net-back. The method applied in the social and economic evaluation was the LMST method (Little, Mirrlees, Squire, Van Der Tak), in which the money values are the frontier that yields the factors that convert financial prices into economic prices. The study concluded that irrigators of the Baixo Acaraú showed low ability to pay for raw water when the deterministic approach was applied. On the other hand, when the results were analyzed under the social and economic standpoint, they pointed to significant ability to pay.