REFLECTIONS ON CONFLICTS OVER URBAN WATER SUPPLY IN THE EAST
Resources for the Future Urban water supply expansion may result
in a water transfer across the boundaries of political
jurisdictions, often accompanied by construction of a new
storage reservoir or well field. Water transfers across
political boundaries accelerated with the rural to urban
migration of the industrial era and transfer proposals will
continue with future urbanization. the water's political area of
the origin, as well as citizen's in areas downstream, long have
opposed transfers. The source of that opposition may have been
rooted in a sense of "ownership" of the water, in a belief that
water abundance is central to economic prosperity or simply in
jurisdictional antagonisms unrelated to However, given the
nature of eastern water rights under the riparian doctrine, a
lack of demonstrable adverse economic effects of the transfer
and the political power of cities versus more rural areas, such
opposition was often ineffective. Water was tr