Does Water Efficiency Reduce Water Consumption? The Economy-Wide Water Rebound Effect. This is the title of an article of mine recently accepted in Water Resources Management Journal. Hopefully, it will be published soon in the framework of the Jevons' Project.
In it, I explore the effects of increasing water efficiency at macoeconomic level. The rebound effect is usually analysed for energy, but it can really arise for all resources. Particularly, the main research question is implicit in the first part of the title: does water efficiency reduce water consumption? The short answer is no. There are nuances, though.
I have found that (only) improving the global efficiency in the water use in Spain leads to a slight increase of water use along the economic system, with an economy-wide rebound effect of 100.47%. It is an interesting result, as there is no much evidence on the rebound effect in other areas different than energy. I have developed a very specific water-economy computable general equilibrium model (descrived in the article). However, many more studies need to be done to accept that in general, the Jevons' Paradox occours for water resources. Anyway, policy makers need to be aware of this phenomenon, and the complementary solutions, rather that just use efficiency measures, that need to be proposed to reduce water use in the context of climate change, with the expected increase in risk of severe droughts at the mediterranean region and worldwide.