Markets Down Under

This article describes the $1.1 billion water market in Australia in which about 30 percent of "available" water is being traded. But there's a lot more work to do:

While Australia has the most mature water market, it is stunningly complex, drowning in around 10,000 rules and the regulation of four states spreading over the huge food bowl Murray-Darling river basin in the continent's southeast.

The country's consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, or ACCC, has been asked by the centre-left Labor national government to develop new and uniform rules for how water should be charged and traded.

State governments agreed in 1993 to establish a free market underpinned by a national register of water entitlements. Development has so far been hobbled by political rivalries and water over-allocation problems in some regions.

Bottom Line: Viable markets take time, but the Aussies are pushing in the right direction(s).

hattip to TS