As we enter an era of increasing water scarcity, there is a growing interest to find ways to capture and put water to more productive uses. Substantial increases in the productivity of water in agriculture are needed to meet the demands for food and ensure environmental security, and to satisfy the demands for non-agricultural uses. However, increasing water productivity in rice-dominated agriculture is a function of the irrigation infrastructure, advances in rice-plant breeding, and the physical, institutional and socioeconomic environments.

Availability of rainfall time-series is limited in many parts of the World, and the continuity of such records is variable. This research endeavors to extend actual daily rainfall observations to ungauged areas, taking into account events of rainfall as well as cumulative total daily rainfall, over a period of 11 years. Results show that rainfall events histograms can be reconstructed, and that total cumulative rainfall is estimated with 85% accuracy, using a surrounding network of rain gauges at 30-50 Km of distance from the point of study.

This study employs a contingent valuation method to estimate willingness to pay for improved rural water supply. It provides information on the demand for improved services and the potential for them to be sustainable. The analysis was based on data collected from 132 households using rural water utilities for at least three years. Both binary and ordered probit models were used to examine the determinants of willingness to pay. The estimated mean and median willingness to pay was found to be Birr 6.83 and 5.87 per household per month.

This paper applies the principles of water-use accounts, developed in the first of the series, to the Mekong River basin in Southeast Asia. The Mekong Basin covers six

countries, the River rises in China, but there are substantial downstream tributaries

from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and from a small area in Myanmar. A

unique feature is the reverse flow from the Mekong to the Tonle Sap via the Tonle Sap

River at the height of the wet season flow and its ebb as the river levels fall.