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過去的40年中，非洲南部國家的水、電供應已經增長了五倍多。而大多數的發展均採用傳統的設計和供應方法──換句話說，就是建造大型水壩和發電廠，卻很少考慮其他的替代方法。事實上，這些替代方法往往僅被視為實驗性的概念，無法滿足「現實世界」的需要。但是在過去大約10年裡，傳統水電供應的替代方案已被證實，它們的確可以應用在世界各地的實際生活中。以下部分描述了許多替代方案，現在水電供應上已經採用了這些方法，它們不但能促進人類社會的繁榮，又不會侵害到我們賴以生存的生態系統的整體性。
節約水電與需求管理
實行節約可以節省大量的水電消耗於未然，還能省荷包──因為它省下了大型工程的興建經費。以節約用水和高效衡量方法為中心，研究資源保護及效率的專業知識領域總稱作「需求管理」。該領域已經開始研究節約水電的有效方法。需求管理認為水電消費的容量和模式是可變的，而且致力於以自願的（價格、教育）或非自願的（規定、政策）方式改變消費者的行為。需求管理不僅能減少浪費水電，而且對社會還有很多益處。這樣的方法能減輕污染，減少對環境的損害，比建造新的水利工程或發電廠能創造更多的就業機會，而且節省資金（把經費省下來，用作窮人的水電補助金），相較於興建大型工程，它對社會所造成的經濟、環境和社會危害都較輕微。
首先考慮透過節約現有的資源來提供「新的」水電供應，這樣的思考似乎很合邏輯。然而直到最近，這個方法才吸引了該地區官方的注意力。儘管非洲南部大多數地方往往都節約用水、提高效率，市民階層卻起著重要作用，他們施加壓力，確保當水電的需求增加時先進行需求管理，確保對替代方法的合理性進行充分分析。這樣的方法往往被視為僅僅是為了增補大型開發專案的產量，而不是取而代之。（請見■河流看守員手冊－重新考慮規劃過程。）
需求管理計畫包括許多策略，例如：
▲提供「折扣」--讓消費者購買有效的設備，讓生產商設計並生產此類產品；
▲管理水電供給，提高效率；
▲向消費者傳授適用的節約水電和提高效率的方法；
▲建築行業提供訓練計劃，確保有效的設備安裝正確並得到合理維護（對提高能量使用的效率尤其如此），而且
▲提高供應方的效率，如減少傳輸系統的損耗。
值得注意的是，效益衡量的成本和實施的難易，將因各地的情形而有極大的不同。
版權歸屬 國際河網IRN，環境信託基金會（陶俊 譯，李傑、張正慈 審校）
中英對照全文：http://news.ngo.org.tw/issue/water/2001/issue-water-irn01061801.htm
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In the past 40 years, Southern African nations have increased water and power supply by more than fivefold. The development of most of this capacity followed the traditional engineering and supply approach - in other words, building large dams and power plants. Alternatives were seldom considered. In fact, such alternatives used to be discounted as experimental concepts that couldn't meet the demands of the "real world." But in the past decade or so, alternatives to traditional water and energy supply approaches have proved themselves in real-world applications around the globe. The following section describes the many alternatives now being practiced in energy and water supply which can help human society flourish without undermining the integrity of the ecological systems we depend on.
Conservation and Demand Management
Conservation can save a huge amount of water and power before it is even used - and money, too, since it prevents the need for building expensive large-scale projects. An entire field of expertise that focuses on conservation and efficiency measures, called "demand management," has arisen to develop effective ways to conserve both power and water. Demand management treats the volume and pattern of water- or power-consumption as variable, and aims to change the behaviour of consumers either voluntarily (prices, education) or involuntarily (regulations, policies). Demand management has many benefits to society besides reducing wasteful use of water and power. Such measures can reduce pollution and environmental damage, create more jobs than building new water and power plants would, save money (and thus free up funds to help bring water or power to the poor), and pose less economic, environmental and social risk to society than large-scale infrastructure projects.
It seems logical that securing "new" supplies of water and power through the conservation of existing resources should always be considered first. Yet only recently has this approach drawn much official interest in the region. Although conservation and efficiency measures are being used more often in Southern Africa, civil society can play a major role in pressing to ensure that demand management is explored first when water or power needs increase, and that it is given a full analysis as a legitimate alternative. Too often, such measures have been seen as a way to merely supplement the output of large development schemes rather than replace them. (See "Rethinking the Planning Process," page 24.)
Demand-management plans may include a number of tactics, including the following:
▲Offering rebates - to consumers for purchasing efficient equipment and to manufacturers for designing and producing it;
▲Managing power or water supply to increase efficiency;
▲Educating consumers about conservation and efficiency measures available to them;
▲Offering training programmes for the building trades to ensure that efficient equipment is properly installed and maintained (this is primarily true for energy efficiency improvements), and
▲Improving efficiency on the supply-side, such as reducing losses through the distribution system.
It is important to remember that the cost of efficiency measures and the ease with which they can be implemented will vary greatly from place to place.
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