Pricing rainbow, green, blue and grey water: tree cover and geopolitics of climatic teleconnections

Atmospheric moisture (“rainbow water”) is the source of all green, blue and grey water flows. Current water-related legislation and policies have moved beyond blue (water allocation) and grey (waste water treatment) water concerns to incorporate the green water concept of additional water use by fast-growing trees; it may require further change to incorporate rainbow water relations as evident in recent literature on short-cycle rainfall derived from evapotranspiration over land. Specific teleconnections relate rainfall dynamics at any specific site to land use and sea conditions elsewhere. Government-mandated water use charges for payments for ecosystem services (PES) exist in some African countries but their use in enhancing actual water related ecosystem services covering the full hydrological cycle is still evolving as rainbow water science is new.