Integrated Water Resources Management
Encyclopedia
Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been defined by the Technical Committee of the Global Water Partnership
Global Water Partnership
The Global Water Partnership , is an international network that offers practical advice for sustainably managing water resources. It promotes and supports activities that operate at the national and regional levels of development...

 (GWP) as "a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land
and related resources, in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems." Operationally, IWRM approaches involve applying knowledge from various disciplines as well as the insights from diverse stakeholders to devise and implement efficient, equitable and sustainable solutions to water and development problems. As such, IWRM is a comprehensive, participatory planning and implementation tool for managing and developing water resources
Water resources
Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful. Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities. Virtually all of these human uses require fresh water....

 in a way that balances social and economic needs, and that ensures the protection of ecosystems for future generations. Water’s many different uses—for agriculture, for healthy ecosystems, for people and livelihoods—demands coordinated action. An IWRM approach is an open, flexible process, bringing together decision-makers across the various sectors that impact water resources, and bringing all stakeholders to the table to set policy and make sound, balanced decisions in response to specific water challenges faced.

It has been agreed to consider water as an 'finite and economic commodity taking into account of affordability and equity criteria', in order to emphasize on its scarcity in the Dublin Statement
Dublin Statement
The Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development, also known as the Dublin Principles, was adopted by the United Nations on the 31st of January 1992 at the International Conference on Water and the Environment , Dublin, Ireland, organised on 26-31 January 1992...

:
  1. Fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment.
  2. Water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy makers at all levels.
  3. Women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water.
  4. Water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognized as an economic good, taking into account of affordability and equity criteria.


One of the major fields of focus has been to increase women's involvement in drinking water and sanitation projects, especially in the developing countries
Developing country
A developing country, also known as a less-developed country, is a nation with a low level of material well-being. Since no single definition of the term developing country is recognized internationally, the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries...

. International Water Management Institute
International Water Management Institute
The International Water Management Institute is a non-profit research organisation with headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and offices across Africa and Asia...

 (IWMI), UNESCO and International Water and Sanitation Centre are some of the institutes that have undertaken research in this area.

In putting the IWRM principle into practice, many countries have adopted an approach where regulatory decisions such as water allocation and pollution licensing are implemented at the scale of the river basin or catchment. This has been accompanied by the emergence of institutional arrangements for water resources management that based on hydrological boundaries. While most of these institutions can be grouped as River Basin Organisations (RBOs) some are specifically mandated with managing groundwater water aquifers and lakes basins. Cap-Net], a UNDP capacity development programme for sustainable water management developed a training manual on IWRM for River Basin Organisations and works with networks of local capacity builders around the world to assist water managers with the concept of using an IWRM approach on the ground.

See also

  • International Water Management Institute
    International Water Management Institute
    The International Water Management Institute is a non-profit research organisation with headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and offices across Africa and Asia...

  • Water management
    Water management
    Water management is the activity of planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of water resources. In an ideal world. water management planning has regard to all the competing demands for water and seeks to allocate water on an equitable basis to satisfy all uses and demands...

  • Water resources
    Water resources
    Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful. Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities. Virtually all of these human uses require fresh water....

  • International trade and water
    International trade and water
    International trade and water is a term that is used to describe the relationship between international trade and the water being used by humans. The substantial increase in human population during the 20th century combined with rapid increases in overall global economic development has resulted in...

  • UNESCO-IHE
    UNESCO-IHE
    The UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education is an international institute for water education that was created in 2003 from the previous IHE. This in turn grew out of the International Course in Hydraulic Engineering , whose name was changed in 1976 to International Institute for Hydraulic and...

  • CKNet-INA Centre Capacity Building for Water and Environment
  • GWP Tool Box for IWRM
  • Deficit irrigation
    Deficit irrigation
    Deficit irrigation is a watering strategy that can be applied by different types of irrigation application methods. The correct application of DI requires thorough understanding of the yield response to water and of the economic impact of reductions in harvest...

  • IHP-HELP Centre for Water Law, Policy, and Science (under the auspices of UNESCO) at the University of Dundee

External links

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