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Integrated Water Resources Management

What is Integrated Water Resource Management?

The basis of Integrated Water resources Management (IWRM) is that different uses of water are interdependent.

Why IWRM?

Water is a key driver of economic and social development while it also has a basic function in maintaining the integrity of the natural environment.

• Global water: 97% seawater, 3% freshwater. Of the freshwater 87% not accessible, 13% accessible (0.4% of total).
• Today more than 2 billion people are affected by water shortages in over 40 countries.
• 263 river basins are shared by two or more nations;
• 2 million tonnes per day of human waste are deposited in water courses
• Half the population of the developing world are exposed to polluted sources of water that increase disease incidence.
• 90% of natural disasters in the 1990s were water related.

A. Water availability in sufficient quantity and quality

There are great differences in water availability from region to region – from the extremes of deserts to tropical forests. In addition there is variability of supply through time as a result both of seasonal variation and inter-annual variation.

In many regions the availability of water in both quantity and quality is being severely affected by climate variability and climate change, with more or less precipitation in different regions and more extreme weather events. In many regions, too, demand is increasing as a result of population growth and other demographic changes (in particular urbanization) and agricultural and industrial expansion following changes in consumption and production patterns. As a result some regions are now in a perpetual state of demand outstripping supply and in many more regions that is the case at critical times of the year or in years of low water availability.

B. The many uses for water

Water for basic human needs and reducing absolute poverty is directly related to the availability and quality of food and to the prevalence of disease.

Water for social and economic development is clearly linked to the IWRM focus on the three ‘E’s – namely: equity, economics and environment.

Water and natural ecosystems.

Water Security.

C. Diversity

While the world comprises many very different climatic and hydrological regions, which will be diversely impacted by climate change, there are many other aspects of diversity which affect the ways in which water is managed.

D. From fragmented to integrated management

As a general rule, in the past with smaller populations, less intense economic activity and with less affluent societies demanding much less water, supply of the resource was usually much greater than demand for it. In such circumstances water for agriculture, for industry, for domestic and all other uses could be managed separately there being sufficient water to accommodate all needs and there being little competition between uses and between users.

Water management principles

A meeting in Dublin in 1992 gave rise to four principles that have been the basis for much of the subsequent water sector reform.

Fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment.

Water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policymakers at all levels.

Women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water.

Water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognised as an economic good.