Making IWRM everybody's business

The term Integrated Water Resources Management is currently the most widely used among water academics, practitioners, professionals and policy-makers, and yet is the least understood. Recent policy reforms in developing countries focus on institutionalising the concept and principles of IWRM. But without a clear understanding of the concept and what it involves in implementation, the reform process will at best be only partially successful. Policies will be written, new institutional arrangements will be laid out, but the main actors themselves will not understand their roles. IWRM literature is aimed at academics, leaving out most of the stakeholders without whose participation there can be no implementation of IWRM. These are a large section of development professionals, the civil society, local communities, government officials and even the private sector. IWRM also involves professionals from many different fields, such as engineers, economists, and social scientists who also need to understand IWRM if they are to make effective contribution to the reform and implementation process. And in many situations, they are hesitant to acknowledge their lack of understanding about the concept.

Publications by different organisations focus on their own definitions and programmes. There needs to be better exchange of information, methodology and coordination between the different organisations that promote IWRM. Through this document we have tried to introduce the concept of IWRM and bring together various definitions prevalent today, without any particular focus on any one definition or organisation. We have tried to explain the normative, strategic and operative dimensions of IWRM in a way that is easy to understand even for the least knowledgeable. The language and terminology used is simple and we have tried to avoid the use of ‘jargon’ and ‘rhetoric’.

The document presents 12 case studies which explain and illustrate different aspects of IWRM. These case studies are from different parts of the world representing different scales of river basin organisations and projects ranging from the very local, like the Gagas River Basin, to large transboundary basins such as the Mekong and Rhine. The enabling environment, institutional arrangements and implementation processes are highlighted for a better understanding of what these mean within the context of IWRM.

Today, IWRM is still a debatable concept, a concept that seems to have all the answers to meet our water related challenges, yet is difficult to grasp and pin down. IWRM is a way of doing things right but not a strategy that will make things right. IWRM process takes a lot of time to be put into practice. Without consistent pursuit in the aims and objectives, IWRM plans will not be implemented successfully. IWRM involves all, and gives a message that it is not water that should be everybody's business, but making IWRM work.

Vasudha Pangare is a board member of World Water Institute (Pune, India) and heads Oikos, a multi-disciplinary consulting firm in the field of rural development and natural resource management. She is the editor of Water Perspectives, the international journal on water policy and practice published by WWI. She was a member of the Steering Committee of Gender and Water Alliance, an Associated Programme of the GWP. Her professional expertise is in the area of community action, peoples' participation and institutions in water related interventions, gender and equity issues in water management, and rural livelihoods.

Ganesh Pangare is a water management expert currently with World Water Institute, Pune, India. His main area of work is in people-centred water interventions, and pro-poor water sector reforms and policy at local, national, regional and global levels for livelihood and food security, with a focus on primary stakeholder participation. Ganesh is a Fellow of the London-based Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) International Program, and a Fellow of the Ashoka Innovators for the Public Program based in Washington. Ganesh is a member of the National Civil Society Committee on Interlinking of Rivers in India and an Advisor to the Water Portfolio of Acumen Fund, USA.

Viraj Shah is a Ph.D. in Ancient Indian Culture History & Archeology. Formerly, she worked with Deccan College, Pune. She has been associated with World Water Institute for the past few years and has contributed significantly to the work of the organisation.

B.R. Neupane is a native of Nepal. Educated in Nepal, Thailand, Canada, France and USA, he holds doctorate degrees in Resource Management and Hydrosystems, and Business Administration. He has worked in USA, France, the Netherlands and in several South and Southeast Asian countries. Since September 2004, he is working with the Regional Office of UNESCO in New Delhi where he has been tasked to act as the Regional Programme Specialist for Water Resources and Hydrology for South and Central Asia. In this capacity he is responsible for the implementation of the IHP and the preparation and design of regional projects and activities on hydrology and water resources.

P. Somasekhar Rao is a M.Sc. (Tech) and Ph.D. in Geophysics from the Osmania University and a Masters Degree holder in Business Administration (MBA). Having a career span of 14 years in development sector with a spectrum of experience with NGOs, Government Departments, University and Donor Agencies he gradually evolved into a rural development specialist with focus on water and agriculture. He is working with the Food and Agricultural Organization of The United Nations, as a National Professional Officer, based at New Delhi. He earlier worked with the Royal Netherlands Embassy and the Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Technology Mission, also at New Delhi. He has been in the forefront of the process of evolving the water sector policy in various states. He is one of the key contributor in bringing out the Water Vision Document of Andhra Pradesh. He has several scientific and popular articles to his credit. His latest addition to water literature as Technical Advisor is a book Springs of Life: India's Water Resources. He is an ardent supporter of participatory approaches in natural resource management and has been a constant support and inspiration for innumerable successful field programmes.