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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.
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