Integrated Water Resources Management in Practice: Better Water Management for Development

Better water management will be crucial if we are to meet many of the key challenges of this century - feeding the world’s growing population and reducing poverty, meeting water and sanitation needs, protecting vital ecosystems, all while adapting to climate change. The approach known as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is widely recognized as the best way forward, but is poorly understood, even within the water sector. Since a core IWRM principle is that good water management must involve the water users, the understanding and involvement of other sectors is critical for success. There is thus an urgent need for practical guidance, for both water and development professionals, based on real world examples, rather than theoretical constructs. That is what this book provides.

Using case studies, the book illustrates how better water management, guided by the IWRM approach, has helped to meet a wide range of sustainable development goals. It does this by considering practical examples, looking at how IWRM has contributed, at different scales, from very local, village-level experiences to reforms at national level and beyond to cases involving trans-boundary river basins. Using these on-the-ground experiences, from both developed and developing countries in five continents, the book provides candid and practical lessons for policy-makers, donors, and water and development practitioners worldwide, looking at how IWRM principles were applied, what worked, and, equally important, what didn’t work, and why.

Published with the Global Water Partnership

Roberto Lenton is Chair of the Technical Committee of the Global Water Partnership. He is former Director of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Division of the UNDP in New York and Director General of the International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka.

Mike Muller was Director General of South Africa’s Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and is currently visiting professor at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Graduate School of Public and Development Management.

Chapter contributors include a number of other practitioners, such as Humberto Pena who led Chile’s sector reforms and Akissa Bahri, currently director of IWMI in Africa, as well as experts from NGOs or with professional and academic backgrounds, including Peter Rogers from Harvard University and Judith Rees of the London School of Economics.