Water resources management: the challenges
ENVIRONMENTAL STRESSES imposed by population growth, urbanisation and industrialisation and climate change have become a prominent theme of international concern, especially since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. One of the natural resources most affected is freshwater. Demands upon the world’s finite supply of water pose threats to both the quantity and quality of a natural resource essential to human life health and to social and economic activity of all kinds, and to human life and health. This confers on water a new level of political attention, which was translated into political commitment within and between states to the protection of a vital resource. Current fears concerning climate change merely exacerbate the urgency of the freshwater situation. Its impact might affect us directly e.g. more frequent floods and droughts, rising sea levels, changes in the seasonal distribution and amount of precipitation, changes in the balance between snow and rain and indirectly it will affect us through human activities which depend on water.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is an intergovernmental body with the aim to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic consequences. Relevant reports produced by the IPCC and other cover all continents and regions e.g. Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and South East Asia
There are wide differences regarding availability of water between regions and countries, especially between those in temperate and tropical zones. Most countries in the Middle East and North Africa can be classified as having absolute water scarcity today. By 2025, these countries will be joined by Pakistan, South Africa, and large parts of India and China. Current predictions of water scenarios of 45 countries, representing the major regions of the world and approximately more than over 80% of its population show that, by 2025, 33%, or some 2 billion people, will live in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity. To meet the 2025 water needs, the world must develop 22% more primary water supply.
Some major urban centres already face serious water shortage and water pollution crises, in which water-dependent agricultural and industrial activity play an important part. Questions relating to water resources management and usage thus cut across many productive and social sectors, including agriculture, fisheries, industry, urban development, energy, environment and public health. IWRM principles and concepts are presently used to mediate clashes of interest over water husbandry and use.
There are real prospects of serious disputes within and between states over water resources in the not-too-distant future.
Water’s special character as critical to life, health, social and economic activity has granted it a special status in belief systems and, in the modern era, in public policy. Freshwater sources have traditionally been regarded as something in which all members of the human community have rights. Where systems for water supply are the product of public health or other types of engineering, they have almost invariably been provided from the administrative purse or heavily subsidized. Moreover, the use of water in the various social and economic contexts has typically been unregulated and charges made for it well below operations and maintenance costs.
There are important implications of this in an era of water stress, among which are water profligacy and wasteful, or mismanaged, investments. In the face of shortage and environmental concern, discussions in the international fora have called for water to be seen as a social and public good. Furthermore, access to clean water – including sanitation - is considered as a basic human right, indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. In any case, costs must be met to ensure sustainability of services. Indeed, there is a clear distinction between the “value” of water and the charges or tariffs for different consumer groups. The view which upholds water as a commodity to be bought and sold, in which the community and especially its poorer members might thereby lose their rights, cuts across deeply held beliefs and long-established ideologies.
Lack of a holistic perspective regarding water led to a very dispersed and confused system of water management. Responsibilities for the management of the resource, and the construction of dams, pipelines, pumping stations, treatment plants, sewerage systems, not to mention their maintenance, were distributed around a variety of administrative departments. Water-related activities are positioned within specific sectors and managed by sector-based institutions.. As the water resource is finite and its utilisation needs to be equitable, efficient and planned, all sectoral strands should be interwoven.
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http://www.fao.org/nr/water/art/2008/flash/aquastatmaps/gallery1.html
The need to examine in tandem the entire range of uses to which freshwater is put, and to design services which neither squander precious resources nor fail to respect other competing and complementary, water needs, was translated into policy and programmatic work. The Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principle is the response to the growing pressure on water resources systems as a result of growing population and socio-economic developments and thus, it is a holistic approach that makes the management and protection of water resources compatible with the development of systems serving all types of customers and a vital part of the challenge facing water-related development co-operation today. IWRM contributes to the quantitatively and qualitatively sustainable management of interlinked surface waters, aquifers and coastal waters and thus, it assist in ensuring the social and economic development and the efficiency of vitally important ecosystems.