Theme-V-9-Integrated water resources management - Issues and challanges.

Abstract

Water is vital for human survival and for economic development of a region. The need to maintain available water resources for water resources development, provision of good quality and sustainable quantity of water to cater increasing population and for the optimum benefit in development of the region should therefore be a priority for any country hoping to improve and sustain adequate standard of life for its populace. However conflicting demands for this resource often make decisions very critical: e.g., he water available for hydropower generation against the downstream development for irrigation. There, a need therefore is to have clear, long-term management policies to ensure optimum benefit to the region. The Integrated Water Resources Management facilitates appropriate planning, feasibility and implementation of water resources projects and management through development of policies, legal framework, appropriate manpower development and consideration of important driving factors including economics, social aspects, environment and political climate. International organizations and donor agencies also have a critical role in this process by providing necessary support through sharing of knowledge and best practices and ensuring that lessons learnt from the past are fully incorporated into new ventures. This paper has also revealed the major issues and challenges for those IWRM components within the developing countries.