Water demand management and water supply management constitute two different ways of addressing human water use. Water is wasted and inefficiently used by many sectors, and simultaneously water demand is steadily increasing. Therefore, an obvious (and necessary) way to meet increasing demand is to increase the efficiency of use and supply, thereby making more water available within the constraints of existing supply.
What differentiates IWRM from traditional water management approaches is the idea that water security can only be reached if different sectors that use water resources share information and collaborate on management issues. Another major difference is the meaningful involvement of stakeholders in the decision-making and implementation process. Both of these are impossible to achieve without communication. But the more diverse the actors are, the more likely they are to misunderstand each other or to pursue different kinds of interests, and the more communication specifically for conflictive situations might be needed. Communication is fundamental to any kind of success in IWRM.
