Like many regions across the world, Central Asia is seeking ways of making the best use of limited water resources, and integrated water resources management (IWRM) is seen as the means of achieving this. A new Technical Focus Paper provides a critical review of progress made.
The Mekong is the longest river in Southeast Asia, beginning its 4,200 km journey in the mountains of the Tibetan Plateau, passing six countries and reaching the South China Sea. Policy reforms to adopt integrated water resources management had been initiated and water related laws had been developed. However, there were still major gaps in the supporting knowledge and information. IUCN and its program Water &Nature Initiative (WANI) supported to scale up so called Tai Baan research (villagers’ research) that enabled local communities to represent their own social reality and through media and public forum, this knowledge can be mainstreamed into water management research and implementation.
Water is a source of conflict around the Berki River Basin in Ethiopia, predominantly a consequence of a lack of IWRM awareness and an institutional framework. Action was taken to implement an IWRM pilot project to account for different stakeholder interests, resulting in the development and adoption of the Berki Basin IWRM. Key lessons drawn from the project include the importance of capacity building, consensus building, and the importance of decentralised multi-stakeholder platforms for conflict management.
The International WaterCentre’s (IWC’s) Masters Scholarships are now open to study the IWC Master of Integrated Water Management in Australia in 2013.
The practice known as rainwater harvesting or roof-water harvesting is as old as time and as modern as today — as a new following of people from around the world are choosing to harvest rain to provide for their everyday needs and to help the planet by conserving water.
Regional priorities in groundwater management in West Africa are knowledge; environmental, social and economic aspects; irrigation and climate change; dialogue and communication; management and institutional aspects; and capacity building/improving competence.