Integrated water resources management

Holistic Approach: IWRM considers the river basin, aquifer, or lake as the unit for water management, integrating surface water and groundwater management, and linking social and economic development with protection of natural ecosystems.

Participation: It involves public participation and decision-making by stakeholders at all levels, from the local community to the national and transboundary levels.

Gender Sensitivity: Recognizing the role and contribution of women in water resources management and ensuring their active involvement.

Equity: Ensuring equitable access to water for all sectors of society, including the protection of vulnerable groups and individuals.

Sustainability: Balancing and integrating the social, economic, and environmental objectives of water resources management to ensure that it can meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Adaptive Management: Being responsive to changing conditions and information, and using a learning-by-doing approach.

Water Governance: Establishing policies, laws, and institutions necessary to manage water resources effectively.

Water Resource Assessment: Understanding the quantity and quality of water resources, including monitoring and evaluation systems.

Demand Management: Using water efficiently and encouraging conservation across all sectors.

Supply Management: Developing infrastructure to store, treat, and deliver water.

Environmental Protection: Maintaining the health of water-related ecosystems and integrating environmental services and values into water resources planning.

Disaster Management: Reducing the vulnerability of communities to water-related hazards such as floods and droughts.

Economic Efficiency: Ensuring that water is used in a way that maximizes the benefits for society and the economy.

Capacity Building: Developing the skills, knowledge, and institutional capabilities to implement IWRM.

Intersectoral Coordination: Managing competing demands between different sectors such as agriculture, industry, and domestic use.

Data and Information Sharing: Ensuring that reliable data is collected and shared between stakeholders.

Financing: Securing adequate funding for water management infrastructure and programs.

Political Will: Ensuring commitment from political leaders to implement IWRM principles.

Transboundary Issues: Coordinating management across political and administrative boundaries, especially in international river basins.

Social equity: ensuring equal access for all users (particularly marginalized and poorer user groups) to an adequate quantity and quality of water necessary to sustain human well-being.

Economic efficiency: bringing the greatest benefit to the greatest number of users possible with the available financial and water resources.

Ecological sustainability: requiring that aquatic ecosystems are acknowledged as users and that adequate allocation is made to sustain their natural functioning.