Integrated Water Resources Management and the domestic water and sanitation sub-sector

Patrick Moriarty (IRC), John Butterworth (NRI) and Charles Batchelor (2004)

What is this TOP is about?

As one in a web-based series of Thematic Overview Papers (TOP) published by the IRC, this TOP provides a digest of available guidance on IWRM in the water supply and sanitation (WATSAN) sector.  It aims to point readers towards ways of adopting and benefiting from IWRM principles in the (WATSAN) sub-sector; support the WATSAN community in engaging in the IWRM debates; and to help bridge the gap between talk and practice. This TOP provides analysis and explanation of the major challenges and trends in IWRM, successful examples of where practical approaches to IWRM generated good solutions to WATSAN problems, and also links to further sources of information, tools and approaches that can be used by WATSAN professionals in their work.   

Contents

The TOP is divided into five sections.

Section 1: An IWRM primer: provides a brief overview of what IWRM is, where it originated, and the key concepts, principles and definitions that underlie it.

Section 2:Why IWRM is important for WATSAN: makes a case for stronger involvement of the WATSAN community within IWRM, but also discusses what IWRM principles can offer to address some key problems facing the sector. 

Section 3: Identifying solutions: here practical approaches are identified that can help address how to apply IWRM principles to issues affecting WATSAN and contribute to better management of water resources. 

Section 4: Summary and conclusions 

Section 5: TOP resources: Provides links to TOP books, articles and manuals (annotated) and references, TOP websites, and TOP contacts.   

This IWRM TOP is available in both on and offline versions. The offline pdf version can be downloaded from the link below, while the online version together with the rest of the TOPs can be accessed from IRC’s website here.  IRC's TOP series aim at providing a grounding in the topic concerned and to meet the needs of water, sanitation and health professionals in the South and the North, working for national and local government, NGOs, community-based organizations and others.

Link: http://www.irc.nl/page/10431

- Download:

IWRM_TOP_ IRC_Final.pdf  (166 kB)