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WATER
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
OUR
ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES, POLICY &
STRATEGIES
By Aquatech
Our essential guide to Water Resource
Management.
Climate change and human activity mean we are
facing a challenging task in an unpredictable environment.
Water management today is not what it was
five, 10 or even 20 years ago.
Challenges such as climate change coupled with
the effects of human activity mean those responsible for managing water
resources have a more challenging task on their hands in an even more
unpredictable environment.
As a result, private and public stakeholders
must collaborate to help develop ways to manage water cycle collectively, as a
whole.
Water resources management enables the
effective management of water resources across all water uses, disciplines and
even boundaries.
The following article will provide everything
you need to know about water resources management: what it means, objectives,
drafting policies and more.
What is water resource management?
Water Resources Management (WRM):
Where teamwork makes the dream work
The UN states that Water Resources Management
(WRM) and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is an empirical concept
which was built up from the on-the-ground experience of practitioners.
Although many parts of the concept have been
around for several decades - in fact since the first global water conference in
Mar del Plata in 1977 - it was not until after Agenda 21 and the World Summit
on Sustainable Development in 1992 in Rio that the concept was made the object
of extensive discussions as to what it means in practice.
The IWRM principles adopted at the
International Conference on Water and the Environment in Dublin, Ireland, in
1992, are known as the Dublin Principles.
These principles were later summarized by GWP:
“Integrated water resources management is
based on the equitable and efficient management and sustainable use of water
and recognises that water is an integral part of the ecosystem, a natural
resource, and a social and economic good, whose quantity and quality determine
the nature of its utilisation.”
Meanwhile the World Bank defines WRM as the “process
of planning, developing, and managing water resources, in terms of both water
quantity and quality, across all water uses”.
It includes the institutions, infrastructure,
incentives, and information systems that support and guide water management.
According to the World Bank, water resources
management seeks to harness the benefits of water by ensuring there is
sufficient water of adequate quality for drinking water and sanitation
services, food production, energy generation, inland water transport, and
water-based recreational, as well as sustaining healthy water-dependent
ecosystems and protecting the aesthetic and spiritual values of lakes, rivers,
and estuaries.
Water resource management also entails
managing water-related risks, including floods, drought, and contamination.
The complexity of relationships between water
and households, economies, and ecosystems, requires integrated management that
accounts for the synergies and tradeoffs of water's great number uses and
values.
One of the goals of water resource management
is water security. It is not possible to ‘predict and plan’ a single path to
water security for rapidly growing and urbanizing global populations.
This is due to climatic and non-climatic
uncertainties.
To help strengthen water security, there is a
need to build capacity, adaptability and resilience for the future planning and
management of water resources.
According to the World Bank, achieving water
security in the context of growing water scarcity, greater unpredictability,
degrading water quality and aquatic ecosystems, and more frequent droughts and
floods, will require a more integrated and longer-term approach to water
management.
This is in essence what water resource
management is about: bringing together multiple organisations, across different
disciplines to plan for future water usage holistically.
Objectives of water resource
management
Depending on the region and state of current
water conditions, policy and implementation, water resource management
objectives can vary.
However, often Water Resources Management
objectives can include promoting conditions for environmentally sustainable,
economically efficient and equitably allocated use of water resources.
They also include to increase the benefits and
reduce the risk related to existing hydraulic infrastructure.
Throughout these projects, a common objective
is to integrate policy approach within other sectoral policies in a wider area
across the country.
This includes often developing social,
technical and administrative water resource management tools.
According to the GWP, an IRWM approach focuses
on three pillars:
· an
enabling environment of suitable policies, strategies and legislation for
sustainable water resources development and management,
· putting
in place the institutional framework through which to put into practice the
policies, strategies and legislation, and setting
up the management instruments required by these institutions to do their job.
Water resource management policy
When it comes to drafting water resource
management policy, it's important to have a clear understanding of what policy
is and is not.
Not to be confused with implementing
strategies, policy is a set of decisions, made at the highest political level
in a country following dialogue and consultation.
The result will then shape and determine how
things will be done in any given sector.
Within water resource management, a key
component is not only the policy, but a process or plan on how to implement
such a policy.
Furthermore, policy should not be confused
with legislation. After a policy has been adopted, legislation needs to be
examined to see where amendments and changes are needed.
According to the OECD, water outcomes are
often influenced by policies outside the water domain.
As a result, increasing unity between water
policies and other sectoral policies is a key component of an integrated
approach to water resources management.
Furthermore, there is no one size fits all
approach, nor one correct administrative model.
The GWP said: “The art of IWRM lies in
selecting, adjusting, and applying the right mix of tools for a given
situation. Agreeing on milestones and timeframes is critical for success.
“The implementation may take place on a
step-by-step basis, in terms of geographical scope and the sequence and timing
of reforms. Scope, timing, and content of measures can be adjusted according to
experience.
“In developing a strategy and framework for
change, it is important to recognize that the process of change is unlikely to
be rapid.”
For policy-making and planning, in order to
obtain an integrated approach, it’s important that water development and
management takes into account the various uses of water and the range of
people’s water needs, including:
· Stakeholders
are given a voice in water planning and management, with particular attention
to securing the involvement of women and the poor;
· Policies
and priorities consider water resources implications, including the two-way
relationship between macroeconomic policies and water development, management,
and use;
· Water-related
decisions made at local and basin levels are along the lines of, or at least do
not conflict with, the achievement of broader national objectives; and
· Water
planning and strategies are incorporated into broader social, economic, and
environmental goals.
GWP added: “Putting sustainable and
integrated management of water resources into practice must be anchored at all
levels with the highest political commitment.”
Hydrology and water resources
management
Hydrology is the study of the global water
cycle and the physical, chemical, and biological processes involved in the
different reservoirs and fluxes of water within this cycle.
In general, hydrologists focus on terrestrial
water, while recognizing that the global hydrological cycle includes exchanges
of water between the land surface, ocean, atmosphere, and subsurface.
Meanwhile water in the oceans and atmosphere
is mainly the concern of oceanographers and meteorologists.
Many hydrologists work at the interface
between land surface water and the atmosphere, studying precipitation and
evapotranspiration processes in the field of hydrometeorology.
Water resource management includes
consideration of several disciplines of hydrology, including the global water
cycle, surface water and groundwater, water chemistry and pollution and aquatic
biology.
This is according to S.J. Marshall in his
Hydrology module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences.
After treatment, water supplies are sent to
meet a range of requirements including industrial, municipal, agricultural and
ecological.
While some of these water uses take water from
the system and can be classed as "consumptive", others return water
after use but to a lesser quality.
This water often requires treatment to return
it back to a natural state and sometimes this is not possible, for example an
industrial tailings pond.
The balancing act involved in water management
includes a broad range of stakeholders and includes water policy and legal
experts.
Hydrologists have essential input to these
complex and sometimes confrontational deliberations and negotiations.
They also play a central role in applied
hydrology – engineering of major waterworks to manage water.
Water distribution systems have been a
hallmark of civilization since Babylon, and the modern stamp on this includes
major hydroelectric dams and reservoirs, urban waterworks, and water treatment
facilities.
These and other tools help governments to
manage water resources in a way that serves societal and ecological needs.
According to Marshall, water resource
management is one of the world’s greatest challenges due to competition for
limited resources, regional disparities in water supply and affluence, mounting
global water demand, aquifer depletion, and pollution- and
climate-change-induced water stress.
Integrated sustainable water resource
management is an area requiring innovation, progress, and international
cooperation in the coming decades.
Water resource management strategies:
3 case studies
To help understand what can be achieved with
effective water resource management strategies, it’s important to reference
case studies where programmes have been implemented.
Below are three case studies ranging in scale
and ambition:
Water utility level: 25 years and
beyond at United Utilities
UK water utilities are required to submit
statutory a Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP) every five years to set out
its intended approach for at least the next 25 years.
The UK water utility documented its revised
draft Water Resources Management Plan 2019 (rdWRMP19), which was developed
following consultation on a draft Water Resources Management Plan, held in
spring 2018.
The plan defines a strategy to achieve a
long-term, best value and sustainable plan for water supplies in the North West
to ensure adequate supply to meet demand over the 25 years from 2020 to 2045.
In the document UU proposed leakage reduction
activities with the target to deliver 15% leakage reduction by 2025 and just
over 40% reduction by 2045.
Drought resilience was also a key feature,
with UU saying it has tested its system to "droughts that are more severe
or extreme than historically experience".
The utility said it has a "resilient
system that is able to withstand at least a 1 in 200-year event (that has a
0.5% annual risk”.
Regional level: Integrated Water
Resources Management in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia
In the countries of Eastern Europe, the
Caucasus and Central Asia, competition for water resources had been
intensifying, driven by increasing demands from agriculture, energy producers,
industry and cities.
There was a need to ensure such competing
demands were met by a robust policy framework and internationally recognised
principles of integrated water resources management.
After joined up efforts, there is evidence
that the region was increasingly applying the principles of IWRM.
This included the revision of water codes, the
organization of river basin councils and the development of river basin
management plans, as well as an increasing reliance on economic instruments to
manage water demand and to cover the costs of water services.
City-state level: A sustainable
approach to water resource management in Singapore
An island city-state off southern Malaysia,
Singapore is a single water agency, known as PUB.
The water company manages the complete water
cycle, from collecting, treating and supplying drinking water, to the
collection and treatment of used water and turning it into NEWater.
Singapore set out its approach to water
resource management using a ‘3 P’3 approach in parallel with its ‘Four National
Taps’ development: local catchment water, imported water, NEWater and
desalinated water.
The city-state now has a diversified water
system: multiple desalination plants in operation, together with water
reclamation, recently outlining increased treatment capacity at the Jurong
Water Reclamation Plant and the Changi Water Reclamation Plant.
Aquaculture and water resource
management
Aquaculture is defined as the breeding,
rearing and harvesting of fish, shellfish, plants, algae and other organisms in
all types of water.
While this may seem distant from the water
supply for consumption, agriculture and industry, it can be linked via water
resource management.
A wide range of organisms are supported by
Aquatic ecosystems, including insects, fish, invertebrates and microorganisms.
Tech biodiversity of aquatic systems is a
major concern in many water conservation and restoration projects.
Understanding trophic systems and their health
as a function of environmental conditions, including water turbidity and
temperature, is the responsibility for some hydrologists.
Water plays an important role in both
agriculture and aquaculture, as great quantities of water are used in both
processes.
As a result, water used in both agriculture
and aquaculture has to be of sufficient quality so as not to be damaging to
human health.
Meanwhile, aquaponics uses wastewater produced
by facilities that raise fish or other marine animals to supply nutrients for
plants that are grown hydroponically (without soil).
The plants, in turn, purify the water, which
is then returned to the marine animals.
One notable case study is the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration’s Sea Grant Program, supporting efforts to
operate the largest aquaponics operation in the world.
The 123,000 square-foot greenhouse, located in
Wisconsin, harvests various types of greens.
Water from an adjoining facility that raises
salmon and rainbow trout is pumped to the greenhouse through underground pipes.
The plants cleanse the water of ammonia, which
is harmful to the fish. Purified water is then recirculated back to the
fish-farming facility.
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