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Water security

Ensuring access to water resources and managing the impact of pollution

Tools » Delivering services » Water security

Seeing the big picture

Water scarcity, competition between users, contamination, pollution, flooding. In many parts of the world, WASH services are already being impacted by these challenges and climate change will only make matters worse. For water and sanitation services to be sustainable, long-term planning needs to look at the bigger picture of water resources, in other words integrated water resources management (IWRM). Integrated water resources management is an approach to development and management of water that also considers land and other natural resources and the multiple users of water, including ecosystems. 

Tools & guidance

IRC's work to ensure sustainable water resources is wide-ranging. It includes:

  • tools and approaches for water resources management that are appropriate to the settings in which we work, particularly where there are limited institutional capacities for planning and regulation;
  • guidelines for multiple-use services that link domestic, agriculture, small-scale business and other water requirements;
  • innovative solutions for the disposal of waste, including solutions that treat waste as a valuable resource; and (see sanitation block)
  • a framework and guidelines for water governance based on the involvement of those that use and manage water - from the EMPOWERS project.

Resources

Tools

Guidelines for planning and providing multiple-use water services

This manual synthesises various existing guidelines on the multiple-use water services (MUS) approach into one concise set of generic guidelines on 'how to do MUS'.

The EMPOWERS approach to water governance: guidelines, methods and tools

These are a compilation of guidelines, methods and tools for use in processes of planning and dialogue for improved water governance at local and governorate level. 

Concepts

Finding practical approaches to Integrated Water Resources Management

This paper introduces some alternative ways forward to Integrated Water Resource Management in a developmental context that place more emphasis on the practical in-finding solutions to water scarcity. A range of lighter, more pragmatic and context-adapted approaches, strategies and entry points are illustrated with examples from projects and initiatives in mainly 'developing' countries.

Multiple-use services as an alternative to rural water supply services

Multiple-use services (MUS) have gained increased attention as an alternative form of providing rural water services in an integrated manner. This stems from the growing recognition that users anyway tend to use water systems for multiple purposes. This paper aims to characterise this practice on the basis of case evidence collected in eight countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Cases

Towards a better balance between water demand and supply

The Kenya Arid Lands Disaster Risk Reduction project was aimed at helping the Kenyan government and local communities in dealing with flash floods...

Developing a practical approach to 'light IWRM' in the Middle East

This paper outlines the development of an approach (and a set of tools) for 'light' integrated water resources management (IWRM). That is IWRM that is opportunistic, adaptive and incremental in nature and clearly focused on sustainable service delivery. The approach was developed as part of the EMPOWERS project in three middle-eastern countries: Egypt, Jordan and Palestine.

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