A Short Overview of Current Global Water Picture

·         Resources are insufficient

Currently the water resources at global scale are stressed due to over exploitation. Water demands like for agriculture, industry and domestic use are increasing day by day. One of the main reason for this urbanization and population growth.

Trend in Global Population growth

Trends in Global Urbanization

                 

                Demand loads are exceeding the available supplies

                Average renewable water : ca 2000 m3

                Per person and year (Engelman, LeRoy, 1993)

                 

                 Substantial part of which is used by ecosystems

                Amount remained for human use: ca 1000 m3

                =1 000 000 L/person/year = 2740 L/person/day

                Out of which:

                69% is used for irrigation (- 1890 L/person/day)

                23% is used by industry ( (- 630 L/person/day)

                 Only 8% remains for household use:

                (i.e. 220 L/person/day)

                Average household consumption in some areas in the world are as follows

                USA: 700 L/p/day

                Sweden: 200 L/p/day

                Senegal: 29 L/p/day

                Nomad in Sahara: 5 L/p/day

·         Severe Environmental/Ecological issues are severe

 Due to the incoming pollution and unplanned water activities (e.g. unplanned damming affecting natural river flows too much) at the up streams the biodiversity is depleting slowly in Mekong , Amazon and Indus river basins and  other problems like intrusion of sea water in delta ect. are resulting.

·         Policy and institutional issues are complicated

 Harmony in water use policies for different purposes and among different stakeholders needs to be established. The situation became even more difficult to manage in situations when one river is crossing two or more international borders.

·         Fragmented and Sectoral Present approach

In most of the places in world, for different uses, water is managed by different departments which sometimes have entirely different and even contradicting goals. And no harmony in the policy exists.

·         Available choices are highly capital demanding

 Water related structures are considered one of the costlier and time taking projects and with no immediate or near future results. Therefore a huge effort is required to establish the political will to invest in such projects.

IWRM and The Temple of Sustainable Development

The balance of temple of sustainable development maintained and is based upon the resting upon IWRM (Integrated Water Resource Development). And IWRM is process not a result, which is being stabilized on the fact that demand of water resources for following three key uses is in equilibrium and harmony. 

1. Water for people
2. Water for food
3. Water for Nature

And the utilization of water resources for one purpose does not affect others in an unreasonable way. 

IWRM has four basic contents

1. Policy and legal framework
2. Management Instruments
3. Institutional framework
4. Infrastructure

These four basic contents of the IWRM are discussed in detail in a separate article.

IWRM Roamap - 25 Point Generalized Approach

IWRM Roadmap is a generalised approach, adopted by Asian Development Bank in order to evaluate the Rivers Basin’s Integrated and sustainable exploitations. Following is IWRM Road map in tabular form. Scoring process of ADB IWRM roadmap relies on an expert who knows well about the target basin, for instance senior staff in RBO. The criterion for scoring is narrative description of developmental stages of each IWRM element

And as stated by  ADB

            “Achieving IWRM in a river basin is a long-term process, and each basin is different.

This generic roadmap illustrates the incremental results of introducing IWRM elements in stages. A score of 30 out of 100 is taken as an indication of good achievement in introducing IWRM in the river basin.”

IWRM Element	Time to Start IWRM 0 points	IWRM On Its Way 2 points	IWRM Getting Results 4 points	Status Score
River basin organization	No RBO exists yet	RBO has been formed but mandate is not well-defined; and organizational set-up and operational responsibilities need improvement	RBO operates under a clear mandate and organizational-set-up; and improves its performance through capacity building programs

IWRM and Dublin Statment

Dublin Statement is also known as Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development  is famous for its four concluding principals called Dublin Principals. The conference was organized by ICWE (International Conference on Water and Environment ), and was held in Dublin, Ireland in 1992. The conference was a form of last preparatory meeting

International Collaborations on Mekong River

The Mekong River Basin has always been used for fishing, irrigation and navigation by the riparian people. The first structured exploration of the river basin began with a French Mekong expedition at the end of the 19^th century (Wikipedia, 2010). Until the 1950s the Mekong River was described as the "only large river left in the world, besides the Amazon, which remained virtually unexploited."(Nakayama, 2002: pp. 274–275. in Wikipedia, 2010) The decolonization of Indochina by the Geneva Accords in the middle of the 20^th century enabled a common water management of the Mekong River Basin by the four riparian countries Vietnam, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Thailand. 

The history of International