Overview

Water & Health

Agricultural water use in general, and irrigation in particular, affect health because they bring water into close contact with people. This proximity can have positive health benefits:

• Ensuring household food security and improving nutrition
• Providing people with a reliable source of water for drinking and hygiene in communities without easy access to fresh water

It can also increase certain health risks:

• Bringing people into contact with waterborne and water-washed diseases
• Providing a breeding ground for mosquitoes that carry malaria and Japanese encephalitis and the freshwater snails that are intermediate hosts for schistosomiasis

IWMI's research on health concentrates on maximizing the positive benefits of irrigation water and minimizing the negative impacts.The theme bridges the gap between the water and health sectors. Through research, documentation and field studies, the theme works to encourage the incorporation of health concerns in water resources management practices and planning in rural areas.

Water & Environment

From an environmental perspective, water maintains a host of natural ecosystems. The potential negative environmental impacts of irrigation development are:

• Withdrawal of water for irrigation can reduce the flows of freshwater needed to sustain natural resource areas.
• Drainage flows from irrigated fields can disturb the ecological balance by carrying excess chemical nutrients and pollutants into these ecosystems.

IWMI's research addresses these problems by developing methods for assessing the water needs of natural ecosystems and finding ways to balance environmental and agricultural water needs. Bridging the gap between the irrigation and environment (conservation) sectors is an important aspect of the theme's work.

Objectives

Health

• To raise awareness and encourage the incorporation of health safeguards in water resources management practices and planning in rural areas.

• To provide researched-based knowledge on the linkages between water and health at policy and project level for International, National and NGO initiatives.

• To help bridge the gap between water/irrigation and health sectors.

Environment

• To improve the capacity of national environmental and research institutes and government agencies in the countries where projects are running.

• To provide research-based knowledge at policy and project level on water-environment questions, in the context of the interactions and competition for resources between agricultural and environmental uses.

• To help bridge the gap between water/irrigation and environmental sectors.

Impacts / Outputs

Health

• Ways to control mosquito-borne disease transmission through water management.
• Measures to reduce schistosomiasis linked to dams and irrigation.
• Guidelines to reduce waterborne and water-washed diseases in irrigated areas.
• Tools to analyze health linkages between irrigation and domestic water supplies.
• Methodologies to assess health impacts of use of wastewater for agriculture.
• Analysis of linkages between health and poverty in all of the above activities.

Environment

• Tools to assess water requirements of ecosystems/wetlands.
• Guidelines to increase the productivity of water in ecosystems.
• Methods to evaluate environmental impacts of agricultural water use.
• Principles and operational guidelines for water allocations in river basins.
• Tools for valuing ecological goods and services.

Activities

Health
1. Analyzing the links between water management and mosquito-borne diseases.

2. Uncovering the links between schistosomiasis and dams and irrigation.

3. Studying waterborne and water-washed diseases in relation to irrigation management.

4. Analyzing health linkages between irrigation water management and domestic water supplies.

5. Assessing health impacts of the reuse of wastewater for agriculture.

6. Analyzing the linkages between health and poverty in all of the above activities.

The geographic focus of this work is South Asia (including Pakistan) and Africa. Work in Africa focuses on water-related diseases linked to small dams and irrigation structures, and multipurpose water resources development.

Environment
This theme's research uses empirical and secondary data to examine water-environment questions, in the context of the interactions and competition for resources between agricultural and environmental uses.

Important research topics include developing:

1. Assessing the water requirements of ecosystems/wetlands.

2. Investigating ways to increase the productivity of water in ecosystems

3. Evaluating the environmental impacts of agricultural water use including wastewater irrigation.

4. Developing principles and operational guidelines for water allocations in river basins.

5. Valuing ecological goods and services.

IWMI is participating in global networks and initiatives such as the "River Basin Initiative," and "Millennium Ecosystem Assessment" led by the World Conservation Union (IUCN); and UNESCO's International Hydrology/HELP programme. The Institute has also served as a catalyst in the Global Dialogue on Water, Food and Environment, a new initiative aimed at bringing the agriculture and environmental sectors together to evolve a shared vision on development and management of water resources.

IWMI has completed water-environment research in Turkey and has an ongoing program in Sri Lanka. It also has potential new research in IWMI Benchmark Basins and other rivers in Pakistan (Indus), eastern and southern Africa (Limpopo), and southeast Asia (Mekong). Developing a program of research on wetlands in southern Africa will be an important activity during the next five years.

Last updated: January 1, 2004

On this page:
Objectives
Impacts/targets
Key research activities

More pages:
Project portfolio 2004
Publications list and links
Logical framework