Water blog posts

Many government officials see wastewater treatment plants as expensive and low cost recovery investments. This is why governments are struggling to meet the wastewater treatment needs of their countries.

We agree with Dr. Mark Giordano’s key point when he says that IWRM has reasonable principles (e.g., ‘a coordinated, democratic approach to managing water’, ‘involving multiple interests’), but that those principles can cause problems when they become formulaic doctrine or dogma. But isn’t that true of any concept?

We hear a lot about water scarcity. We hear that we are running out of fresh water, that food security is threatened, and that the grim consequences are already upon us.

IWMI’s Mark Giordano has struck a chord recently with his presentations of why Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) might not always be the best approach to solving our water problems.

"The tension between water use for agriculture and the environment lies at the very heart of many different situations around the world." Roberto Lenton addresses the role of agriculture in water use.

The past six years have initiated an extraordinary period in history when slowly developing constraint on growth - the availability of land and water resources - shocked those responsible for food security. One of the worst-hit regions has been the Middle East...

Examining the record, water seems to be more often used as a weapon of war or is a casualty of war or an excuse rather than the actual cause of conflict. What’s far more evident is transboundary cooperation over water.

Indeed a lot has been written about cooperation among countries in managing their shared water resources. As important as inter-country cooperation is, I am more excited by stories of cooperation forged at the level of farmers.

Cotton, sugar, palm oil... you name it. Most governments in the developing world believe such plantation cash crops must be a better use of land, and must deliver greater economic returns, than cattle pastures.

This week we are publishing thirteen CPWF outcome stories. Just a few days after the groundbreaking ceremony of the CGIAR Headquarters in Montpellier, where French authorities were told how the new CGIAR was “big, bold and beautiful”, these outcome stories may look small, even tiny. “Islands of success”in the middle of an ambitious “ocean of change”.

In most of the Asian river basins, economic growth and pressure on rivers and water resources is quite recent. Asia’s rapidly growing urban footprint is one of many threats that makes urban river management particularly challenging in many cities.