Unlocking the Door to Social Development and Economic Growth: How a More Integrated Approach to Water can Help

Abstract

"Are water problems such as floods, droughts, and increasing competition for limited supplies hindering your country’s ability to meet social and economic development goals? Is your country struggling to provide costeffective water and sanitation services? Are current approaches to rural poverty, food security, childhood mortality, and environmental degradation failing to deliver? Adopting a more integrated approach to water resources development and management through an IWRM and water efficiency strategy can help. An IWRM strategy can be a useful tool for addressing specific development challenges and optimizing water’s contribution to achieving social, economic and environmental goals. It is not just about water. Other sectors have a stake too, and as competition for water increases along with population, climate change and pollution of useable supplies, policymakers in other sectors should be taking an active interest in how water decisions are made, as well as how their own decision-making impacts their country’s water resources."