Programme OS5m Facing international and
regional water governance challenges abstract 29
To Increase Water Productivity throughout Proper Institutional
Arrangements among Governance Hierarchy
Author(s): Vadim Sokolov
Keyword(s):
Article:
Poster:
Session: OS5m Facing international and
regional water governance challenges
Abstract Introduction
Water resources management is an art to supply the required water volume with acceptable
quality at the proper place and in proper time. This is process which includes a few principal components: available
water resources, engineering infrastructure, demands, allocation procedure, delivery service and finally – use of
water. Each component addressed to certain task, implementation of which could be evaluated by proper indicators
- the key of which is water productivity. The all above mentioned process components should be managed by
proper governance system.
Objective
The main goal of governance system is to provide equal
democratic opportunities for all stakeholders involved into water resources management process to gain maximum of
water productivity in their uses.
Methods
The governance system is not static in time – it should be
permanently adapted to changes: natural, political, social, economic, technological. In the large extent, this can be
referred to management rules that are the most vulnerable part of the modern management system. This is
predetermined not only by specific landscape, configuration of a watershed, but also by conditions of water
withdrawal and distribution, the combination of hierarchical water management levels, composition of operational
works and conditions at different levels of the water management hierarchy.
From this view point the
governance system should be distributed over the hierarchy levels of water resources management and it should
facilitate to achieve those indicators of water resources management process shown above. To put IWRM into
practice it is necessary to develop specific mechanisms providing the joint interested motives for water users and
water management organizations in increasing the water productivity, and at the same time to assist them in achieving
this goal. These mechanisms should take into account specific factors causing unproductive water losses, instability in
water supply, and unevenness of water distribution. As a whole, the ranking of causes of water productivity
reduction that arise within the irrigation system promotes the development of practical measures for achieving the
basic criterion of IWRM – provision of “potential productivity” of the water by all water users or, at least,
approaching to it.
Results and conclusion
The most of approaches to improve the water productivity
are based on the engineering measures and IWRM tools in combination with organizational, legal, and financial
measures. To implement these measures in the first place it is necessary to combine efforts of all participants of the
multistage water supply process within water management organizations and Water Users Associations, and end-
users themselves. Such joint efforts are needed to use agreed procedures and methods for stabilizing water supply,
providing equitable water distribution, and establishing the proper public control by water users themselves. At the
same time, the technical and financial assistance of the Government and local administrations is necessary. Finally, it
is important to gain a general understanding of the importance of the co-ordination at all levels of water management
hierarchy, and of the input of each participant into integrating water resources management.