IWRA Executive Office

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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

AbstractIntroduction

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.

Events

The congress

Programme

Practical Infos

To Increase Water Productivity throughout Proper Institutional Arrangements among Governance Hierarchy