Overview

Improved access to water supply and sanitation (WSS) is amongst the most pressing needs of poor people in all developing countries. Domestic water supplies and environmental sanitation contribute to livelihoods in a wide range of ways. They are crucial to health and well-being, and can make an important contribution to food production and income-generating activities. The management of WSS systems also has important effects on the ecosystems that support livelihoods.

As demand for water rises due to increasing populations, expansion of irrigated areas, and industrial development, many parts of the developing world face increasing water scarcity. Continued reliance upon the traditional approaches to water resources development ? such as construction of dams and exploitation of new aquifers to increase supply ? is often no longer an option. Demand management and improved allocation of existing resources is increasingly recognised as a more sustainable strategy.

Integrated water resources management

The need for a new approach is reflected in the increasing adoption of integrated water resources management (IWRM) principles as a guiding framework. IWRM embraces the integrated management of land and all aspects of the water cycle for the sustainable benefit of humans and the environment. In Vision 21, an internationally agreed framework for action, the water and sanitation community signalled acceptance of the IWRM paradigm while asserting that access to an essential minimum (quantity and quality) is a fundamental right. As competing uses of water reduce the availability or quality of resources, and raise the cost of future provision of water services, it is increasingly important that the WSS sector play a more active role in IWRM.

Main activities

The WHiRL project from 2001-2004 identified, assessed and promoted innovative institutional and operational strategies to increase WSS involvement in IWRM. Action research was carried out by NGOs and partner organisations in India and South Africa. There are interesting complementarities and differences between these countries in relation to addressing IWRM.

First, in India, a major problem is competition between different users for scarce groundwater. Use of water for irrigation often compromises the amount and/ or quality of groundwater available for domestic supply in villages. Watershed development projects, as have been widely replicated in India, offer a potential entry point to improve groundwater management and protect water supply needs. However, to date such projects have largely focused on promoting irrigation, and have neglected drinking water issues.

Second, in South Africa, the project is supporting the implementation of the innovative concepts that were enacted in groundbreaking legislation to manage water resources. These include the Basic Human Needs Reserve to protect water resources for domestic supply. Additionally this research is addressing how these improved policies will provide secure access to water for small-scale productive activities - a largely invisible 'sector' - that are important to the livelihoods of the rural poor.

The project promoted the sharing of experiences and approaches to stimulate new thinking and to develop in-country research capacity. South-south collaboration in the research was a key component, and was facilitated through regular study visits, exchanges and workshops.

More information about the project, including reports, papers and related information, is available from the WHiRL website:

www.nri.org/whirl

WHiRL is supported by the UK Department for International Development (DfID) through the Infrastructure and Urban Development Division's Knowledge and Research programme.

Project R7804 'Integrating drinking water needs in watershed projects'.