COVER FEATURE
INGENIEUR
Towards a Community
Based Approach in
Integrated Water Resources
Management
By Tan Kok Weng,
Faculty of Engineering and Green Technology
Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman
The idea of integrated approach to water resources management was
promoted a few decades ago and the guiding principles were developed in the
1990s. Many definitions and arguments were given in different perspectives
but the answer for operational Integrated Water Resources Management
(IWRM) is still ambiguous. A more focused approach on operational IWRM
may be needed and directed to address local water problems. This article
provides an overview of IWRM and the challenges at the operational level.
This article further discusses another focus on integrated water resources
management, which recognises community user groups as the main
stakeholders – community based natural resources management. This
approach has a similar philosophy to IWRM in promoting stakeholder
participation through power sharing and responsibility between Government
and local communities. However, it needs to take into account the equity
of different groups of users and partnership agreements between the
Government and the community, where the role of community should be
well defined and guaranteed. It should become the operational basis in
adopting community based management within the context of IWRM.
D
ue to population and economic growth,
pressure on clean water demand is
increasing in many countries. It is further
worsened by the impact of climate change
on water resources. Water-related issues
such as floods and droughts, water quality
deterioration, soil degradation and loss of
productive land have been discussed widely
in many international conferences. Directly,
global interest has been raised in adopting
an integrated water resources management
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VOL65
55JANUARY
JUNE 2013
(IWRM) approach to promote sustainable water
resources development, which moved away
from conventional approach. IWRM and water
efficiency plans by 2005 were envisaged during
the World Summit on Sustainable Development
(WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002. Moreover,
Global Water Partnership (GWP) defined IWRM
as an approach to coordinate and develop
water, land and other related resources in a
more effective and sustainable way in order to
maximize economic efficiency and social welfare