Approaches to National Water Action Planning

Abstract

Four years ago, in 1992, broad international consensus on a new agenda for the developmentand managementof the world's fresh water resources emerged. Fresh water was recognized as a finite and vulnerable resource, which is vital for the sustenance of life, for all development activities, health and environment maintenance. All countries agreed to the need for concerted action along the lines spelled out in the guiding principles articulated at the International Conference on Water and the Environment and Development in Rio. In the Dublin-Rio process it was suggested that countries should prepare national water action plans in attempt to translate the guiding principles to operational strategies for action at the national, sub-national and local levels. So far, little experience exists on the preparation of such integrated and cross-sectoral water action plans, and examples of actual implementation are very few. However, some developing countries have decided to face the post-Rio challenge and have initiated the process, and approaches to national water action planning have been developed in, for example, Uganda and Nicaragua.