Integrated Water Resources Management from Rhetoric to Practice

Abstract

In this opinion editorial, New Water Policy and Practice International Advisory Board member Prof Shahbaz Khan (Deputy Director UNESCO Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, Jakarta, Indonesia) presents some ideas on how to move Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) from rhetoric to action. Reflecting on IWRM, and on some of the difficulties experienced in its implementation, Shahbaz discusses some international initiatives which can strengthen IWRM in practice, identifies obstacles to operationalising IWRM principles and proposes some opportunities to facilitate IWRM implementation at the river basin level.