TOP Books, manuals, articles and papers

Calder, I.R. 1999. The blue revolution: land use and integrated water resources management. Earthscan, London .

This accessible book focuses on interactions between land use and water, and is particularly valuable in explaining some of the myths around deforestation and impacts on water, showing us that these interactions within catchments are often more complex and context-specific than they may seem at first glance. Includes a list of IWRM web links.

EC. 1998. Towards sustainable water resources management: a strategic approach. European Commission, Brussels .

These guidelines aim to facilitate implementation of projects (with a focus on EC project approaches) that are consistent with integrated water resources management principles. They include a useful checklist-based approach to planning and assessing domestic water supply projects to ensure that they incorporate core IWRM principles.

[online] Available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/body/publications/water/en/frontpage_en.htm

GWP. 2000. Integrated Water Resources Management. TAC Background Paper No. 4, GWP, Stockholm, Sweden. This paper provides a good general overview to IWRM from its main proponents, the Global Water Partnership.

[online] Available at www.gwpforum.org/gwp/library/Tacno4.pdf(accessed 14 July 2003)

Moench, M., Caspari, E. and Dixit, A. (eds.). 2001. Rethinking the Mosaic: Investigations into Local Water Management, Nepal Water Conservation Foundation, Kathmandu, and the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition, Boulder, Colorado, USA

An excellent book that is not widely available but is well worth seeking out, on the vast problems faced in managing local water resources better, especially groundwater, in South Asia. Includes well-illustrated examples and case studies from Nepal and three different Indian states.

Moench, M., Dixit, A., Janakarajan, M., Rathore, S., Mudrakartha, S 2003. The fluid mosaic, water governance in the context of variability, uncertainty and change,

A follow-up to the research reported in rethinking the mosaic (above). This book is available as a pdf file http://web.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/10492953541Fluid_Mosaic21.pdf (accessed 17 March 2004)

Moriarty, P., & Butterworth, J. 2003. The productive use of domestic water supplies: how water supplies can play a wider role in livelihood improvement and poverty reduction. IRC Thematic Overview Paper, Delft, Netherlands [online] Available at www.irc.nl/page/3733 (accessed 20 July 2005)

This paper tackles some important issues relating to the household-level use of water supplies for activities like backyard irrigation, keeping livestock and micro-enterprises. This issue links IWRM and WATSAN, particularly because of the equity issues around access to water by the poor for productive uses, and the water resources management implications of greater household-level water use if these needs are to be met.

Peet, J. 2003. Priceless: a survey of water. The Economist, 19th July 2003. [online] Available (for US$2.95) at http://www.economist.com

The overview to this survey of the water sector provides an easy-to-read summary of contemporary water problems from a free market economics perspective.

Visscher, J.T., Bury, P., Gould, T., & Moriarty, P. 1999. Integrated water resource management in water and sanitation projects: lessons from projects in Africa , Asia and South America , Occasional Paper 31, IRC, Delft, Netherlands [online] Available at www.irc.nl/products/publications/online/op31e (accessed 14 July 2003)

This report is based on work and inputs from all involved in the project “Promising Approaches in Water Resources Management in the Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Sector”. The project reviewed experience of the application of the principles for good water resources management formulated at various international fora. The report includes a modified set of principles (based upon the Dublin principles) to apply IWRM in WATSAN projects.

World Health Organization. 2003. The Right to Water. WHO, Geneva. www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/rightowater/en/ (accessed 17th March 2004)

This book explores a human rights-based approach to water. It outlines: the scope and content of the legal definition of the human right to water and its relationship to other civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights; implications for the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders including communities; and the contribution the right to water can make towards making drinking water a reality for all.

WMO. 1992 . The Dublin Statement and report of the conference . International Conference on Water and the Environment (ICWE): Development issues for the 21st century, 26-31 January 1992, Geneva, Switzerland, World Meteorological Organization, Hydrology and Water Resources Department [online] Available at www.wmo.ch/web/homs/documents/hwrpdocs.html(accessed 8 August 2003)

The statement from this conference includes the four guiding principles, upon which approaches to IWRM have been developed.