TOP Web sites

Global Water Partnership (GWP)

www.gwpforum.org

The GWP is an international network created to foster IWRM. A useful resource is the IWRM toolbox containing a range of tools and case studies including water and sanitation (these include tools on organisation, efficiency in water use and regulatory instruments). The toolbox can however be hard to navigate and some tools and case studies are of limited depth. An online library contains key papers and other resources, and there are links to a wider range of related web sites.

World Bank

www.worldbank.org/water and www.worldbank.org/watsan

These are two sites at the World Bank that will be of interest to readers of this TOP. One focusing on water resources management and one on water supply and sanitation.

UNESCO

http://www.unesco.org/water/

Water portal for the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation which includes the World Water Assessment Programme site.

IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre

www.irc.nl/themes/iwrm

IWRM is one of the core themes on which IRC focuses from a WATSAN perspective. This focus area takes a livelihoods-based approach to improving the impact of WATSAN services on poverty, and ensuring access by the poor to an equitable share of water resources. This thematic site includes links to related IRC publications, such as Water, Households and Rural Livelihoods.

WHiRL

www.nri.org/whirl

This site includes outputs from a research project that specifically focuses on the links between (rural) water supplies and water resources management. It includes case studies from South Africa and India.

International Water Management Institute

www.iwmi.org

This site may not be familiar to WATSAN professionals, but IWMI increasingly takes a broad look at water management in contrast to its earlier focus on irrigated agriculture. Projects in recent years have included research on the role of domestic water supplies in irrigation systems.

EU water initiative

http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/water-initiative/index_en.html

Web site of the scientific research dimension of the European Union’s Water Initiative.

European commission water policy site

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/water/index.html

Entry page to all the key policies developed by the European Commission regarding regulation and management of water within the European Union, including the urban wastewater directive and water framework directive.

CAPNET

http://www.cap-net.org/

The Capacity Building Network for Integrated Water Resource Management aims to make available a wide range of information and guidelines about capacity building and IWRM in one place. A recently developed, short, IWRM tutorial is ideal for both those interested in learning more for themselves, and also for trainers.

Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, South Africa

http://www-dwaf.pwv.gov.za/

This site is a good example of how a first step in taking IWRM to scale is making everything accessible. The site includes copies of new laws, strategy documents and much more.

Right to water

http://www.righttowater.org.uk/code/homepage.asp

This site was developed by WaterAid and Rights and Humanity, in cooperation with FAN, to: provide information on relevant policy commitments and explain the concepts and theories of human rights law with respect to the right to water; disseminate General Comment No 15 adopted by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights confirming and interpreting the right to water; and promote the use of the right to water as a tool for community empowerment, advocacy and legal redress.