Water Resources Management: Technical Brief II

Agriculture
Written By Cate Urban

Improving water resources management (WRM) plays a fundamental role in maintaining vibrant, resilient societies and economies and is becoming increasingly important as climate change, pollution, and rising demand increase water stress. This technical brief provides guidance on factors to consider in United States Agency for International Development (USAID) programs that aim to improve WRM and associated development outcomes.

Key Takeaways

  • Increasing water stress, exacerbated by climate change, undermines economic growth and resilience, as well as sustainable access to Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services, food security and nutrition, inclusive development, and peace and security. Investing in WRM is one of the best ways to address rising water stress and adapt to climate change.

  • Critical objectives for WRM programming include achieving more equitable and economically optimized water allocation within basins; improving water quality; managing water quantity; and reducing vulnerability to flooding, drought, and chronic water scarcity.

  • WRM is fundamentally a complex governance challenge. Durable solutions require understanding issues at multiple spatial and temporal scales, engaging a broad range of stakeholders and water users to define problems and find opportunities to address them, strong systems of policies, regulation and incentives, and building in flexibility and adaptive management informed by data.

  • Nature-based solutions such as green infrastructure are underutilized, but often offer lasting, cost-effective improvements, with multiple co-benefits for water resources, climate change adaptation, communities, and ecosystems.

  • While a holistic approach to WRM is important, single-sector actions can still contribute to improved WRM by expanding sustainable agricultural water management, using water more efficiently, reducing sources of pollution, and protecting critical ecosystems for the benefit of both humans and the natural environment.

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Water Resources Management: Technical Brief II

Source: USAID
Year: 2021

Cate Urban

I founded Urban Web Renovations after 11 years of leading global marketing strategies for nonprofit organizations in Washington, DC. In each position I held, one thing remained the same – my passion for managing web sites and social media accounts for both organizations and major thought leaders.

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