INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT FOR POVERTY REDUCTION

Abstract

Integrated water resourcesmanagement (IWRM)can help toreduce poverty.The objectives of this paper is: to highlight overlooked connections between access to waterand poverty, and indicate how current fragmented water management approaches lead to adverse impacts on poorpeople; to explore how IWRM approach is an important strategy for poverty reduction.Literature review is the methodology used for the study. To survive human require water. Hence the need to assure its sustainability for all those living today and for futuregenerations. The trend has been the variety of institutions managing water operating independently from one another. This approach was administrativelyconvenient in a world where there were no apparent constraintson the resource. This approach is no longer appropriate; it isnow recognized that wateruse for one purpose in a given water basin affects its availability for others.The current water issue is often more a crisis of governance than a crisis of physicalscarcity, as scarce water resources are allocated inefficiently, unregulated pollution compromiseswater quality, weak water service providers fail to serve the public, and social and environmentalconcerns are left unaddressed.For this reason equity considerations through IWRM are an importantaspect of policy formulation for development interventions to take care of the poor.