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| "Integrated Water Resources Management Approaches: Global and National Scenario" - A Public Forum |
- by Dr.
Roberto Lenten |
Technical
Committee Chair, Global Water Partnership |
| It is a pleasure it is to be here, at the Swaminathan Research Foundation in this public forum and particularly Mr.Mohanakrishnan and Dr.Shakthivadivelu, the two people who I first met many many years ago and in fact introduced me to the challenges of irrigaion and water resources management in Tamil Nadu and from whom I learnt a great deal and it is a great pleasure to be again back amongst my friends. |
| Let me say on behalf of the technical committee of the Global Water Partnership how much we appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this public forum, because we have decided to have our meeting in Chennai, because we knew that there were important changes that this state placed and novel approaches, new ideas emerging, to face the challenges and we thought that we needed to learn more on the ground on what the stete is doing, emerging in water resource itself. We have opportunity and to be engaged in this kind of public debate and learn from you that how you are experiencing a kind of challenges and adopting over here what we are, is the Technical Committee of Global Water Partnership. I should mention that in addition to Judith Reeves and myself and several other members of the Technical Committee here with us in the Public Forum in the front row is Missimi Komoun from Pakistan, and next to her is Dr.Hardwood Brooke from Germany and further behind Mehair Solanum is from Argentina and Eclact Commission for Latin America based in San Diego, America and all our members and all Technical Committee and we are sure thay we want to engage in this debate. But we are the Technical Committee of the Global Water Partnership, Mr.Mohana Krishnan have mentioned that the Global Conferences had been starting in 1977 in Marthu Platter, well how about Global Liberation in 1996 and a few International Agencies, the UNDP, the Swedish SIDA and the World Bank together and decided to establish as a global network established this Global Water Partnership with the specific purpose of helping countries with the specific purpose of helping countries in sustainable water management so the message of Global Water Partnership is the sustainable water management of water resources and essenatially it has done it through a series of regional water partnerships. There are 11 regional water partnerships of the global. One of them is the part of the South Asia and what we have been doing in our meeting in Chennai is and back to back is to meet with our regional councilling meeting partnership and we would be interacting with them that we have spent all of our yesterday morning of their programmes and their activities, so there is a India Water Partnership and so India Water Partnership is a part of the South Asia Water Partnership and the South Asia Watership Partnership is a part of the Global Water Partership and we are the Technical Committee for that, but, in addition to this, each of these regional Water Partnerships ambition is to promote and to support, the sustainable water management efforts and what is the homework of the GWP approach is the following you see, recognition that if you are going to manage water in a more a sustainable way, you have to go for more integrated far more comphrensive and coherent approach which is the Integrated Water Resources Management Approach and I was interested, hat Mr.Mohana Krishanan has been emphasing land and water and is that what essentially what lies at the heart of IWRF Approach we have defined the IWRF approach promotes the co-ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximise the results in economic and social welfare and in the equitable manner without comprising the sustainability of vital ecosystems now due to Judit will focus her comments on IWRF approach and how perspective might help in addressing some of the issues that we are aware, that you are addressing here and so let me not say anything much longer than that, except to emphasis that one of the characteristic of the GWP which were a part of in addition to the doing element, that works through regional partnership the facilitating efforts on th ground i.e., learning components that is the primarily the work of the Technical Committee, we feel that Integrated Water Resources Management is the dynamic area we want to advance the understanding of the Integrated Water Resources Management, we want to advance the approaches, the techniques, the tools that can be used to move towards the Integrated Water Approach and a part of what we do at the technical committee is to learn from the experiences that are happening from the ground and try to guide and advance the subject, increase the understanding of what the approach is all about. But my colleague will expand further GWP but particularly on IWRM concept |