Non-Integrated Water Resources Management

Integrated Water Resources Management provides a set of reasoned principles that, if followed, would lead us to an improved water future. This promise plus the backing of important international organizations has allowed IWRM ideals to acquire a near monopoly on water management discourse. This is unfortunate because, while the potential benefits of IWRM are large, its implementation comes with its own set of economic, political and time costs, costs which are not always considered in IWRM policy advocacy. Failure to recognize these costs can sometimes result in outcomes counter to the goals of water sector reform. As important, the ubiquity of IWRM in policy discussions means that lower cost and potentially more effective options are sometimes not considered. This chapter highlights these points by first describing the sometimes neglected costs of IWRM implementation, particularly in developing country contexts. It then provides a set of case studies examining solutions to water problems whose methods run counter to IWRM. The case studies include a non-basin scale approach to reduce transboundary conflict in Central Asia, a non-price solution to groundwater overdraft in western India, and non-participatory methods in China to move low-value agricultural water to higher value urban uses without decreasing agricultural production. The overall point of the chapter is not to criticize IWRM. Rather it is to highlight that IWRM principles are simply one option among many for improving the way we use scarce water resources.