IWRM in Mongolia: caught between national aspirations and local realities?

摘要

Mongolia faces a sharp increase in water withdrawal and land use, which in some regions is gradually leading to overexploitation and pollution. While Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been adopted under national policies, local implementation remains weak. Taking the example of the Kharaa river basin in Northern Mongolia, the authors present their findings on changes in land and water use and analyse the impact of these trends on competition for natural resources and the resulting potential for conflict. The article reveals that implementing the IWRM approach in the Kharaa basin could be a major step towards assessing environmental change and bringing the stakeholders together for sustainable water and land use. However, local implementation continues to be a challenge, since the legal framework, financial and technical capacities and the functioning of the river basin institutions remain unclear. The future of IWRM in Mongolia will depend not only on the legal framework for river basin management and the political will to delegate substantial power and resources to the local level, but also on the participation of local stakeholders.