Integrated water resources management: horizontal and vertical explorations and the 'water in all policies' approach

摘要

Water constitutes a sector that overlaps with many other sectors and within itself has an array of quite different interests, stakeholders with varying mind-sets and consequently notable governance challenges. Integrated water resources management (IWRM) is the recommended approach to tackle this situation. Integration - both vertical (within the sector) and horizontal (across different established sectors) - is seen as fundamental to balanced governance and policy making. IWRM has a long history, and rich experiences, both positive and negative, have been reported. This article summarizes some of this experience and concludes that both vertical and horizontal challenges are ample. To contextualize and systematize integration, a flow chart is presented for various tasks and phases of water governance, and the challenges of integration are embedded into that framework. Because water is not the only sector that overlaps with other sectors and has integration challenges, the health sector is considered to learn from its approaches. Particularly interesting is the 'health in all policies' approach. This is helpful in further developing IWRM, in particular with respect to horizontal integration, in which IWRM may particularly need development.