Learning Objectives
Appreciate how information management supports effective water management in a river basin.
Understand the information management process and know some of the tools used in information management. Identify important information management outputs and how they are disseminated.
1. Introduction
IWRM, in the context of a river basin, is about management of the limited water resources in a river basin for an optimum outcome among different competing water users. Thus, comprehensive, accurate and timely information is necessary for objective planning, decision-making and for gaining support from competing river basin stakeholders. However, the reality is that most RBO are under-resourced, both in terms of financial and human resources. Thus, there is a need for RBO managers to understand the main IWRM issues in a river basin and prioritise the types of information that they need to collect (separating the essential from the non-essential) to address the identified issues. Deciding on what to report, to whom and how to communicate the report to the relevant stakeholders is the final most important step.
Thus, for effective implementation of IWRM in a river basin there is a need for an
information management function to be carried out by an Information Management Unit (IMU) within a relevant RBO.