Monitoring of water resources, water use and pollution – Implementing effective monitoring systems that provide essential management information and identifying and responding to infringements of laws, regulations and permits. [Module 7] • Carry out hydrological, geographical and socio-economic surveys for the purposes of planning and development of water resources.
• Develop, update and maintain a hydrometric database required for controlling compliance of water use allocation.
Information management – Providing essential data necessary to make informed and transparent decisions for development and sustainable management of water resources in the basin. [Module 8] • Define the information outputs that are required by the water managers and different stakeholder groups in a river basin.
• Organise, co-ordinate and manage the information management activities so that the water managers and stakeholders get the information they require.
Economic and financial management – Applying economic and financial tools for investment, cost recovery and behaviour change to support the goals of equitable access and sustainable benefits to society from water use. [Module 9] • Set fees and charges for water use and pollution.
River basin planning – Preparing and regularly updating the Basin Plan incorporating stakeholder views on development and management priorities for the basin. [Module 10] • Conduct situation analysis with stakeholders.
• Assess future developments in the basin.
The water resources management functions comprise a general framework for implementing IWRM for any river basin in the world. For any specific country, region or river basin some of the functions may be more relevant than others. However, for an inhabited river basin with competing water demands all these functions need to be performed to achieve sustainable management of the water resource and to improve livelihoods. In most countries the water resource management functions are guided by the national water laws and policies. Typically these are regulatory functions. Water allocation and pollution control in Table 2.1 are direct examples of such regulatory functions. The other functions may be partly regulatory but also serves as support for each other. For example, the functions of financial and information management are essential to enable the implementation of all regulatory functions.
3. Water Management Objectives as a Way of Performing the Functions
Functions of water resources management are very complex tasks and may involve many different activities conducted by many different players. They can also be implemented to a different level of ambition. To successfully perform these functions with limited resources therefore requires careful planning.
An important step for conducting the functions is to formulate relevant water management objectives related to each function. These water management objectives should delineate the functions into more manageable and understandable parts. Whereas the functions are general, the objectives should take the specific conditions of the river basin and the institutional resources into account. The water management objectives thus set the goal for the water resources management in the basin and lay out the strategy for how to implement the functions.
The water management objectives guide the activities to be carried out and the roles and responsibilities to be given (Figure 2.2). The activities and roles determine the needed capacity to meet the objectives.