Water resources

This Facilitator Manual has been written to support a 2.5 - 3 day workshop that has as one of its goals helping a team or group of people to understand better the parts of the system in which they work in order to make thoughtful recommendations for strategic intervention points - points at which they can have a maximum impact with the most focused (and hopefully the least amount of) effort.

Climate change and the over exploitation of water resources is challenging the sustainability of the Pangani River Basin to deliver water services. Competition for diminishing water resources has led to tensions between the various stakeholders within the basin. Together with the government of Tanzania and donor partners, WANI has responded to this crisis by supporting the implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).

Inappropriate water management practices in the Komadugu Yobe Basin, upstream of Lake Chad in northern Nigeria, changed the seasonal river flow and caused widespread environmental degradation. Coupled with this were fragmented regulation and conflicting responsibilities among institutions, a lack of coordination for hydro-agricultural developments, inequitable access to water resources and growing tensions and risk of conflicts among water users.

Regional and international delegates gathered for a conference focusing on forests, watershed management, and integrated water resource management on 23-24 May in Da Lat, Viet Nam. Participants visited a local national park and heard about the challenges park managers face to protect the forest and water supplies.

Groundwater provides a valuable supply of drinking water to millions in the Mekong Delta, yet because this resource is below ground, it is effectively invisible and often not seen as a priority by policy makers. The paper “Groundwater in Mekong Delta” looks at groundwater conditions and trends in the Vietnamese portion of the delta. It argues that the extensive changes of the natural water flow in the delta have severe economic, environmental, and social impacts.