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The existing literature does not probe the extent to which promoting financial inclusion can provide an enabling environment to improve access to sanitation services, which is one of the integral objectives of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6. This paper empirically examines if traditional and digital financial inclusion can influence access to sanitation services for 84 low- and middle-income countries covering the period 2000–17. Our results establish that both indicators of traditional and digital financial inclusion generate a strong, positive and robust influence on access to sanitation services in lower and middle-income countries, especially in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Macta River basin in Algeria is under pressure. A water accounting of the basin demonstrates the severity of the crisis, with a net water depletion rate estimated at 93–142%, depending on the assumptions made. This reflects the overexploitation of the aquifers whose annual depletion is estimated at between 86 and 126 Mm3. This paper first discusses the causes of basin overbuilding and the over-allocation of water, and then analyses the economic, social and environmental consequences. It calls for a stricter water accounting of river basins in Algeria as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDG 6 are implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the discussions on flood control in Japan, recently adding climate change, and the activities of the Japan International Cooperation Agency for disaster risk reduction. JICA led the negotiations of the UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, as a main member of the government of Japan. The Sustainable Development Goals' demand to 'leave no one behind' requires that the social system protect even the poorest people who live in disaster-prone areas. Local disaster risk reduction planning plays an indispensable role; and JICA wrote an eight-step methodology to formulate these plans. The emphasis in each country needs to shift from planning to implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The equitable and universal provision of safe and affordable water is one of the Sustainable Development Goals, but progress has been slow, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper presents a case study of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to highlight water access progress at the city scale. Using household surveys and interviews with officials, it explains improvements in hours of water availability and numbers of household water connections, but also discusses the remaining challenges with water cost and customer satisfaction. To achieve the goal of universal access, the city must further increase water production and address concerns with how water quality is monitored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes how processes used in environmental conservation efforts for rivers, with emphasis on those in the Kruger National Park Rivers Research initiative, interacted with water law reform processes in South Africa designed to balance resource protection and use sustainably. The paper uses complementary frameworks from resilience and business management theory to analyze progress and synchronicity. A long phase of preparation and sensing by ecologists, and an overwhelming drive for equity once democratization began, allowed for sustainability issues to successfully link the two processes during a short window of opportunity. Such synergies are unpredictable, and cannot be fully planned in advance. Ongoing sensing strategies, visionary leadership and serendipity are crucial. A difficult implementation phase lies ahead and the paper suggests actions and processes that might assist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper is the result and synthesis of several water resources studies carried out by a group of specialists within the 'ARIDAS Project-A Strategy for the Sustainable Developmentof North East Brazil'. The paper comprises basically: diagnosis of the water resources situation in the North East; analysis of water sustainability, vulnerability to droughts, current water policies, and implications for the future; and guidelines for the setting up of a new water resources policy taking into account the sustainable developmentof the region. Deficient or critical areas were identified in terms of quantity, quality and vulnerability. Patterns of sustainability and vulnerability indexes were suggested, as well as a few general lines of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water is an important resource for both business and society; it is a cross-cutting issue and should be managed using an integrated approach. Many businesses, such as oil and gas, have global operations in multiple geographic and climatic contexts across a range of jurisdictions. This paper explores whether the conceptual framework of integrated water resource management (IWRM) is an applicable approach for business to manage water issues. There are currently limited documented experiences of the relationship between business and IWRM. This article summarizes key findings from research that was supported by King's College London. Findings indicate that although IWRM is a high-level, holistic approach, the principles can be of value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated water resources management provides a set of ideas to help us manage water more holistically. However, these ideas have been formalized over time in what has now become, in capitals, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), with specific prescriptive principles whose implementation is often supported by donor funding and international advocacy. IWRM has now become an end in itself, in some cases undermining functioning water management systems, in others setting back needed water reform agendas, and in yet others becoming a tool to mask other agendas. Critically, the current monopoly of IWRM in global water management discourse is shutting out alternative thinking on pragmatic solutions to existing water problems. This paper explains these issues and uses examples of transboundary water governance in general, groundwater management in India and rural–urban water transfer in China to show that there are (sometimes antithetical) alternatives to IWRM which are being successfully used to solve major water problems. The main message is that we should simply get on with pragmatic politics and solutions to the world's many individual water challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the use of transboundary water resources management principles in two key regional water-related agreements in Central Asia: the Agreement on Cooperation in Joint Management, Use and Protection of Interstate Sources of Water Resources (1992) and the Statute of the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination of Central Asia (2008). These agreements incorporate several internationally recognized transboundary water resources management principles, though there are also some weaknesses. The presence of such principles in these regional agreements offers plenty of hope for the promotion of sustainable water resources management in Central Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water, energy, and security form a complicated nexus in Central Asia, where domestic, regional, and international interests intertwine in numerous ways. A relatively large amount of literature exists on these three issues, either separately or in different combinations, yet it is difficult to see how the three intertwine and what their macro-level impacts might be on sustainable development, security, and the five Central Asian countries. This paper aims to understand what constitutes the water–energy–security nexus in Central Asia on the basis of definitions, indicators, and data. The nexus is also examined in the context of the broader global political economy, and gaps in current knowledge and suggestions for future research are pointed out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most people tend to focus on the visible part of water. Therefore, water quality has been undervalued in water management, with people often not having the necessary understanding and knowledge to manage water quality effectively. Policies and strategies also tend to give more attention to managing quantity. This paper highlights the legislative principles of equity, efficiency and sustainability in the context of water resource management in South Africa. It provides two examples of practical implementation of these principles from a water quality perspective and highlights the challenges relating to the realization of these principles in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social and political transformation that occurred in South Africa has resulted in a new dispensation which requires a paradigm shift in the allocation, management and operation of water resources. The mandate is to allocate, manage and operate water resources in order to obtain the optimal balance of equitable, efficient and sustainable water use in catchments. In this paper the concept of Fractional Water Allocation and Capacity Sharing (FWACS) is explored as a method of allocating and managing water entitlements. The concept is introduced for its potential to encourage water market mechanisms while ensuring that social (equity) and sustainability requirements are achieved. The FWACS system is presented as framework in which water use efficiency can be obtained in the context of water scarcity in South Africa as well as many other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation services and improving water resources management are central to the basic right of every human being. Egypt has set an ambitious water agenda in response to the many challenges facing the country and the people. It has successfully met the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) water targets by developing and implementing a national integrated water resources management plan during the post 2017-period. Egypt has also taken several measures to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targets for drinking water and sanitation. It has successfully proceeded in supplying nearly the whole population with access to drinking water, whereas sanitation coverage heavily favours urban areas and only a small fraction of rural areas. This paper aims to shed some light on the efforts exerted by the government of Egypt for equitable and sustainable management of its water resources that benefit both individuals and the society at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for realistic expectations of Multi-Stakeholder Platforms (MSPs). MSPs are currently a hot topic in the water policy community, despite voices of disillusionment with participation in development work. Research carried out in Peru, Argentina, India, South Africa and Belgium suggests that platforms certainly can prove helpful networks in communication on and management of competing claims to water, managing coordination problems, coalition-building and/ or visioning. However, experience has put paid to implicit and explicit expectations from platforms, especially with a view to the integration of knowledge and actors. It makes no sense to separate distributive negotiation and politics (‘bad’) from integrative negotiation and social learning (‘good’). Platforms mix both modalities of negotiation, and actors may strategically withhold or contribute their knowledge. Second, no significant power sharing (vertical inclusion) takes place. A typology of MSPs ranked by influence finds no platform with a significant mandate. It is suggested that MSPs are an institutional bargaining space that is especially useful for visioning and information exchange, but cautioned not to insist that ‘water MSPs’ confine themselves to water issues only, and to institutionalized groups only. For some stakeholders, the communication and information process itself is good enough, but others will want results: ‘food on the table’. Some stakeholders will never join as they do not see how it benefits them and/or because they find it more advantageous to work around the platform. Initiators of platforms for stakeholder involvement in water management should therefore be very clear on what the participatory process aims at and can realistically achieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyze how the EU Water Framework Directive complies with the international principles concerning Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) agreed in major conferences. The outcomes of the International Conference on Water and Environment (Dublin, 1992), the Second World Water Forum (The Hague, 2000), the International Conference on Freshwater (Bonn, 2001), and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) (Johannesburg, 2002) were compared with the EU Water Framework Directive. Seven notable mismatches were found, even though several EU countries have played a leading role in those conferences. The question arises whether the outcome of these conferences is not efficient enough to Influence EU policies--do the conferences just produce collections of idealistic buzzwords or is there a requirement for different principles regarding IWRM for developing countries and developed countries? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful binational planning and management of water resources is a complex process dependent on informed decision-making across diverse economic, social and political sectors. Additional technical and scientific information is often required as a part of this process. A critical factor in this process is how effectively social and physical scientists can help build collaboration and trust among stakeholders, water and land managers, and policy-makers. Within the international San Pedro River Basin, disparities between Mexico and the USA regarding economic development and political orientation, combined with a highly variable and complex physical setting, suggest that the successful engagement of scientists with communities and stakeholders will be essential for addressing challenges in water management. Based upon concepts associated with collective action theory, adaptive management and conflict resolution, the present paper proposes a process for fostering collaborative binational water management in basins such as the San Pedro that span international borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with being a basic human need, water is also a basic constituent for the survival of eco-systems of which people and their cultures are important components. The water resources distribution in India, predominantly an agrarian economy, is highly asymmetric and has been accompanied by severe decline in per-capita water availability during the past 50 years, with agriculture being the maximum water user, leading to over-exploitation of ground water and steadily depleting water tables along with a heavy energy bill. Gujarat State falls in a water stressed zone of the country and is also the victim of intra-state asymmetric water availability leading to an unwanted socio-economic disparity, with the following results: a poor literacy rate in water-deficit districts; concentration of industry and housing in regions with better water resources endowment; and demographic change, e.g. the shift of the prime workforce from drought-prone districts to water-surplus districts. This in turn denies the right to life, development, health, food, education and work for these migrant communities. To ensure a balanced development when there is less than one acre per capita of cultivable landholding and over 14 000 villages out of 18 563 are suffering from water scarcity, there is no other alternative but to transfer water from surplus to scarce areas of the state. This paper aims to raise some critical questions on water issues, food security, energy viability, rights of people, and most importantly, water security in the context of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water-based development is a catalyst for economic, social and environmental changes. Currently, this development is framed in the discourse of sustainability, based on such concepts as participation, gender equity and the containment of environmental and social impacts. Policies concerning these changes are implemented via state institutions, often in tandem with private institutions, both commercial (banks and businesses) and non-profit (universities and non-governmental organizations). The success of sustainable integrated development depends on the ability of these institutions to incorporate the concepts of sustainability, to adapt to changing environments and to optimize co-operation with other institutions. However, these institutions may vary greatly in their interpretation of the sustainability discourse, as well as in their capacity to implement those concepts consistently. This paper presents some of the current issues related to the need for capacity building and multisectoral co-ordination in order to ensure ongoing sustainable development (SD) where most, if not all, actors have a critical understanding of development discourse and are able to apply the concepts of sustainability in their normal operations. These issues are then discussed in the context of the experience of the South-eastern Anatolia Project Regional Development Administration in introducing SD to south-eastern Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT One of the most important resources for socioeconomic development in arid and semi-arid countries is water, and its scarcity in the Middle East has been a key factor in war and peace-making.As water shortages occur and full utilization is reached, water policies tend to be framed more and more in zero-sum terms, adding to the probability of discord. The aim of this study is to provide some innovative technological answers to the fundamental questions of how to sustain the water supply without causing diverse effects on the ecosystem both now and for the 21st century. This paper evaluates several non-conventional approaches highlighting the economic and environmental gains of co-generation applications that would have the potential to resolve this persistent problem, and thus contribute towards peace among the water users in the Middle East. Priority of development projects including viability of (1) the strategic use of such resources as brackish water, seawater and reclaimed wastewater, and (2) the transboundary transport of water is preliminarily evaluated by taking into account the four feasibility elements 'technical', 'environment', 'economy' and 'politics'. Water conservation and management including water pricing scenarios are essential confidence-building measures to manage the water resources in the region. In this circumstance, non-conventional strategic alternatives including desalination and reuse of treated wastewater will become significantly important in water resources development to supply new additional fresh waters in the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Water use since the dawn of human history has increased steadily, and the current trend is no exception. For many reasons it would be a difficult task to alleviate the water crisis significantly in many parts of the world within a reasonable timeframe. Environmental and social aspects of water development have become important factors to consider in recent decades, but many serious methodological and operational constraints have to be overcome before environmentally-sound water management can become a reality. There are many fundamental problems with the environmental assessment procedures. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the present status of operationalizingthe concept of sustainable water developmentin the real world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]