Glimpses of IRBM researches/approaches around the World

Twin2Go in a nutshell

Twin2Go reviews, consolidates, and synthesises research on integrated water resources management (IWRM) in basins around the world. Over the past years, the EU has funded several projects that undertook research on specific IWRM issues in case studies carried out on twinned river basins in Europe and in developing countries. The aim of Twin2Go now is to draw policy relevant research results on issues around ‘adaptive water governance in the context of climate change’ and to make them transferable to other basins.

The consolidated outcomes will feed into best practice guidelines for the implementation of adaptive water governance. To ensure up-take of the research results in water resources management practice and political decision making, all synthesis activities will involve stakeholders from the projects and basins and outcomes will be effectively disseminated to all relevant levels of target groups including high level decision makers in water policy.

World Bank study looks at river basin planning in north India

16 November 2007

A consultant’s study* for the World Bank into effective river basin planning in the hydro-rich states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in India has raised the option of establishing need to development authorities.

The draft recommendations report highlighted the need for data sharing, improved yield estimation, utility and construction coordination, and the benefits of greater involvement of communities and qualified third parties, such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

These needs were identified in trying to establish the key challenges facing India in meeting its ambitious hydropower development programme, and the hurdles are primarily in the river basins of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the report notes.

A key message of the change in approach the study advocates is a shift from project-based planning to co-ordinated planning of many schemes to optimise energy and economic potential of the river basins in the states.

The study referenced the experiences of developing the Satluj and Alaknanda river basins, both to list many risks faced – ranging from geological, hydrological, flood estimation and environmental flow needs to siltation, upstream storage design and cascade optimisation – to useful progress in overcoming the challenges.

More systematic approaches to river basin development are required in other parts of the states, and the study said that establishing specific development organisations charged with such authority, and receiving sufficient funds, should be considered.

* The study – ‘River Basin Development Optimisation’ – was undertaken on behalf of the World Bank by Hydro Tasmania Consulting at the request of the governments of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Ariz. fights changes in Colo. River plan

Shaun McKinnon
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 4, 2007 12:00 AM

Arizona balked Wednesday at proposed changes to a Colorado River drought plan and appealed to the federal government to settle the dispute or delay approval of the plan.

In a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and the other six states that take water from the Colorado River, Arizona officials said attempts to rewrite an agreement reached earlier this year put Arizona's share of the river at an unacceptable risk.

"We worked hard to try to put together this agreement, and the only thing Arizona asked is that it did not harm Arizona water users," said Herb Guenther, director of the state Department of Water Resources.

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Push on for basin communities' water storage plan

Posted Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:36am AEST
Updated Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:35am AEST

A contingency plan is being developed to secure critical water for Murray-Darling Basin communities and industries, as the drought continues.

The move is recommended by the latest Murray-Darling Basin contingency planning report, which has found the water crisis in the southern basin has reached a new low.

Prime Minister John Howard has told Federal Parliament the New South Wales, ACT and South Australian governments have agreed to consider the critical water storage plan, but Victoria is again dragging its feet.

There is concern among some irrigation groups the plan might be too conservative in its allowances for urban needs water, but the Sunraysia Citrus Growers' chairwoman, Ann Mansell, says the debate needs to occur.

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Watershed plan 14 years in the making
By DAVID LESTER
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Benton County Commissioner Claude Oliver recalls a meeting in Prosser 14 years ago where the germ of an idea took root during an extended drought.

The idea involved developing a plan that would meet future water needs for farmers, fish, and communities in the Yakima River Basin.

The watershed plan, approved by the counties two years ago, calls for measures to improve water quality, help irrigators use water more efficiently, expand fish habitat, and add storage

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Georgia's water plan has broad implications

By S. Heather Duncan - hduncan@macon.com

Some homeowners could pay higher rates for watering their big, green lawns. Cities and factories could pay each other for the right to dump more wastewater into one stretch of river. The state could ban building new reservoirs for generating electricity or tourism.

These are all possibilities suggested in the state water plan unveiled earlier this year by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. The agency wrote the plan on behalf of the Georgia Water Council, and it expects to release a second draft Thursday.

In a broad sense, the water plan will affect everything from which Georgia cities grow to which species survive in state rivers.

When the water planning process started two years ago, the state was emerging from a drought that had heightened public awareness of the power of water. After a few wetter years and a temporary lull in regional "water wars," this year a Florida lawsuit heated up tensions and a new drought heated up Georgia - bringing greater urgency to the water planning effort.

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WWF calls for protection of NT's pristine rivers

By Anne Barker

Posted Mon Sep 3, 2007 9:07pm AEST
Updated Mon Sep 3, 2007 9:09pm AEST

Conservationists are warning that the pristine tropical rivers in Australia's far north are at risk unless there are proper measures to protect them.

They are calling for a national management plan similar to those that exist for national parks and marine conservation areas elsewhere.

Stuart Blanch from WWF says despite their pristine nature, even the biggest tropical rivers right across the Northern Territory are under similar pressures to the clogged and polluted waterways in southern Australia.

"Northern Australia's rivers are generally the best in Australia that are left today, and they really are the crown jewels in Australia, as well as for many tropical areas in the world," he said.

"So if we don't look after them, they will end up like the Murray."

The iconic Daly River is one of the great tropical rivers of northern Australia. When it floods - as it often does in the wet season - it is a force that has to be seen to be believed. It can turn a vast area of the top end into an archipelago, isolating communities south-west of Darwin from road or land contact.

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MRC discusses ways to manage Mekong River resources

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) discussed a plan on developing the river's basin, fisheries, navigation, flood management and mitigation, irrigation, and watershed management, Laos' newspaper Vientiane Times reported Thursday.

Delegate to the 26th meeting of the MRC Joint Committee in Laos on Wednesday also touched upon a new drought management program, and hydrological conditions in the lower Mekong basin.

The meeting attended by representatives from four members of the MRC, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, and partner organizations, also discussed the MRC's achievements last year.

Have your say on water management

THE Environment Agency is urging people to have their say on how best to manage precious water resources.

The country has been divided into 11 river basin areas for the purposes of the Water Framework Directive.

The Anglian River Basin District includes all the rivers, ground water and coastal waters from the East Coast to Northampton in the west, and from Lincolnshire in the north to Essex in the south.

It is home to 5.2 million people and includes a substantial number of growth areas identified by the Government's Sustainable Communities Plan.

A public consultation, called Significant Water Management Issues, has been launched and runs until January 24 next year.

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Water warrior's team leaves rivals high and dry
Rosslyn Beeby

His students at Charles Sturt University proudly call him the world water warrior.

Shahbaz Khan has made the lower Murrumbidgee the United Nation's world benchmark for successful river catchment management, developed new techniques for managing saline soils in Pakistan, improved water management in the Philippines and earned accolades for making China's irrigation systems more efficient.

Last night in Sydney, the Wagga Wagga-based CSIRO irrigation hydrologist and United Nations World Water Forum leader added a new honour to his impressive resume the 2007 Land and Water Australia Eureka science prize for water research and innovation.

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Australia. Landmark 10 year plan secures water for Burdekin Basin

Wednesday, 22 August 2007

Water Resources Minister Craig Wallace today released the groundbreaking Burdekin Basin Water Resource Plan, which provides a blueprint for supplying water to the Burdekin Basin over the next decade. Highpoints of the plan are: The creation of over 1.2 million megalitres of new tradeable water allocations to irrigators worth an estimated $650 million to them. It also provides for up to 540 megalitres more water a year for urban, rural and industrial growth in the region. Full Story

World Bank fund to improve PAP basin

G. Satyamurty

Coimbatore: The Aliyar and Palar sub-basins of the Parambikulam–Aliyar Project (PAP) in Coimbatore District have been selected under the Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernisation and Water Body Restoration and Management Project.

This World Bank-funded project gets an outlay of about Rs. 267 crore and will benefit 20,536 hectares under Aliyar and 1,53,695 hectares under Palar sub-basins.

According to Neeraj Mittal, Collector, this is part of the State-level project being implemented in 12 river sub-basins of nine districts as first phase. The objective is to improve water use efficiency and increase agricultural productivity along with additional benefits to the farming community. The project period is April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2013.

“The unique feature of this project is that it has an integrated and a multi-disciplinary approach”. It involves eight departments – Public Works, Agricultural Engineering, Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Agricultural Marketing, Fisheries and the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.

The lion’s share of outlay goes to the PWD. It would take up rehabilitation of canal lining, masonry structure, standardising canal bank roads, providing artificial recharge structure, installation of telemetry and measuring system and demarcation of canal boundaries at about Rs. 150 crore.

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Having a say on water management issues

News | 16 August, 2007

FARMERS, the industry and conservation groups are invited to have a say about the best ways to tackle significant water management issues, such as diffuse pollution and river flows and abstraction, in an effort to further protect and improve rivers, lakes and groundwater.

‘River Basin Planning: Summary of significant water management issues’ is the second step in the process of developing new and better ways in which the Environment Agency and others will work towards achieving ecological standards defined in the European Water Framework Directive by 2015.

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Dar, Nairobi, discuss Mara River water use

MUGINI JACOB in Musoma Daily News; Monday,August 13, 2007 @00:04

SENIOR government officials from Tanzania and Kenya have met to lay out strategies geared at ensuring that Mara River basin water resources are properly utilised for the benefit of the two countries. The officials, mainly drawn from the ministries of water and agriculture, met here last week for the two days’ meeting organised by Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Programme (NELSAP) that is implementing Mara River Basin project in Kenya and Tanzania. The officials, who are also members of the Mara River Basin project steering committee, underscored the need by the two East African Community (EAC) partner states to utilise the basin’s water resources equitably and share it for the benefit of their people. The regional project steering committee chairman, Mr Fred Mwango, described the river that runs through Masai Mara Game Reserve on the Kenya side and the world famous Serengeti National Park as the common heritage that the two countries were blessed with. Full Story

Aug 08, 2007 13:00 ET

WWF-Canada Supports Conservation Progress in the Mackenzie River Basin

FORT SIMPSON, NORTHWEST TERRITORIES--(Marketwire - Aug. 8, 2007) - WWF-Canada strongly supported today's announcement by Prime Minister Harper, federal Minister of the Environment John Baird, and Dehcho Grand Chief Herb Norwegian, to withdraw additional land from industrial development for the expansion of Nahanni National Park, NWT.

"This marks significant progress on the larger need to respect community wishes to sequence conservation first, in advance of industrial development," said Rob Powell, Director of WWF-Canada's Mackenzie River Basin program.

Dr. Powell was referring to approximately 20 areas that First Nation communities have proposed for protection in the Mackenzie River Basin, before proposals such as the Mackenzie Gas Project proceed.

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No water plan ready? NRDs disagree

Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Natural Resources District officials say it isn't true Nebraska doesn't have a plan to comply with Republican River Compact requirements.

"A recent statement by a Nebraska water official that Nebraska has no compliance plan for the Republican River Compact with Kansas was incomplete and made it appear that no efforts are being made to develop a plan or comply with the Compact," according to a release issued Tuesday.

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MERIS for African water concerns

MERIS for African water concerns

As part of the IWAREMA (Integrated Water Resource management for Zambia) project, funded through ESA’s Data User Element, data from ESA’s multispectral MERIS (MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) sensor aboard Envisat was used to create maps depicting existing water resources, suitable dam locations and land cover for water related issues. The project is carried out by the Belgium Company GIM (Geographic Information Management) in partnership with the University of Zambia and the Zambian water authorities.

The project focused on the Kafue River Basin, which is a sub-basin of the Zambezi River. The Kafue Basin is of great importance to the country’s economy and is home to more than half of the country’s population. The rate of urbanisation has been unprecedented and has therefore exceeded the rate of infrastructure development and service provision, such as water supply and sanitation.

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Heller says health of local economy, watershed itself are priorities

Posted: 8/3/2007
STORY CHAT(read or post comments)

By Keith Trout

Efforts for legislation to resolve Walker River issues, trying to get more money for seeding after wildfires, efforts to change the mining law, technology education funding were among subjects discussed by Nevada Congressman Dean Heller during a recent conference call.

On potential Walker River Basin legislation, Heller said public hearings on should be conducted in the area next year on a proposed bill, adding that drafting of such a bill is "so preliminary, I don't anticipate to see any legislation until August of next year."

The freshman Congressman from Carson City, who represents the state's 2nd Congressional District, also said he's spoken with farmers and ranchers in Lyon County and has told them his top priority is the economic well-being of the valleys and the health of the watershed.

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Hill Country seeking to avoid being left high and dry

Web Posted: 08/02/2007 10:49 PM CDT

Zeke MacCormack
Express-News BOERNE — Water conservation, rainwater capture and brush removal can help keep faucets flowing in Hill Country areas of fast growth, declining aquifers and limited surface water supplies.

Calls for regional coordination on those initiatives were aired this week at a water forum here, along with a warning that despite recent heavy rains, the Trinity Aquifer level barely has rebounded in places.

Tommy Mathews, chairman of the local water board, said combined pumping from wells across Kendall County already might exceed the annual draw of 4,840 acre-feet of water considered "sustainable" by the Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District.

The district is expected to stop issuing new permits for commercial pumpers once that limit is hit, although officials say permits likely will be available for domestic and livestock uses. An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons.

A study is under way to determine the exact pumping volume in the county, where the population has grown 33 percent to about 32,000 — and an average of nearly 300 residential well permits per year have been issued — since 2000.

The groundwater supply has been supplemented by water piped in from Canyon Lake by the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority, but GBRA General Manager Bill West said at Wednesday's forum that all of the available water in the pipeline is spoken for.

Among the GBRA customers is the city of Boerne, whose 10,000 residents enjoy a level of certainty about future water sources that's envied by rural neighbors, including some who've seen their wells dry up in recent droughts.

Combined with Boerne's own reservoir and its nine wells, there's enough water to serve 25,000 residents, City Manager Ron Bowman said.

The city's water can be stretched if conservation measures are stepped up and the city pursues plans to pump treated wastewater back into Boerne Lake for reuse as drinking water.

Rainwater capture programs were in the spotlight when the water forum was launched last year by the Greater Boerne Chamber of Commerce. This year, there was increased talk about brush control.

Some 65,000 acres have been cleared of mesquite and ash juniper (better known to Texans as "cedar") in the Pedernales River basin since 2002.

The Legislature this year allocated $3.6 million to the Texas State Water and Soil Conservation Board for brush control programs, said Tuffy Wood, program specialist for the agency.

The project started in San Angelo in 1999 and has expanded to seven river watersheds, he said.

Wood estimated nearly half of all rainfall never reaches the soil in areas thick with ash juniper because it's caught in the canopy and absorbed in the mulch.

He said the grant program covers 70 percent of brush-clearing costs — an estimated $180 an acre in the Pedernales basin areas of Gillespie, Blanco and Hays counties — with the balance paid by landowners.

"In the past there has not been any money for the Guadalupe basin, but that is a project we are looking at heavily now," Wood said Thursday. "I'm assuming they will get some."

Cow Creek board member John Kight, a former Kendall County commissioner, said a coordinated brush-clearing program is needed here.

He predicted clearing 100,000 acres of brush in Kendall County could translate into 130,000 more acre-feet of rainwater annually for aquifers, rivers and streams.

"We're going to run out of water if we don't do something to help ourselves," Kight said.

Australian river plan under threat

6:15AM Monday July 30, 2007

The Australian Government's A$10 billion ($11.1 billion) Murray-Darling rescue plan is in jeopardy after the Queensland Nationals withdrew their support for it.

The party's state conference voted to oppose the commonwealth's draft water bill in its current form. And John Brumby, who will be sworn in as Victoria's new Labor premier this week, said his state would not back down from its opposition to the proposed federal takeover of the Murray-Darling river system.

The plan is backed by the NSW, Queensland, South Australian and ACT governments.