Full Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education, Issue ...

Making IWRM Work105an eminently useful approach to water management.Capitalizing on these increased values, in our view,holds more promise for promoting and financingIWRM than the more limited water cost-recoverystrategies associated with the Dublin principle ofwater as an economic good.There are several institutional challengesin operationalizing this values and financesframework. A first challenge is how to quantifyvalues in a general framework. How should valuesbe compared and related to different functions?How should priorities be set? This problem couldeasily translate into a complex and irresolvablequestion, especially if simplistic reductionistmethods are to be avoided that translate all valuesinto one quantifiable parameter, thus violatingthe complexity of water values. The problem,however, may not be as large as it seems. First,awareness of the many functions in water resourcesystems and the quantification of each of themultitude of distinguishable values would be agreat leap forward in many situations. The defaultin many areas is that water is either not managedat all or only managed from a narrow perspective.Moreover, in many cases values are complementaryrather than competitive; this changes the problemof setting priorities. A pragmatic approach in mostcases seems appropriate and sufficient; that is,trying to make much out of the various functionsthat come along with improved water managementand merely avoiding clear negative values.Involving stakeholders in the complex process canbe translated into win-win situations.In financing integrated water management, thestrategy should also not be to maximize returns andthereby focus on financially valuable functions suchas property development or leisure development.An example is the West Delta Project in Egypt.It is a valid question to ask whether one shouldhave used fossil ground water resources close to themajor city in the country to develop a golf course,even though in the short term this was a functionthat generated very high monetary values. Thechallenge for water resource managers — preferablyin an open consultative process — is to balance thedifferent functions, not necessarily to maximizefinancial returns. Once again, an institutional settingthat is tasked and equipped to balance and optimizemultiple functions, rather than maximize individualones, will be better able to handle the finance captureapproach from a IWRM angle.Conclusions and DiscussionIn this paper, we have presented variousperspectives on the operationalization of IWRM.The first is that the international discourse hasfocused on governance issues in their institutionaland legal context, while insufficiently addressingthe vital issue of financing IWRM.From the perspective of IWRM, water shouldbe managed through multiple functions andmultiple stakeholder-oriented organizations suchas river basin organizations. These are also in abetter position to reach a balance in the capturingof values and their transformation into financialvalues. Whereas mono-sectoral water managementcan easily lead to the commodification of water ifconsidered an economic good only, multi-sectoraland multi-stakeholder institutions such as riverbasin organizations should normally be betterequipped to optimize functions and their relatedvalues.In the light of this, the challenge to capturevalues and to finance IWRM thus translates intoa challenge to create viable area-based watermanagement institutions that are explicitly taskedand equipped to achieve balance between functionsand values. This transformation will become mucheasier as soon as the perspective shifts from theextra management tasks towards the extra revenuegeneration opportunities. To take a more businesslike approach to water management by quantifyingthe value of different functions would already be amajor step forward in most cases.As a contribution towards the discussion onhow to operationalize IWRM, we propose thatparticipatory business planning is a workablemethod to achieve a focus on the multiple valuesincorporated in the water system. Businessplanning, as a process for raising awareness of bothwater management institutions and stakeholdersalike, can have various positive effects. First of all,it has the potential to change a water managementinstitution’s focus from costs (to be met from alimited, mostly government-provided budget)towards a focus on revenue and income-generation.Second, it has the potential to engage stakeholdersin a discussion that focuses on multiple values andJOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY WATER RESEARCH & EDUCATIONUCOWR