Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

5 0 6 / F I T T I N G T H E P I E C E S T O G E T H E RThe World’s Water Crisis: Fitting the Pieces Togetherand action). Each model has the capacity to carry water actionsinto the future within an integrated approach that both linkstogether the WWDR challenge areas and advances our ability toconfront the multidimensional problems of poverty.The dynamics of competing demands and the delicate balanceinvolved in evaluating trade-offs are best viewed by looking at areal-world example, such as that of dams. This single exampleincludes all of the different challenges and managementconsiderations discussed in the WWDR. It is a microcosm of thewater resources dilemma.Managing dams: a microcosm example of an integratedapproachThe water regulated by and stored in dams is considered to be anabsolute requirement to meet the water challenges and theBox 23.2: Other frameworks – poverty and action, sustainable livelihoods,business managementPoverty and action frameworkThe World Bank’s World Development Report 2000/1placed firm emphasis on the causes of poverty andproposed a framework for action around three equallyimportant areas:■ promoting opportunity;■ facilitating empowerment; and■ enhancing security.While representing a broad agenda for poverty alleviationin general, it is a framework with strong resonance for thewater poverty agenda. The two may be brought togetherthrough the specific framing of water challenges withinnational poverty reduction strategies. Expanding briefly oneach of the three areas:■ Opportunity promotion embraces growth as a basis forexpanding economic opportunity for poor people –specifically how to achieve rapid, sustainable and pro-poorgrowth. This hinges around a business environmentconducive to private investment and technologicalinnovation, underpinned by political and social stability.Promoting opportunity also embraces economicopportunities for poor people in order to build up theirassets, including human capabilities, through health anddevelopment objectives of other sectors in industry, agriculture,energy and risk management. Indeed, it is said that in many partsof the world such challenges cannot be achieved without increasedstorage, and demand cannot be met by exploitation of natural flowpatterns alone. Dams continue to be seen as a solution across all ofthe use and demand challenges – except those related to theenvironment. As such, dams remain a controversial issue, withseemingly intractable and divergent standpoints held by actors indifferent camps.Many of the critical management issues have been addressedthrough the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams(WCD). While dams represent a microcosm of the challengesfaced as part of the overall water crisis, the best-practice guidelines fordam development and management as proposed by the WCD also havea generic value for all water resource development and management.education. Of importance to the material assets of poorpeople is ownership of, or access to, natural resources(notably land and water), infrastructure, financial servicesand social networks.■ Empowerment is seen as enhancing the capacity of poorpeople to influence the state institutions that affect theirlives, removing barriers – political, legal and social – thatwork against particular groups and building the assets ofpoor people to enable them to effectively engage inmarkets. It further embraces state and social institutionsthat work in the interests of poor people, formaldemocratic processes and accountability on everyday stateor commercial interventions that help or hurt poor people.■ Enhancing security for poor people means reducing theirvulnerability to such risks as ill-health, economic shocksand natural disasters, and it means helping them to copewith adverse shocks when these do occur. The linksbetween poverty, insecurity and water are very clear inthis regard.The significance of the individual water challenges veryclearly comes together within this broader poverty actionframework, as does the fact that its success relies to agreat extent on overcoming water challenges.