IWRM: Panacea of Urban Water ILLS: Victor Shinde, Head, Climate Centre for Cities (C-Cube), NIUA

Victor Shinde

“Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is a process that promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximise economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems”: United Nations Environment Programme

The need for IWRM is even more pronounced in Indian cities, many of which are facing a water crisis. Over the last decade or so, incidences of water shortages, flooding, groundwater depletion, and polluted water bodies have become alarmingly more frequent and intense. Already, more than 25% of cities in India are water-stressed, which is likely to affect 100 million residents. In terms of water availability, India has only about 4% of the world’s renewable water resources but is home to nearly 18% of the world’s population.

The water-related challenges in Indian cities (and any city for that matter) can no longer be addressed through the conventional supply side; purely engineering solutions that typically look at problems in isolation. The first step to setting things right is adopting a sound philosophy for managing the water sector in cities. There is a need to make a transition from a ‘silo’ style of management to ‘systems’ approach that considers the entire urban water cycle and water use sectors in an integrated manner. IWRM is one such approach where all components of the urban water cycle (water supply, used water, and stormwater) are managed in a holistic manner. This essentially requires coordination among the agencies that manage these sectors in the city. The reason is that these sectors are strongly interlinked and are part of an overall system. These synergies can be leveraged to enhance the overall water security of the city. For example, treated used water can help augment the water supply, at least for non- potable purposes to begin with. Likewise, well-maintained water bodies (lakes and ponds) can help augment groundwater levels.

As opposed to the traditional model of expanding and augmenting water sources, the IWRM (urban) approach focuses on diversifying the urban water supply portfolio through used water, storm water, and rain water harvesting for different uses with a view to manage the water demand effectively. While the conventional approaches are mostly top-down and rarely factor stakeholder engagement, IWRM, on the other hand, is an adaptive and iterative process that involves engagement with stakeholders and also encompasses environmental, economic, technical, social and political aspects of water management. Furthermore, IWRM seeks to leverage on natural systems through concepts such as constructed wetlands, soil aquifer treatment, bank filtration systems as a means to complement existing grey infrastructural solutions like water treatment plants, centralised sewerage systems, etc.

While the IWRM approach has always been a regular feature of water-related policies and strategies in India at a basin scale, it is only in 2015 that the Indian government first propagated the IWRM approach for the urban water sector in the country. It features prominently on the agenda of the USD 37 billion Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT 2.0), the largest urban water mission in the world. For example, the Mission mandates cities to utilise used water to meet 20% of their domestic water demand and 40% of the State’s industrial water demand. Likewise, it promulgates the concept of ‘Sponge Cities’, which requires efficient capture of stormwater to mitigate the flood threat as well as at the same time to augment depleting groundwater levels.

Several water leader cities such as Singapore, Amsterdam, Melbourne, Los Angeles have adopted the IWRM philosophy to good effect. These have all led to iconic interventions in the urban water sector such as NeWater in Singapore, Water Sensitive Cities in Australia, One Water Planning in Los Angeles, among others.

Also Read | Data-driven decision making is key for effective IWRM

NIUA is committed to proliferating the knowledge and know-how on IWRM in our cities. In 2021, it carried out a joint project in association with UNESCO New Delhi Office to develop a framework for evaluating the extent of IWRM implementation in Indian cities. The framework has a set of ten criteria that can help evaluate the extent of IWRM implementation in a city qualitatively, with a view to providing useful insights for areas that a city should target in order to progressively move up the IWRM ladder. The criteria are categorised under three heads — enabling environment, institutional arrangements, and management instruments. The framework was then applied to the city of Delhi.

From IWRM implementations in cities across the globe, it is clear that what works in one city may not necessarily work in another. Hence, as our Indian cities move ahead in scaling up IWRM, they would be well-advised to be cognizant of this aspect. Cities will need to discover their own models of IWRM that would be most relevant and suitable for their own contexts.

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