Appraising Sustainable Development: Water Management and Environmental Challenges - Part I

This article analyses how the sustainable development goals (SDGs) process might give a boost to the evolution of international water law towards a more sustainable development-friendly legal framework. Three recommendations, derived from the SDG process, are made to call upon states: (1) unambiguously to approach international water law as a legal framework to promote the sustainable development of water resources, and to interpret the bedrock principles of international water law in that context; (2) to encourage the further development of the ecosystems approach to international water law; and (3) to use the legal framework of international water law to facilitate public participation at all levels of water governance.

Major advances have been made on many aspects of water resources development and management all over the world during the period 1972-1992. Many of these development and management practices have had positive environmental impacts, and others had negative impacts. The paper provides a global perspective of sustainable water development over the past two decades.

This report, prepared on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme, provides a state-of-the-art synthesis of current knowledge on sustainable water development and management. It concludes that there is no single ‘best’ approach for sustainable water development. Enunciation of the concept of environmentally sound development is not a difficult task. While we have had reasonable success in integrating environmental considerations at the project level and some success at the sector level, we have not succeeded in designing means of integrating environmental concerns effectively at the national policy and planning levels, except in very general terms.

Aquatic Procedia, 2016

Natural Resources Forum, 1992

Water Law, 2001

2018

The United Nations definition of Agenda 2030 re-launched sustainable development as a planetary horizon for eradicating world poverty while at the same time preserving Earth life-support processes. Since the 90s many scholars, activists and politicians have critically assessed sustainable development and considered it an oxymoron in the context of current global capital accumulation. This paper takes the matter seriously and explores the limits and possibilities of researching water management towards Sustainable Development Goal 6: “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. The analysis will touch upon three main fields of enquiry, namely the creation of a world water crisis regime, the encounter of diverse water ontologies while dealing with water management, and the raising of the human right to water and sanitation as a counter-point to the privatization of water resources. Sustainable development requires a stronger inclusion of human righ...

Sustainable development has now become a popular term, but it often means different things to different people. Operationalization of this concept is still not possible. This paper examines some of the major issues associated with sustainability. The opportunities and constraints of the current environmental assessment approaches for water development are objectively discussed.

International Journal of Water Resources Development, 2017

The effective planning, design and management of water resources systems for sustainable development are severely hampered in developing countries by five major factors. First, use is frequently made of an incomplete framework for analysis, ignoring positive impacts of development. Second, there is a lack of appropriate methodology for applying environmental impact assessments in these countries. Third, there is a lack of adequate knowledge about the effects of water development projects. Fourth, there are institutional restraints, particularly the division of responsibilities among various ministries. Fifth, monitoring and evaluation are seldom integrated into project management. Each of these interrelated problems is discussed in turn.