Document(s) 8 of 9

The literature on the nature and implications of water scarcities is abundant, and expands by the day. What follows below is intended only as a quick guide to sources and resources likely to be helpful to the analysis and improvement of local water management.

The global scope and local effects of water scarcities, addressed in fluid and jargon-free prose, are the subject of Water, by Marq de Villiers (Stoddart, 1999; revised edition 2000). World Water Vision, by William J. Cosgrove and Frank R. Rijsberman (Earthscan, 2000) offers an exceptionally useful overview. Peter Gleick’s The World’s Water: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources (Island Press, 1998 and 2000) is a valuable and regularly updated treatment.

Thomas Homer-Dixon advanced the scholarly study of modern conflict and resource scarcity in his careful Environment, Scarcity, and Violence (Princeton University Press, 1999). The linkages between water scarcity and conflict — and the commoner phenomenon of water scarcity engendering cooperation — are sensibly summarized in “Dehydrating Conflict” by Sandra L. Postel and Aaron T. Wolf (Foreign Policy, September/October 2001, pp. 60-67). Two IDRC books focus on Israel and Palestine, where water is often cited a source of conflict: Watershed: The Role of Fresh Water in the Israeli­Palestinian Conflict, by Stephen B. Lonergan and David B. Brooks (IDRC, 1994) and Management of Shared Groundwater Resources: The Israeli-Palestinian Case with an International Perspective, edited by Eran Feitelson and Marwan Haddad (IDRC and Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000).

Reliable statistics are reprised in The State of World Population 2001, published by the United Nations Population Fund. Chapter Two, “Water and Population,” was downloaded Nov. 7, 2001, from www.unfpa.org/swp/2001/english/ch02.html.

Dependable sources of information and analysis (along with vigorous advocacy) are proliferating on the Web. Some of the currently useful water management sites include: The International Water Management Institute (www.iwmi.org), a user-friendly site well laid out with archived and recent research, and “tools and concepts” instructive for the nonspecialist; World Commission on Dams (www.dams.org), a fine demonstration of what global policy networks can accomplish, with access to its landmark report “Dams and Development,” issued in 2000; the World Water Council (www.worldwatercouncil.org), an excellent single-source site, hotlinked to other relevant organizations and materials; the International Food Policy Research Institute (www.ifpri.org); and the World Resources Institute (www.wri.org), especially strong on data and maps.

The Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development, cited in Box 6, was downloaded Oct. 17, 2001, from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) at www.wmo.ch/web/homs/icwedece.html. The WMO, the World Resources Institute, and the World Water Council are among the many organizations contributing to the worldwide analysis and discussion of global climate change. Peter Gleick has produced a helpful climate change study, accessible at http://www.pacinst.org/about_us/staff_board/gleick/. For a short review of the subject, consult E. Z. Stakhiv, “Policy Implications of Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources Management,” Water Policy, vol. 1 (1998), pp. 150­175.

Deeply important questions of culture, custom, and religion are squarely faced by the contributors to Water Management in Islam (United Nations University Press and IDRC, 2001), edited by Naser I. Faruqui, Asit K. Biswas, and Murad J. Bino. Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain persuasively examine the enduring value (and the costly loss) of traditional knowledge in their Dying Wisdom: Rise, Fall and Potential of India’s Traditional Water Harvesting Systems (Centre for Science and Environment, 1997). The growing interest in options for local water management is reflected in The Cooperative Management of Water Resources in South Asia, edited by Tony Beck, Pablo Bose and Barrie Morrison (Institute for Asian Research, University of British Columbia, 1999). Two books examining local water management have emerged from IDRC research projects in Asia: Rethinking the Mosaic: Investigations into Local Water Management, by Marcus Moench, Elisabeth Caspari and Ajaya Dixit (Nepal Water Conservation Foundation and ISET, 1999); and The People and Resource Dynamics Project: The First Three Years, edited by Richard Allen and others (International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, 2000).

For accounts of the IDRC-supported research projects that inform the preceding pages (whether specifically cited or not), go to http://www.idrc.ca/waterdemand/docs/english/wtr_prjct_rprt.shtml. For deeper and more extensive detail on the projects, visit IDRC’s Web site (www.idrc.ca) or go straight to the Centre’s library at archive.idrc.ca/library. At the library, click on IDRIS, then search by subject (rainwater catchment, for example) or by country. The IDRIS system will respond with a project précis, including descriptor terms that can lead the curious to other projects and related subjects. Still more detail, with research results, lessons learned, and a catalogue of IDRC local water project numbers, is contained in “Local Water Supply and Management: A Compendium of 30 Years of IDRC-Funded Research,” by David B. Brooks, Sarah Wolfe and Tilly Shames (IDRC, 2001). The compendium constitutes the primary source for this paper and is one of the resources to be found at www.idrc.ca/water.

IDRC publications on many of these and other subjects may be browsed online in the IDRC Booktique.

Document(s) 8 of 9