Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been a dominant paradigm for water sector reform worldwide over the past two decades. Ethiopia, among early adopters, has developed a water policy, legislations, and strategy per IWRM core principles. However, considerable constraints are still in its way of realization. This paper investigates the central challenges facing IWRM implementation in the Awash Basin analyzing the discrepancy between IWRM principles, the approach followed in Ethiopia and its practice in the Awash Basin. A decade and a half since its adoption, the Ethiopian IWRM still lacks a well-organized and robust legal system for implementation. Unclear and overlapping institutional competencies as well as a low level of stakeholders’ awareness on policy contents and specific mandates of implementing institutions have prevented the Basin Authority from fully exercising its role as the prime institute for basin level water management. As a result, coordination between stakeholders, a central element of the IWRM concept, is lacking. Insufficient management instruments and planning tools for the operational function of IWRM are also among the major hurdles in the process. This calls for rethinking and action on key elements of the IWRM approach to tackle the implementation challenges.
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Research Article|
July 09 2015
Integrated Water Resources Management: contrasting principles, policy, and practice, Awash River Basin, Ethiopia
Adey Nigatu Mersha;
Adey Nigatu Mersha
*
aUNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Zip code: 2611 AX, Delft, The Netherlands
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Charlotte de Fraiture;
Charlotte de Fraiture
aUNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Zip code: 2611 AX, Delft, The Netherlands
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Abraham Mehari;
Abraham Mehari
aUNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Zip code: 2611 AX, Delft, The Netherlands
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Ilyas Masih;
Ilyas Masih
aUNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Zip code: 2611 AX, Delft, The Netherlands
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Tena Alamirew
Tena Alamirew
bWater and Land Resources Center, P.O. Box 3880, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Water Policy (2016) 18 (2): 335–354.
Article history
Received:
February 18 2015
Accepted:
May 20 2015
Citation
Adey Nigatu Mersha, Charlotte de Fraiture, Abraham Mehari, Ilyas Masih, Tena Alamirew; Integrated Water Resources Management: contrasting principles, policy, and practice, Awash River Basin, Ethiopia. Water Policy 1 April 2016; 18 (2): 335–354. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2015.049
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