National Solutions

To ensure the long-term viability of a country, governments should plan and institutionalize competent responses to scarcity with robust demand management, a sound regulatory system, and efficient and flexible infrastructure [Orr et al., 2009]. By focusing on restoring river flow through a multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder process of managing water withdrawal, water allocation mechanisms need to be developed that manage the use of the scarce resources [Le Quesne et al., 2007]. Water allocation is a mechanism that determines who / how / where / when / why users can take water.

In WWF’s Primer on “Scarce Water”, water allocation is described as “a process whereby an available water resource is distributed to legitimate claimants and the resulting water rights are granted, transferred, reviewed, and adapted. Hence, water allocation processes generate a series of water rights governing the use of water within a catchment” [Le Quesne et al., 2007]. There is no one-fit-all allocation process; however 10 “Golden Rules” on water basin allocation have been formulated [WWF, 2012]:

In basins where water is becoming stressed, it is important to link allocation planning to broader social and economic development planning.
Successful basin allocation processes are fundamentally dependent on the existence of adequate institutional capacity.
The degree of complexity in any allocation plan should reflect the complexity and challenges in the basin.
Considerable care is required in defining the amount of water available for allocation.
Environmental water needs provide a foundation on which basin allocation planning should be built.
A number of water needs should be recognized as prior rights before water is allocated among competing economic users.
In stressed basins, water efficiency assessments and objectives should be developed within or alongside the allocation plan.
Allocation plans need to have a clear and equitable approach for addressing variability between years.
Allocation plans need to be able to incorporate flexibility and change over the medium to long term.
A clear process is required for converting basin scale allocations into local and individual allocations and for the development of clear annual allocations.

Complementing the various social and political systems that help determine an allocation plan, environmental considerations must also be embedded in a national prioritization process for high conservation river areas. In WWF’s 2011 Guide Rivers for Life, an overview is provided on the identification of priorities for freshwater conservation. Pointing out that “areas and river stretches of interest need to be evaluated according to their functions and values… for good and credible decision-making,” the report goes on to highlight how this can be done, which outputs are produced, and how these processes can ultimately be integrated into effective and sustainable freshwater management [Meng et al., 2011].

The European Union’s Water Framework Directive is a methodological example of a national level, step-wise management approach. Once the Directive was in force, Member States began by defining their river basin districts geographically and identifying the responsible water management authorities. This was followed by a joint economic and environmental analysis of these areas’ characteristics and water bodies at risk of not achieving the 2015 target (countries must ensure that their waters are in ‘good ecological and chemical status,’ which requires both low levels of chemical pollution and “sustaining healthy aquatic ecosystems”). Countries then launched water monitoring networks and had to develop a river basin management plan with a ‘programme of measures’ that met the WFD’s objectives and included a comprehensive, three-stage consultation process with the public and interested parties in water management. Water-pricing policies that provided incentives for sustainable water use and took into account local economic, social, and environmental conditions, had to be introduced. The final two stages required that programs of measures were operational and by 2015 (the end of the first management cycle), river basin management plans are delivering their objectives in addition to the second round of management and flood risk management plans being put in place (steps adapted from [European Commission, 2010]).

In regards to achieving the MDGs, nations must increase efforts on sanitation must with particular focus given to the poorest and most disadvantaged people across the world.