Water resources policy and planning : towards environmental sustainability

The studies, which focused on maintenance of the water resource rather than on the sustainability of the water delivery system, targeted four medium-sized, agriculturally significant cities in Asia and the Near East with a history of donor assistance -- Fayoum, Egypt; Beni Mellal, Morocco; Faisalabad, Pakistan; and Khon Kaen, Thailand. The studies show that water projects, while beneficial, have left behind, and in some cases aggravated, environmental problems such as water shortages, water pollution, water logging, and salinization. Deficiencies in planning water projects were also noted, including failure to include drainage facilities in irrigation systems, ineffective treatment of industrial waste, lack of systems to dispose of sewage and control water-borne diseases, failure to incorporate water conservation and reuse into project design, etc. Further, none of the case study cities possesses an agency or process to devise sector-wide policies or provide independent reviews and environmental assessments of proposed water projects; there is also a general reluctance to impose user fees. A key policy implication is that donors should supplement the traditional project-by-project approach, which relies heavily on loan covenants, by helping host countries develop the right water policies and capabilities, as well as by coordinating among themselves in order to prevent one donor"s efforts from undercutting the sustainability of another"s.