INTRODUCTION - Sustainable Irrigation Development in the White Volta Sub-Basin - page 6

Figure 1.1: Everybody lives downstream..., and looks upstream (Van der
Zaag, 2007) .
The vital nature of water gives it characteristics of a public good. Its finite
nature confers to it properties of a private good, as it can be privately
appropriated and enjoyed. The fugitive nature of water, and the resulting
high costs of exclusion, confers to it properties of a common pool resource.
Water resource management aims to reconcile these various attributes of
water. This is obviously not a simple task. The property regime and
management arrangements of a water resources system are therefore often
complex (Van der Zaag and Savenije, 2005). At the heart, Integrated Water
Resources Management aims to reconcile economic efficiency, equity, and
environmental preservation goals (Molle et al., 2007). This is reflected in the
first Dublin Principle, formulated at the International Conference on Water
and the Environment, held in Dublin in January 1992, which states that
‚since water sustains life, effective management of water resources demands
a holistic approach, linking social and economic development with protection
of natural ecosystems. Effective management links land and water uses
across the whole of a catchment area or groundwater aquifer‛ (ICWE, 1992).
Catchment management is based on the recognition of the catchment area as
the spatial integrator and appropriate unit for the management of land and
water resources based on hydrological principles of upstream-downstream
linkages. Thus, catchment management generally aims at establishing an
enabling environment for the integrated use and management of water and
land resources of a watershed to accomplish resource conservation and
biomass production objectives (Jensen, 1996).
Although frequently advocated as a key to achieving effective water
management (Rogers and Hall 2003), stakeholder participation in river basin
management is not straightforward and actually including the poor and
achieving substantive stakeholder representation has proven elusive in
practice (Wester et al., 2005). A major lesson learned, relevant to all scales
(field, farm, village, catchment and basin), is that the realisation of a
conservation or environmental objective can be achieved by paying particular
attention to upstream developments, that is, conservation through use. Thus,
balancing environment and production objectives and the interests and roles