River Basins Study

Study of 10 river basins brings new perspective on water management

Water, Food and Poverty in River Basins
Defining the LimitsImg-07

Edited by Myles Fisher, Simon Cook Published February 2nd 2012 by Routledge – 406 pages

A major study of 10 river basins, which was carried out over the course of 5 years with an investment exceeding USD 10 million, provides a valuable new perspective on water management. The study, coordinated by the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), which includes contributions from many scientists of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), will have collated results released at the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) XIV World Water Congress held in Brazil during the period September 25-29, 2011. The individual research results appear in two special open access issues of the peer-reviewed journal, Water International.

“We are delighted with the release of the CPWF report. The findings are consistent with earlier work in which researchers from IWMI, the CPWF and numerous partner organizations determined that we have sufficient water to meet production goals of the future, provided that we manage our land and water resources wisely (Comprehensive Assessment 2007*). Yet, even though our resource base is adequate, we cannot rest easy on this reassuring news. In many areas, improving land and water management will require substantial investments in infrastructure, new policies and programs that reduce the farm-level risks of adopting new production methods. Developing water resources, alone, will not be sufficient.

Read more..

We, at IWMI, are strong supporters of basin-level analyses of water resource issues, such as those presented in this report. Indeed, the basin perspective enables one to assess the upstream and downstream impacts of water allocation policies, and to determine opportunities for optimizing the sum of benefits across many residents.

At the same time, we must remember that poverty and food insecurity are often most severe – and most challenging – at the farm and household levels. Even in basins with substantial, untapped water resources, simply putting that water to work will not be sufficient to lift all residents out of poverty or to ensure their food security. In addition to basin-level analyses, we must also examine the economic, cultural and political issues that prevent so many households from gaining affordable access to the resources they need to improve and sustain their livelihoods.

In sum, we applaud the results of the study on major river basins coordinated by the CPWF, while redoubling our commitment to also maintain a keen focus on the issues that prevent so many poor households from gaining access to the land and water resources they need to achieve and sustain food security.”

Dennis
Dr. Dennis Wichelns

Major River Basins Have Enough Water to Sustainably Double Food Production in the Coming Decades


Media Release

[PDF 45KB]
[English – PDF 46KB] [French – PDF 99KB] [Spanish – PDF 113KB] [Portuguese – PDF 109KB]

CGIAR Challenge Program on Water & Food – Press Room

 


Official journal of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA)
Volume 36, Issue 1, 2011

Official journal of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA)
Volume 35, Issue 5, 2010
  1. Simon Cook, Myles Fisher, Tassilo Tiemann, Alain Vidal
    Water International 
    Vol. 36, Iss. 1, 2011

  2. Mark Mulligan, L.L. Saenz Cruz, J. Pena-Arancibia, B. Pandey, Gil Mahé, Myles Fisher
    Water International 
    Vol. 36, Iss. 1, 2011

  3. Xueliang Cai, David Molden, Mohammed Mainuddin, Bharat Sharma, Mobin-ud-Din Ahmad, Poolad Karimi
    Water International 
    Vol. 36, Iss. 1, 2011

  4. Graeme S. Cumming
    Water International 
    Vol. 36, Iss. 1, 2011

  5. Mark Mulligan, Myles Fisher, Bharat Sharma, Z.X. Xu, Claudia Ringler, Gil Mahé, Andy Jarvis, Julian Ramírez, Jean-Charles Clanet, Andrew Ogilvie, Mobin-ud-Din Ahmad
    Water International 
    Vol. 36, Iss. 1, 2011

  6. Eric Kemp-Benedict, Simon Cook, Summer L. Allen, Steve Vosti, Jacques Lemoalle, Mark Giordano, John Ward, David Kaczan
    Water International 
    Vol. 36, Iss. 1, 2011

  1. Myles Fisher, Simon Cook
    Water International 
    Vol. 35, Iss. 5, 2010

  2. Mark Mulligan, Jorge Rubiano, Glenn Hyman, Douglas White, James Garcia, Miguel Saravia, Juan Gabriel Leon, John J. Selvaraj, Tatiana Guttierez, Luis Leonardo Saenz-Cruz
    Water International 
    Vol. 35, Iss. 5, 2010

  3. Bharat Sharma, Upali Amarasinghe, Cai Xueliang, Devaraj de Condappa, Tushaar Shah, Aditi Mukherji, Luna Bharati, G. Ambili, Asad Qureshi, Dhruba Pant, Stefanos Xenarios, R. Singh, Vladimir Smakhtin
    Water International 
    Vol. 35, Iss. 5, 2010

  4. Mobin-ud-Din Ahmad, Mark Giordano
    Water International 
    Vol. 35, Iss. 5, 2010

  5. Amy Sullivan, Majele Lindiwe Sibanda
    Water International 
    Vol. 35, Iss. 5, 2010

  6. Mac Kirby, Chayanis Krittasudthacheewa, Mohammed Mainuddin, Eric Kemp-Benedict, Chris Swartz, Elnora de la Rosa
    Water International 
    Vol. 35, Iss. 5, 2010

  7. Andrew Ogilvie, Gil Mahé, John Ward, Georges Serpantié, Jacques Lemoalle, Pierre Morand, Bruno Barbier, Amadou Tamsir Diop, Armelle Caron, Regassa Namarra, David Kaczan, Anna Lukasiewicz, Jean-Emmanuel Paturel, Gaston Liénou, Jean Charles Clanet
    Water International 
    Vol. 35, Iss. 5, 2010

  8. Seleshi Awulachew, Lisa-Maria Rebelo, David Molden
    Water International 
    Vol. 35, Iss. 5, 2010

  9. Jacques Lemoalle, Devaraj de Condappa
    Water International 
    Vol. 35, Iss. 5, 2010

  10. Claudia Ringler, Ximing Cai, Jinxia Wang, Akhter Ahmed, Yunpeng Xue, Zongxue Xu, Ethan Yang, Zhao Jianshi, Tingju Zhu, Lei Cheng, Fu Yongfeng, Fu Xinfeng, Gu Xiaowei, Liangzhi You
    Water International 
    Vol. 35, Iss. 5, 2010

* Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. 2007. Water for Food, Water for Life: A Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. London: Earthscan, and Colombo: International Water Management Institute.
http://iwmi.cgiar.org/Assessment/Publications/books.htm