NECESSITY OF DATA FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION
OF INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT IN GCC COUNTRIES
Prepared by:
HOSNY KHORDAGUI, Ph.D.
WATER & ENVIRONMENT TEAM LEADER, UN-ESCWA
TRAINING SESSION ON THE SYSTEM OF ENVIRONMENTAL-ECONOMIC ACCOUNTING FOR WATER FOR
THE ARAB GULF COUNTRIES. 25-28 AUGUST, 2008, UN-ESCWA BEIRUT, LEBANON.
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WATER SITUATION IN GCC
•
•
GCC region is considered one of the most arid
areas in the world relying mostly on nonconventional water resources (Desalination &
wastewater reuse) & limited groundwater
resources.
The severe water-related problems in the region
have been compounded in recent years by a sharp
increase in water demand due mainly to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
fast growing population,
unsustainable patterns of consumption,
accelerated economic development and
high urbanization & industrialization growth rates.
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WHAT IS IWRM?
– IWRM is an approach to promote coordinated
development & management of water, land & related
resources in order to maximize the resultant economic &
social welfare in an equitable manner without
compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.
– In order to apply IWRM, it is fundamental to integrate not
only water data but also information from social,
economic, health & environmental sectors. This
integration challenge is rarely addressed by scientists in
the GCC Region, yet it is a reality that decision makers &
politicians must deal with.
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STATUS OF IWRM IN GCC COUNTRIES
• Overall assessment indicated the following:
• All GCC Countries (at various degrees) have initiated
national water strategies in line with IWRM framework. Only
few countries have completed these strategies;
• Most GCC Countries are undertaking some institutional &
legislative measures to implement IWRM strategies;
• Very few GCC Countries have evaluated post-application of
IWRM;
• In few cases the bottom-up participatory approach was
adopted & the expected roles of water stakeholders & the
mechanisms of coordination among them remained blurred.
• Economic instruments for demand control was found
inadequate.
• Environmental component in IWRM was inadequate.
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Main accomplishments & challenges in applying
IWRM in GCC Countries
• Major Accomplishments:
– Framework for private sector participation; - Efficient consumer services; –
Progress in institutional & Legal reform; Improved enforcement capacity ;Improved water infrastructure & efficiency; Improved water reuse.
• Challenges:
– Dominance of supply management policies & lesser attention to demand
management;
– Heavy reliance on desalinated water without adequate considerations to
associated externalities.
– Lack of coordination & inadequate information generation & sharing
among relevant sectors.
– Inadequate public participation in water planning & management.
• Areas in need of improvement to enhance IWRM application
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Rationalization of water use & Water Demand management;
Reduce subsidies & apply more efficient cost recovery mechanisms;
Enhance partnership with civil society.
Improve water & environment monitoring for better decision making.
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CONSTRAINTS IN IMPLEMENTING IWRM IN GCC
COUNTRIES
– Fragmentation of institutions concerned with water
resources & lack of horizontal coordination.
– Ineffective stakeholders participation & inadequate
bottom-up approach.
– Inadequate monitoring, reporting, sharing &
dissemination of water quality & quantity data.
– Outdated water legislation & ineffective enforcement
– Social & political debate on water services cost recovery
– Supply management orientation & poor demand
management policies.
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CONCLUSION
– Implementation of IWRM requires the provision of
reliable & continuous source of primary water &
environment data derived from extensive monitoring &
reporting programs to initiate the sequential build-up of
correlations between water sector management &
environmental-economic accounting.
FACT
– Most of the GCC countries have developed
comprehensive environmental & water monitoring
systems & improved their national statistical & reporting
capacities. However, coordination among relevant
sectors is inadequate.
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AVAILABILITY OF WATER DATA IN GCC
COUNTRIES:
• In GCC Region there has been a relatively ample
supply of data on social & economic aspects of
development. This can be attributed to the long
tradition of monitoring & reporting on these two
aspects.
• In contrast, environmental & water indicators in
GCC countries are not adequately and/or
routinely & publicly reported by most
governments of the region or even by most
international & regional development
organizations.
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WHY ?
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I- Primary water data is simply not available in the region in the
same abundance or quality as economic performance data due to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The generation of primary water data is a highly technical process involving
well-trained field & laboratory technicians, scientists, engineers & biologists.
The institutions needed to generate the primary water data in its acceptable
form (quality and quantity) are not regularly available in all governorates or
localities.
The capital & operation costs for water testing laboratories as well as field
automated monitoring stations are quite high.
The environmental management systems in some GCC Countries are not well
developed yet to design & implement proper IWRM monitoring programs.
The existing environmental & water legislations & by-laws regulating different
aspects of monitoring of water & environment are some cases either
inadequate or out-dated.
The inadequate enforcement of water & environmental legislation in some
GCC Countries diminished the response of a number of relevant sectors to
meet their monitoring & reporting requirements.
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OTHER CHALLENGES &
CONSTRAINTS
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II- Water Data is Often of Questionable Quality:
1. A large portion of water & environmental data suffer from significant
quality uncertainty. Water & environmental date from some GCC States
is lacking reliability & is unverifiable. This can be attributed to the lack
of adequate QA/QC programs to cover sampling, analysis & reporting.
2. The number of certified and/or accredited water testing &
environmental laboratories is limited in the GCC Region. National
reference laboratories are also few in number.
3. Primary water & environmental data suffer from lack of comparability
at the national, regional & global levels. The disregard of recognized
uniform standard methods for water & environmental monitoring &
analysis by some institutions in GCC contributed to this problem.
4. Discontinuous data monitoring, in terms of both temporal & spatial
distributions, provides mostly snap shots only for hot spot areas. This
lack of time series data prevents the detection of trends & patterns that
can be used in environmental accounts.
5. Water & environmental monitoring programs are mostly designed to
focus on the traditional aspects of environmental health rather than the
general environmental aspects of socio-economic development.
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III- Water & Environment data is sometimes not
disclosed, shared or reported:
1. Primary water & environment data is usually generated in the GCC
Countries by a number of national & local government institutions.
The lack of coordination among these institutions evidently resulted
into the duplication, scattering & fragmentation of the generated
primary water & environment data.
2. Few countries in the GCC Region also suffers from an underlying
attitude & reluctance not to disclose or share water & environment
data with other bodies or the public. This phenomenon is due to:
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Political Reasons: Information on water security & environmental performance
is considered as classified information not to be disclosed. This is attributed to
the sensitivity of the data & to avoid any public pressure that might alter the
development agenda of governments. Also disclosure of some data on water
quality deterioration might cause unnecessary public concern & unrest.
Personal Reasons: In few cases government officials controlling water &
environmental data feel that controlling information under their jurisdiction is
giving them more leverage & authority.
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IV- Other Issues
1. Often water & environmental data is not properly reported,
mostly raw data in thick volumes & tables full of technical
jargons.
2. Most of the water & environmental data is poorly
disseminated. So far, no regular data is available on electronic
networks in most GCC countries.
3. Water & environmental data is not properly interpreted. This is
due to severe shortage in certain technical expertise such as
(environmental epidemiologists, environmental economists,
biostatisticians, etc…) who are capable of correlating water &
environmental data to health records, production, economic
performance, social advancement, environmental valuation,
etc.
4. Most water & environment data is sectoral in nature & are not
used for IWRM integrated decision making.
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WHERE DOES THE DATA CHAIN BREAKS?
1. Water & environment data might not be available in some
GCC due to inadequate monitoring & inspection systems.
2. If available, it might not be continuous (Snap shots – no
time series)
3. If adequate, its might not be reliable (no QA/QC)
4. If reliable, it might not be comparable.
5. If comparable, it might not be properly reported.
6. If reported, it might not be disclosed.
7. If disclosed, it might be poorly disseminated.
8. If disseminated, it might not be interpreted.
9. If interpreted, it is not linked to health & socio-economic
data.
10. If linked, it is not used for IWRM integrated decision making.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
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1.
Undertake comprehensive regional knowledge mapping effort to
assess water & environment monitoring systems that generates
primary data in terms of achievements, gaps, constraints, challenges,
opportunities, lessons learned, best practices & coordination
instruments.
2.
Identify capacity building needs to obtain reliable, continuous &
harmonious primary water data. This entails capacity building needs
for establishing & operating water monitoring facilities, strengthening
national statistical bureaus, adapting standard monitoring
procedures, applying QA/QC program, human resources development
etc.
3.
Support national efforts for establishing means of coordination
among various sectors that generate primary data for water &
environment accounting.
4.
Provide technical support to GCC Countries on mechanisms for
integrating components of environmental accounting (economic &
environmental).
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THANK YOU
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