Proposal for Training Programme on Integrated Water Resources Management for State Water Resource Engineers and Managers

Background

In the decades following independence, India has moved from the era of “Water Resources Development” where the primary objective was to develop water resources to improve drinking water security and livelihoods to “Water Resources Management”, because today, ground and surface water resources in most basins are fully allocated and they have to be managed within what is available. Such management involves addressing trade-offs between competing uses and users in a coordinated manner. Hence, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is becoming dominant paradigm.

IWRM, defined by the Dublin principles, aims to promote changes in practices that are considered fundamental to improved water resource management. IWRM builds on three core principles of social, economic and ecology with greater emphasis on democratic governance:

1.      Social equity: ensuring equal access for all users (particularly marginalised and poorer user groups) to an adequate quantity and quality of water necessary to sustain human well-being.

2.      Economic efficiency: bringing the greatest benefit to the greatest number of users possible with the available financial and water resources.

3.      Ecological sustainability: requiring that aquatic ecosystems are acknowledged as users and adequate allocation is made to sustain their natural functioning.

Democratic governance: that water allocation across uses and users must be done through better governance mechanisms, i.e., with greater inclusivity and transparency.

An IWRM approach aims at avoiding a fragmented approach of water resources management by bringing in multiple disciplines, multiple stakeholders, and transparent processes. In India, most water resources departments are staffed by engineers, who usually are trained on the technical aspects of water resources management. Hence, embracing IWRM requires significant capacity building in the relevant government departments. This requires both building understanding of core concepts in social and ecological sciences in addition to engineering that pertain to water, developing soft skills in communicating with diverse stakeholders and building new institutions for water management, and developing an understanding of new tools in water resource modelling and remote sensing.

Objectives AND PEDAGOGY

The objective of this course is “to enhance the capacities of engineers and managers in water related departments of government to understand, analyse and address water resource management in an integrated and holistic manner.”

To achieve this, it is proposed through IWRM training programme to employ a learning-centred pedagogical approach. This approach shifts the focus of instruction from the teacher to the learner by designing a curriculum with modules designed around clear learning goals.  Each learning goal will be associated with a lesson plan and exercises (including group discussions, case studies and serious games) that will help the course participants learn.

Training in specific techniques will be touched upon, such as hydrological monitoring, water quality, and remote sensing and GIS. The learning-centred approach forms the core of the pedagogy. In terms of delivery,

·        In all modules, a combination of lectures, case study presentations, games and quizzes, videos, hands-on analysis and other activities will be used to keep the process interactive and challenging.

·        In all modules, resource persons who have mix of field and academic experience will be involved to enrich the material delivered.

·        A field visit is included, in which participants will gain experience on different uses & users and their concerns and practices.

·        While the language of instruction will be primarily English, participants will be enabled to raise questions in the language they are comfortable with as required.

 Course Frequency, Duration, and Strength

·        Each course will be for a duration of 12 calendar days, including 10 days in classroom, 1 day of field trip and 1 rest day.

·        To ensure the quality of training and interactions, trainees per course be limited to 25-30.

Contact person: Manjunatha G (manju.g@atree.org)