IWRM Guidelines at River Basin Level Project started in November 2007, based on the recognition that there was a need for a mechanism to translate the IWRM principles into practical application.

The principles of concepts of IWRM have been widely recognized, but the implementation of IWRM is not satisfactorily progressing in many basins. This is, perhaps, because the practitioners responsible for water resources management at the basin level encounter difficulties in understanding where and how to begin, or advantages of applying IWRM with respect to their actual situation may not be apparent enough. Therefore, it is desired that practitoners absorb the ideas and needs of IWRM and understand the effectiveness of applying these within a basin-wide approach. These Guidelines for IWRM at River Bain Level are intended to be used for that purpose, as a tool to fill that ‘gap’.

In these circumstances, UNESCO organized the steering committee of the Guidelines. The committee is composed of 2 Co-chairs and 12 members. Co-chairs are Dr. Eugene Z. Stahkhiv (International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management, ICIWaRM) and Mr. Shinsuke Ota (Japan Water Agency, JWA). The committee members include Dr. Mochammad Amron as a chairperson of NARBO, Mr. Kenzo Hiroki (Ministriy of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, MLIT) and Mr. Wouter Linklaen Arriens (Asian Development Bank, ADB), also Vice Secretary General of NARBO. Mr. Ota, Mr. Hiroki and Mr. Arriens are also assigned as the committee members. It is not only by their excellent previous achievement but also by the reason that these Guidelines are intended to be applied in Asia Monsoonal Region.

I worked as a Japanese taskforce member of the Guidelines which was composed of staffs of Ministriy of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan Water Agency and Japanese consultants. Therefore, I would like to report on what has been discussed in the Japanese Taskforce in order to translate IWRM principle into application especially in Asia Monsoonal Region.

The Guidelines consist of two parts.

• Part 1 deals with Overarching Principles of IWRM at River Basin Level
• Part 2 deals with practical examples intended for use by practitioner of IWRM

Part 1 provides basic principles of IWRM mainly targeting policy-makers, and explains the benefits of IWRM at river basin level and the need to promote it at the policy level. Italso proposes a spiral model of IWRM, which illustrates the evolving and dynamic nature of IWRM process.

The spiral model is originally intended to practitioner of IWRM for the explanation of the concept of IWRM, rather than the fact that it is explained in Part 1. Practitioners often feel the dilemma that they tried to do at once all the thing that they want to do while coordination for it doesn't proceed. It is important to set priorities and to define the extent of issues to be addressed at a particular stage based on time and financial constraints. In other words, it is important to ‘give up’ something in order to implement IWRM. But it should be noted that setting a priority does not mean giving up on solving specific prolems. These can be addressed in a phased manner. For these reasons, ‘Spiral Model’ is the concept for practitioners in the sense of practical implementation IWRM.

Part 2 consists of these sub parts:

• - Part 2-1 The Guidelines for IWRM Coordination
• - Part 2-2 The Guidelines for Flood Management
• - Part 2-3 Invitation to IWRM for Irrigation Practitioners

Part 2-1 and 2-2 are compiled from the point of view of comprehensive coordination of IWRM at the basin level. Part 2-3 is prepared from the perspective of irrigation practitioners as representatives of water users. This document invites them to actively participate in IWRM. IWRM should be implementd by gradually uniting stakeholders and involving them in planning and decision-making processes. So they should be ‘invited’ to IWRM Hence, the documents is entitled ‘Invitation to IWRM’.

Two main features of the Guidelines are the Sector Perspectives and the ‘Key for Success’. Sector Perspectives provides insights on what individual sectors are typical thinking. What is described in this section may not be complete, but the important thing is to know how other sectors perceive water management and how they are related to IWRM.

The core of Part 2 is the ‘Key for Success’, which can be used in practice to help IWRM succeed at the basin level. Some of the keys for success are extracted from good examples of IWRM implementation in several different river basins worldwide.

The components of Part 2 are the matters what was most discussed by Japanese Taskforce members. It was because they were mostly interested in the aspect what is most useful to practitioners of IWRM. They reached to a result that the Sector Perspective and ‘Key for Success’ were the what the practitioner needed. They also recognized necessity of typicall process of IWRM with the concept of ‘Spiral Model’. Therefore, ‘IWRM Process’ are prepared in Part 2 and every ‘Key for Success’ is linked to the process.

The taskforce also discussed what is the best way for the practitioners to use the Guidelines. They came to the result that it is not necessary to read the entire document. The set of Guidelines should be designed to enable readers to skip to spceific sections depending on their needs. They also discussed the Guidelines should be used as a textbook at the IWRM training and should be up-dated continuously in response to trainees so as to increase and retain its utility for the practitioners.

More detailed introduction of the Guidelines is provided in the presentation "IWRM Guidelines at River Basin Level" made by Mr. Shinsuke Ota, Co-chair of the Guidelines and former Executive Vice President of JWA, on 16th March 2009, at The Launching Ceremony of the Guidelines, the 5th World Water Forum, Istanbul.

• Presentation by Mr. Shinsuke Ota ‘IWRM Guidelines at River Basin Level’ (NARBO)
  Direct link to download the full document of the Guidelines is provided UNESCO Water Portal Bimonthly Newsletter No.214.
• Download IWRM Guidelines at River Basin Level (UNESCO)

UNESCO acknowledges that GWP/INBO is also producing an IWRM handbook focused on basins. UNESCO and GWP/INBO have been actively coordinating their efforts so that the Guidelines andGWP/INBO handbook complement each other. The Handbook highlights the creation of an 'enabling' institutional framework that promotes key IWRM principles through policy guidance, legislation and a well functioning regulatory framework. These Guidelines, on the other hand, describe an approach to introducing IWRM at the river basin level that begins with implementing currently available measures in the context of existing insititutions and resources, and as capacity grows, evolving towrards a fully integrated approach towards the provision of multi-sectoral water services.