The INECO Project Framework

INECO's main strategic goal is capacity building and the constructive engagement of Stakeholders in Integrated Water Resources Management planning.

Together with the establishment and strengthening of a network of research institutes, public authorities and stakeholders, the project will focus on institutional and economic instruments and will address issues (or focal water management problems) which are related (directly or indirectly) to three water management challenges (see Fig. below):

• Sharing water, referring to the mechanisms (institutional, regulatory, legislative, economic) in place for water allocation at the river basin level, at the service provision level (between users) and at the transnational level.

• Valuing water, referring to the assessment of costs and values in water use, the maximisation of economic efficiency, the implementation of the cost-recovery principle for supporting sustainable water service delivery, and the implementation of the user-pays and beneficiary-pays principles.

• Governing water wisely, referring to the institutional environment that enables IWRM implementation.

Each challenge suggests different issues that should be addressed within a water management system, and will have diverse impacts at different levels of the local societies.

The framework for the implementation of INECO

• The constitutional or water policy and law functional level, which provides the enabling environment for the successful functioning of the system, and includes the development of water policies, institutional policies, including human resources development, normative and executive legislation.

• The organizational or water resource management functional level, which involves the coordination, planning, decision making and policing of water use and users in water systems (river basins and aquifers).

• The operational or water use functional level, which focuses at the use or control of water for specific purposes (e.g. water supply and sanitation, irrigation and drainage, flood protection, hydropower, industrial supplies, water for tourism and the preservation or rehabilitation of ecosystems).

The final output of INECO should be viewed as a "social experiment" in capacity building and policy framing; rather than hoping to introduce "solutions" to the water management issues, INECO aims at providing experience and support to local societies towards a shift in their perceptions and subsequently in their water management practices, and at the development a comprehensive, adaptable guideline framework to assist in the process.