Because water resources touch so many elements of human systems and ecosystems, management must be integrated across water use sectors, across scales of governance, across space in a river basin context, and across time.  Many current water problems stem from the fragmented, single-issue and single-sector approaches that have characterized water resources management in the past. The desired results of IWRM are ample freshwater for 1) the multiple sectors of human use and development (domestic, agricultural, industrial, etc.), 2) in-stream needs for ecosystem processes and biodiversity conservation, and 3) the needs of upstream and downstream human communities and ecosystems, including coastal zones. The basic goal is to manage the human and environmental elements of IWRM to ensure that abundant quantities of sufficiently clean fresh water are available in the correct place and the correct time. This requires a governance and management system that integrates science-based understanding of the natural controls on water abundance and quality with appropriate and effective human technologies and actions.

Multiple sectors of human society (e.g., communities, local, regional and national governments, international institutions, non-governmental organizations and economic sectors such as agriculture, industry, and energy) have all, to one extent or another, embraced IWRM as a potential solution to water problems.  International instruments such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Commission on Sustainable Development, the European Water Framework Directive, The Nile Basin Initiative, the Amazon Cooperation Treaty, and the Mekong River Commission are promoting IWRM as a tool for sustainable development and conservation.  Countries all over the developing world are being pushed by bi- and multi-lateral aid agencies to prepare national IWRM plans.

Yet, despite these high profile endorsements, the practice of IWRM continues to be outside the mainstream of development planning at scales that could genuinely and effectively address water supply, sanitation, and natural resource issues.   The most powerful government decision makers that affect development, such as ministers of economic development, finance, industry, and agriculture, are rarely in the room when IWRM is discussed.  Legislators controlling committees that oversee development issues, as well as state and provincial leaders, are usually absent as well, as are important players in the private sector.  Resource managers on the ground generally lack the knowledge and experience to apply IWRM because of a lack of on-the-job or academic training opportunities. Examples of workable IWRM programs are non-existent in many parts of the world, and examples of applied IWRM from the developed world are rarely workable in poorer nations. When major infrastructure projects are planned, IWRM principles usually enter the discussion at the review phase rather than the initial design phase, and development and disaster prevention and relief agencies do not adequately consider the role that natural systems can play in expanding economies and mitigating disasters.

The Global Water for Sustainability (GLOWS) Program is designed to bridge these gaps.  We will consider GLOWS a success if, after five years, we have made significant progress in the acceptance of IWRM as a first principle of development and natural resource management planning; if we have facilitated this by policy work, technical studies, and well documented and widely disseminated pilot projects; and if we have made the knowledge, tools and experience of IWRM accessible and useful to people at all levels struggling to implement the approach.