January 1, 2014
Water management in much of the world is at a critical juncture. Even when it has to fulfil an essential role in promoting development and reducing poverty at the national and sub-national levels, water is often scarce, polluted, mismanaged, misgoverned, and poorly allocated. A main handicap has been that water management has often been considered an end unto itself rather than a means to an end, that end being to achieve overall development, economic prosperity, improvement of quality of life, and environmental conservation.