Workshop on Integrated Water Management

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The lack of coordination and stakeholder participation in the conservation and management are the main problems that now affect water resources management, said Water Resources Minister P J Joseph.The Minister was inaugurating the workshop on ‘Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)’ organised by the Sub-Centre of Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) at Sasthra Bhavan, here on Thursday. “It is now time to enhance cross-sectoral water resources management in order to replace what is considered to be inefficient sub-sectoral management within the various individual water use sectors,” said the Water Resources Minister.C T S Nair, executive vice-president and principal secretary to Science and Technology, who presided over the meeting said that water sector reforms were vital. “Though we are strong in technical matters, we lack sufficient institutional mechanism. Earnest efforts at all levels are required to improve the institutional set up,” he said.CWRDM executive director K V Jayakumar, KSCSTE member-secretary K K Ramachandran and CWRDM scientist George Chackacherry spoke on the occasion.The workshop recommended the implementation of IWRM at all river basins of Kerala, at the earliest, highlighted the necessity of coordination and integration of various departments/stakeholders, limiting the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides to control water pollution, organising workshops on IWRM for elected representatives and policy makers, and establishment of state-level data management cell as one of the first steps to implement IWRM. Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency executive director N Prasanth, and Central Groundwater Board director P Nandakumar, were moderators in the technical sessions. K V Jayakumar, George Chackacherry and V P Dinesan, presented papers at the workshop. Discussions were led by CWRDM scientists Nandakumar,  M D Nandeshwar and  P S Harikumar.