Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Drought Management
Chapter 3 An Alternative Approach to Drought and Drought-proofing
Chapter 4 Understanding Drought : Implications, Strategies and Policies
Chapter 5 Context for Integrated Water Resource Management
Chapter 6 Water Economics and Integrated Water Resources Management
Chapter 7 Water Supply and Health within Integrated Water Resources Management Consideration
Chapter 8 Agriculture in the Concept of Integrated Water Resources Management
Chapter 9 River Basin Planning and Management
Chapter 10 Water Quality Management

A drought or drouth is a natural disaster of below-average precipitation in a given region, resulting in prolonged shortages in the water supply, whether atmospheric, surface water or ground water. A drought can last for months or years or may be declared after as few as 15 days. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region and harm to the local economy. Annual dry seasons in the tropics significantly increase the chances of a drought developing and subsequent bush fires. Periods of heat can significantly worsen drought conditions by hastening evaporation of water vapour. Drought is a normal, recurrent feature of climate and occurs in all climatic regimes and is usually characterized in terms of it spatial extension, intensity and duration. Conditions of drought appear when the rainfall is deficient in relation to the statistical multi-year average for a region, over an extended period of a season or year, or even more. Integrated water resources management provides a set of ideas to help us manage water more holistically. However, these ideas have been formalized over time in what has now become, in capitals, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), with specific prescriptive principles whose implementation is often supported by donor funding and international policy.IWRM has now become an end in itself, in some cases undermining functioning water management systems, in others setting back needed water reform agendas, and in yet others becoming a tool to mask other agendas. Critically, the current monopoly of IWRM in global water management discourse is shutting out alternative thinking on pragmatic solutions to existing water problems. The book will be of great use for researchers, planners and development workers.

College of Engineering and Computer Studies Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering

Text in English