ABSTRACT
In the Americas as in many other parts of the world, integrated water resources management (IWRM) originated in the need to find a reasonable compromise among the various competing uses of water when quantity and/or quality conflicts arose, because demand was larger than supply. Thus, it was not initially of much concern to the water-rich countries of the region. However, in the 1990s planners in some countries of Latin America and the Caribbean embraced the movement towards a more integrated view of making government, considering the mutual effect of the different economic, social and environmental sectors. Water was included in this and integration moved out of the water resources realm into the realm of other sectors and actors, outside the traditional water resources community. Many financing and technical assistance organizations and, most of all, the success of the Second World Water Forum of The Hague in 2000—making water the business of all and not only the business of water resource managers—reinforced this internationally. These days, it can be said that practically no national, regional or international organization in the Americas from Mexico to Chile, including Canada, fails to promote ‘some’ IWRM concept.
