ABSTRACT
In many river basins use of water for human purposes through investments in water infrastructure for urban, industrial, and agricultural growth is approaching or exceeding the amount of renewable water available. Such overcommitment of water resources is caused by a disregard for environmental water requirements, incomplete hydrological knowledge, fuzzy water rights, and politically motivated projects with weak economic rationale [well established]. The results are overbuilt river basins and basin closure, the situation where more water is used than is environmentally desirable or, in some cases, than is renewably available. The challenge for water management in agriculture is to do more with less water in river basins that are already stressed and to provide much stricter scrutiny by decisionmakers and civil society of new infrastructure development in relatively open river basins to avoid overcommitment of water resources.
