Debbie Coffey Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved.
PPJ Investigative Reporter/Journalist
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“IWRM is the (planning) process which promotes the co-ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.”
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At water rights hearings at the Nevada Department of Water Resources, farmers and ranchers of Eureka, Nevada seem to be caught between a rock and a hard place. Several articles have been written about their plight (links below).
But it seems like something “bigger” is happening. It is, and it’s probably happening to you, too.
After the most recent hearing, I saw a flyer on a bulletin board in the hallway. On it, the American Water Resources Association (AWRA) described a conference about Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). The flyer linked IWRM to the Global Water Partnership and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.
Does this sound as “American” as apple pie to you? Or does it sound multi-national and make you wonder how this might relate not only to our water rights, but to our constitutional rights here in the U.S.A.?
The conference aims were to explore IWRM in detail from both “US and international perspectives” and ask questions like “Can the USA implement IWRM?” and “How can IWRM best be implemented?”
However, the bigger question should be, do you want your property (and our United States) to be governed by international laws?
So what exactly is INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IWRM)?
On the AWRA website, it states “Participants in the national collaboration process spearheaded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers defined IWRM in this manner: ‘IWRM aims to develop and manage water, land, and related resources, while considering multiple viewpoints of how water should be managed (i.e. planned, designed and constructed, managed, evaluated, and regulated). It is a goal-directed process for controlling the development and use of river, lake, ocean, wetland, and other water assets in ways that integrate and balance stakeholder interests, objectives, and desired outcomes across levels of governance and water sectors for the sustainable use of the earth’s resources’.”
So, it’s also about managing the land and “related resources?” Does this mean ALL land and ALL resources? And who exactly will be offering the “multiple viewpoints” that IWRM aims to consider while CONTROLLING the development and use of river, lake, ocean, wetland and other water assets? Who are the stakeholders? Does the “stakeholder” group include PROPERTY OWNERS? What exactly are the “desired outcomes” of earth’s resources and who is desiring these outcomes?
Whatever it is, IWRM wants everybody to do it: “The American Water Resources Association calls on policy makers, planners and managers at national, tribal, interstate, state and local levels to encourage collaborations, policies, programs and plans that embrace Integrated Water Resources Management.” More
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