This document on consumption-based water management (CBWM) distils and expands on the findings of an expert consultation hosted by FAO and the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR). The meeting brought together Chinese and international experts to discuss the technical, governance and broader dimensions of managing consumptive water use, and to understand the implications of more than ten years’ pilot experience in China and its potential for application in a broader range of climatic, political administrative and socioeconomic contexts. The document provides contextual information on CBWM, introduces technical basis for CBWM, takes a closer look at law, policy, and governance and their the relevance in implementing CBWM, and step-by-step detail on implementation of CBWM. Finally, the document argues that the implementation of CBWM requires preliminary steps in developing water accounts, water rights, water allocation processes and associated institutional arrangements, all of which are very relevant and immediately necessary in most countries in Asia.

This book is the result of a joint research effort led by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and involving the Royal Scientific Society of Jordan, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Palestine Health Council. It discusses opportunities for enhancement of water supplies and avoidance of overexploitation of water resources in the Middle East. Based on the concept that ecosystem goods and services are essential to maintaining water quality and quantity, the book emphasizes conservation, improved use of current technologies, and water management approaches that are compatible with environmental quality.

The American Water Works Association Research Foundation (AWWARF) and 22 municipalities, water utilities, water purveyors, water districts and water providers funded this study. Goals of this research included: Providing specific data on the end uses of water in residential settings across the continent; Assembling data on disaggregated indoor and outdoor uses; Identifying variations in water used for each fixture or appliance according to a variety of factors; and Developing predictive models forecast residential water demand. This report represents a time and place snapshot of how water is used in single-family homes in twelve North American locations. Similarities and differences among 'end users' were tabulated for each location, analyzed and summarized. Great care was taken to create a statistically significant representative sample of customer for each of the twelve locations. However, these twelve locations are not statistically representative of all North American locations.

People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but significantly more for producing things such as food, paper and cotton clothes. The water footprint is an indicator of water use that looks at both direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer. Indirect use refers to the 'virtual water' embedded in tradable goods and commodities, such as cereals, sugar or cotton. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. This book offers a complete and up-to-date overview of the global standard on water footprint assessment as developed by the Water Footprint Network. More specifically it: o Provides a comprehensive set of methods for water footprint assessment o Shows how water footprints can be calculated for individual processes and products, as well as for consumers, nations and businesses o Contains detailed worked examples of how to calculate green, blue and grey water footprints o Describes how to assess the sustainability of the aggregated water footprint within a river basin or the water footprint of a specific product o Includes an extensive library of possible measures that can contribute to water footprint reduction

This report contains a collection of papers from a workshopâ€"Strengthening Science-Based Decision-Making for Sustainable Management of Scarce Water Resources for Agricultural Production, held in Tunisia. Participants, including scientists, decision makers, representatives of non-profit organizations, and a farmer, came from the United States and several countries in North Africa and the Middle East. The papers examined constraints to agricultural production as it relates to water scarcity; focusing on 1) the state of the science regarding water management for agricultural purposes in the Middle East and North Africa 2) how science can be applied to better manage existing water supplies to optimize the domestic production of food and fiber. The cross-cutting themes of the workshop were the elements or principles of science-based decision making, the role of the scientific community in ensuring that science is an integral part of the decision making process, and ways to improve communications between scientists and decision makers.

Water is not only used in the domestic context, but also in agriculture and industry in the production of commercial goods, from food to paper. The water footprint is an indicator of freshwater use that looks at both direct and indirect use of water by a consumer or producer. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. This book shows how the water footprint concept can be used to quantify and map the water use behind consumption and how it can guide reduction of water use to a sustainable level. With a number of case studies, it illustrates water use along supply chains and that water consumption at one place is often linked to water use at another. For example, it is calculated that it takes 15,000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of beef, or 8,000 litres of water to produce a pair of jeans. The book shows that imports of water-intensive products can highly benefit water-scarce countries, but also that this creates a dependency on foreign water resources. The book demonstrates how water-scarce regions sometimes, nevertheless, use lots of water for making export products. It raises the issue of sustainable consumption: how can consumers, businesses and governments get involved in reducing the water footprints of final consumer goods?

In December 2002, a group of specialists on water resources from the United States and Iran met in Tunis, Tunisia, for an interacademy workshop on water resources management, conservation, and recycling. This was the fourth interacademy workshop on a variety of topics held in 2002, the first year of such workshops. Tunis was selected as the location for the workshop because the Tunisian experience in addressing water conservation issues was of interest to the participants from both the United States and Iran. This report includes the agenda for the workshop, all of the papers that were presented, and the list of site visits.

Contributing to the growing debate on the need for sustainable water use and management, with concrete examples of new approaches, concepts, arguments, methods and findings which illustrate how this can be achieved, this book will be attractive for large groups of readers familiar with one or more of the themes it tackles, and to the general public. Within this context, the book makes use of many tables and graphics, which bring the many messages together. This approach is intended not only for those working on water matters (e.g. bureaucrats, water managers, policymakers, journalists, etc.) and interested in water management issues and sustainability at large, but also for students of water management, water politics, environmental policy, water economics, water engineering and sustainability studies. Located at the crossroads of two key phenomena: sustainability and water, this book brings forward academic research and discussions on water efficiency, new technologies, and the water-agriculture nexus. It also benefits readers by tackling matters related to trans-boundary cooperation on water (including rainwater) and river-basin management, pricing issues, participatory water management, and the role of women in sustainable water use, amongst others.

Water Management in Africa and the Middle East: Challenges and Opportunities