Towards A More Human-Centred Water Resource Management: A Review

Abstract

Inefficient utilization of water in irrigated agriculture and other water management sectors have been reportedly linked to inappropriate water application and/or sharing methods, hydrological uncertainties and decayed infrastructures. However, a problem that has been affecting the irrigation and other water management sectors which attracted little attention and remaining elusive, is the impact of unlawful human activities. Some of the human activities that have been reported to adversely affect irrigation and other water management sectors include unauthorized water uses, water wastage behaviour and excessive operational losses. Others comprise discharging poorly or untreated wastewater into watercourses, over‐application of chemicals, collusions and other forms of corruption. To change the current water governance for achieving the sustainable development goal number 12, aimed at ensuring sustainable natural resources consumption and production patterns, the impacts of such undesirable human activities need to be assessed and incorporated into water management operational analysis quantitatively. This paper reviewed and reported two important aspects that need to be considered before putting human-centred water management into practice. 1) Ethical considerations in water use and management which need to be studied, revisited and revised. 2) Human behaviour-induced cases that have occurred and hampered the success of irrigation and other water management sectors. An insightful knowledge was gained from the review that drought condition (the state of water availability) affects water users’ level of compliance with rules. This paper, therefore, identified the impact of human unlawful activities as the missing link that if not quantitatively incorporated could render irrigation and other water management sectors unproductive. For example, a model that simulates water management operation whilst coupling the impact of humans quantitatively would be a valuable tool for prudent decision making. It is, therefore, strongly recommended to be incorporating the impact of human activities on irrigation and other water management performance analysis quantitatively.

Keywords

• Human-centred
• Irrigation scheme
• Management
• Water resource

References

1. Nura Jafar Shanono Department of Agricultural & Environmental Engineering, Bayero University Kano, Nigeria