Chapter 1
Introduction
Life today is in a vast and deep transition. All the major drivers of human civilization, such as economics, governance, science, technology, culture and religion are
changing with unprecedented speed. Nature in relative equilibrium with humans for
millenniums is now in the middle of this foundational and rapidly shifting transition.
Negative natural symptoms are evident in our daily lives and none can reach deeper
into our sense of security than water, because “water is life”!
Sever water problems, due to scarcity and/or pollution, are expanding and
becoming real for an increasing number of peoples and regions of the world. Most
of the population of the world are affected and alarmed, such as India, Middle East,
USA (e.g., California), China, Bolivia, Nigeria, South Africa, Iberian Peninsula,
just to name a few. Besides the growing focus of the nations on water, its increasing
centrality is also evident by many private organisations, big industries, and the actions
of international organisations, such as World Bank, WHO, WMO, FAO, UNESCO
and OECD. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDG 2018)
have Goal number 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) with most of the other 16 Goals,
such as Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) and Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), being
dependent directly or indirectly on Goal 6. We are also living in the “International
Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development, 2018–2028” as declared
by the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Until recent years, almost all that is written and done on water management and
planning are from the viewpoints different from water. Generally, one or two other
priorities in domains, such as, food, land, economics, health and ecosystem had the
centre stage and water was just an input among many others. Historically, such a
direction in analyses made sense due to two facts: water was relatively abundant
and unrestricted in comparison to other things, and water pollution was much less
alarming. This book tries to reverse this tendency, put water as the priority, and
present it as the central issue in development. In doing so, the author has given much
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
N. Haie, Transparent Water Management Theory,
Water Resources Development and Management,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6284-6_1
1
Introduction
Life today is in a vast and deep transition. All the major drivers of human civilization, such as economics, governance, science, technology, culture and religion are
changing with unprecedented speed. Nature in relative equilibrium with humans for
millenniums is now in the middle of this foundational and rapidly shifting transition.
Negative natural symptoms are evident in our daily lives and none can reach deeper
into our sense of security than water, because “water is life”!
Sever water problems, due to scarcity and/or pollution, are expanding and
becoming real for an increasing number of peoples and regions of the world. Most
of the population of the world are affected and alarmed, such as India, Middle East,
USA (e.g., California), China, Bolivia, Nigeria, South Africa, Iberian Peninsula,
just to name a few. Besides the growing focus of the nations on water, its increasing
centrality is also evident by many private organisations, big industries, and the actions
of international organisations, such as World Bank, WHO, WMO, FAO, UNESCO
and OECD. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDG 2018)
have Goal number 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) with most of the other 16 Goals,
such as Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) and Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), being
dependent directly or indirectly on Goal 6. We are also living in the “International
Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development, 2018–2028” as declared
by the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Until recent years, almost all that is written and done on water management and
planning are from the viewpoints different from water. Generally, one or two other
priorities in domains, such as, food, land, economics, health and ecosystem had the
centre stage and water was just an input among many others. Historically, such a
direction in analyses made sense due to two facts: water was relatively abundant
and unrestricted in comparison to other things, and water pollution was much less
alarming. This book tries to reverse this tendency, put water as the priority, and
present it as the central issue in development. In doing so, the author has given much
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
N. Haie, Transparent Water Management Theory,
Water Resources Development and Management,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6284-6_1
1