IDRC and Water

Water. It is essential to life. But throughout the developing world, countless communities lack an adequate, safe, and affordable supply, making water also a source of disease and conflict.

The scale of the water crisis is immense — an estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide lack safe drinking water, and twice as many lack adequate sanitation. They face immediate health threats from water-borne diseases, such as cholera and hepatitis, and longer-term threats from the accumulation of heavy metals and other toxins in soil, water, and food.

In many developing regions, especially throughout Africa and the Middle East, the problem isn’t unsafe water but a lack of water. Supplies of fresh water for growing food and for household and industrial uses have not kept pace with population growth.

Accelerating Pace of Change

The processes behind the global water crisis continue to accelerate. Marshes and wetlands are eliminated as cities grow and agriculture expands; more water is diverted from rivers and lakes; overexploited underground aquifers are not fully replenished; water is contaminated by household wastes, agrochemicals, and industrial discharges; and urban areas grow rapidly, despite a lack of sanitation services and proper drainage.

Dozens of national and multilateral donor organizations are supporting projects in developing countries aimed at making more safe water available to more communities and at using existing water supplies more efficiently. So what is unique about IDRC’s approach?

Research from the Perspective of the Poor

The simple answer, of course, is that IDRC focuses on supporting researchers in the developing world. The more complex answer is that IDRC-supported researchers address locally defined priorities and take into account interactions among the many factors that contribute to poverty. Indeed, IDRC has no water-specific programming because water issues are difficult, if not impossible, to isolate from other poverty issues, such as health and sanitation.

As Jean Lebel, director, Environment and Natural Resource Management, puts it, “IDRC-supported researchers try to see water issues from the perspective of the poor. What does the community see as the nature of the problem? What aspects are technical? What aspects are social or behavioural? And what are individuals and institutions able and willing to do to solve the problem?”

IDRC also plays a critical role in sharing and applying locally generated water-related research results to other communities and regions.

“Our water-related programs link local knowledge originating on the ground, systematize this within a scientific framework, and link it to policy and governance,” says Lebel. “In this sense, IDRC is the middle ground between the UN multilateral organizations and grassroots changes at the local level.”

A Long-term IDRC Commitment

Water research has always been important to IDRC. Beginning in the early 1990s, IDRC’s emphasis shifted away from a purely technical approach to increasing water supply — by developing, for example, improved water pumps and rooftop water-collection systems — to an approach that balances the technical and social aspects of complex water-related challenges.

Today, IDRC's water-related projects are diverse, yet all generate and apply new knowledge in four critical areas: water access and rights, water demand management, wastewater reuse, and the interactions between water, health, and ecosystems.

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