INTRODUCTION

Almost all recent international conferences draw attention to the formidable challenge of water resources management for the next century. By the turn of the century, approximately 60 % of a rapidly growing world population will live in urban areas. It is estimated that 21 mega cities with more than ten million inhabitants (18 of them in developing countries) and innumerable cities and towns will have to satisfy their demand for fresh water by drawing from ever more distant and degraded resources. Water management problems of rapidly expanding urban areas increasingly exceed the boundaries of cities, river basins and may even cross national borders. Urban poverty and repulsive living conditions of citizens in peri-urban areas threaten to overwhelm local authorities with unmanageable crisis in housing, health and infrastructure services, especially in safe drinking water supply.

MAIN TASKS

The above challenges will require a sound and persistent policy that can be summarized as below:

* adjusting national development plans and scenarios to comply the freshwater needs for urban and rural populations, agriculture, industry and the environment in order to maintain sustainable economic growth,

* an integrated management of water resources, allocating water at the appropriate scale to competing uses and users according to social, economic and environmental priorities,

* sound planning, management and financing of urban water and sanitation, as well as proper operation and maintenance.

Within the broader framework, Borne basic principles can be elaborated:

- freshwater is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment;

- water management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy-makers at all levels;

- water has an economic value in all its competing uses; mobilizing financial resources is critical to effective water resources management.

These basic principles will obviously affect national planning and demand management, institutional arrangements and mechanisms, and economic incentives and financing.

PROBLEMS AND BOTTLENECKS

Water is an increasingly scarce resource requiring careful economic and environmental management. The situation is getting worse by rapid population growth and unplanned urbanization especially in developing countries. The lack of basic services such as water supply and sanitation is a key symptom of poverty and underdevelopment. The provision of such services must be part of a coherent development strategy as demand for water for human consumption has increased, so has the competition for water used for industry, commerce and irrigated agriculture. At the same time, the engineering and environmental costs are much higher for new water supplies than for sources already used. Above all, population growth and urbanization are increasing the demand for infrastructures. It involves struggling against inefficiency and waste both in investment and in delivering services and also, responding more effectively to user demand. The concern needs to open new perspectives from increasing the quantity of infrastructure stocks to improving the quality of infrastructure services.

Some of the main problems to be addressed in domestic water supply and sanitation are:

- Importance of respect for water, the source of life, has to be the highest priority within the wisdom of the community.

- One of the most troublesome problem facing many countries is the lack of water as a constraint to development. Water shortage is rapidly becoming the concern of the world.

- There are three main issues in water supply: the persistent habits of wasting drinking water, the issue of water quality and the issue of water management.

- Surface water quality has deteriorated rapidly in developing countries. However, the cost of realizing environmental sustainability has become a major issue for all countries.

- As mismanagement of water resources continues, water for cities has to be drawn from ever more distant sources. Thus the financial requirements in the water supply sector investments has increased two to three times within last twenty years.

- Water savings are the largest neglected source of fresh water, waiting to be developed with relatively small investments. There is an incredible amount of water wasted at home, in the industry and elsewhere. Water demand management is climbing to top priority at long last.

- Water is both an environmental resource and a commodity. The price that should be paid for water in its various uses has become the subject of public debate in many countries. Consumers do not behave when water prices represent such a low proportion of income. Water prices, still are much lower than other utility prices. People are not yet convinced that water is valuable; therefore higher prices are necessary to increase conservation. Partnerships are becoming crucial to gain consumer confidence and in sure transparency.

- Besides the official public water service system there is an enormous hidden and open water sector. Inadequate or failing public water supply is supplemented or replaced by local private initiatives usually at a much higher cost to the users.

- As a result of leakage and piracy, inefficiency of the official water utilities is very large. Unaccounted for water generally runs between 30 to 60% in many big cities of developing countries. As inadequate water supply and sanitation is more predominant in poor communities, the increasing costs befalls the already poor people of the urban areas.

SOME BASIC PRINCIPLES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

In general, within the scope of water resource development, considering water in large urban areas in broader terms, some basic principles and recommendations can be put forward:

- Effective and sustainable water resources management and long-term planning will require reliable arrangements for information, data collection and management.

- Water resource management should consider both long and short term demands assessed within the framework of the broader social, economic and environmental objectives.

- The basic unit of water resources management is the river basin. For effective water planning and management alternatives at this level, communities, non-governmental organizations, private sector, municipalities and government should be represented at some form of water council or water parliament. In turn effective implementation of an integrated water resources management plan would benefit from the establishment of a public or semi-public autonomous basin organization.

- Governments have a specific responsibility to provide an enabling legal and institutional framework, allowing decisions to be taken at the lowest appropriate level, such as water basin authorities, municipalities and communities.

- Government funding and supporting external funding remain important. However other sources like private capital, commercial and development banks, cooperatives, revolving funds, credit associations and loan guarantee schemes can be applied and may offer great potential.

- Demand management must be the first alternative to new investments and should be pursued actively by employing legal, technical and financial mechanisms, as well as public information and education programs.

- Community based organizations have proven to be successful in managing local water and sanitation services in many countries. Since conditions of low income communities vary substantially, it is essential to adopt a flexible approach to match local solutions to Iocal conditions

- Cities should follow sustainable development policies recognizing that protection, efficient use and conservation including wastewater recycling and reuse are better principles of sustainability than remedial measures.

- Provision of water and environmental sanitation services for low income urban communities (especially in 'gecekondu' settlement areas in Turkey) can be facilitated in several ways such as giving choices on levels of service, cross subsidies, social and stepwise tariffs, and targeted subsidies.

- Water and sewerage utilities should provide reliable services on a commercially viable basis This requires continued emphasis on capacity building of institutions and human resources.

COMPREHENSIVE FRAMEWORK FOR DOMESTIC WATER SUPPLY

As to summarize the above mentioned main tasks, we can conclude that new challenges call for a new approach. In domestic and industrial water supply sector, governments had often misallocated and waste water; as well as permitted damage to the environment as a result of distorted policies, institutional weakness, misguided investments and insufficient cost recovery. Legal and institutional framework that has neglected water quality, health and environmental issues; fragmented public investment programming and sector management; inadequacy of local authorities; reliance on overextended government agencies that have neglected the need for economic pricing, financial accountability and user participation are the major problems to be addressed. Also, special attention has to be given to the effective provision of safe water supply and sanitation services to the poor.

The growing consensus on the need for integrated water resource planning and management leads three facts to be acknowledged in a new legal framework:

1. Water is a public resource.

2. Groundwater and surface water systems are one (unique).

3. Water is an economic good.

The main features or topics of a framework for improving water resource management with special attention to domestic and industrial water supply can be gathered in the following headings: Water policy objectives; Country focus of the policy; Institutional and regulatory systems; Comprehensive analytical framework; Designing country programs; Implementation; Decentralization; Environmental protection; Water conserving technology, Upgrading skills; Participation; Incentives; and Poverty alleviation.

MEASURES AND PROPOSALS

Some basic measures and proposals to be addressed in domestic water supply sector can be:

- An important way of success in achieving an integrated view comes from the river basin management approach, based on principles of participation, subsidiary, technical efficiency and financial autonomy.

- The fundamental unit for managing water resources would remain the river basin. The importance of monitoring and assessment of the fresh water resources should be considered as a key issue.

- A more aggressive water policy is needed in developing countries. All subsidies from water need to be removed progressively. Subsequently, all water resources will receive shadow price.

- To deal with consumption, programs to promote conservation and re-use of water are essential. Action is required at all levels: local, city, regional and national level as there will be more people needing more water.

- To increase water availability, people should invest first in the most economical resource. Therefore, this first investment should be in water conservation and recycling.

- At the basin level, the right mix of economic instruments and control options has to be found to ensure an effective implementation of integrated water management.

- Another issue is inefficient operation and maintenance practices in water works. This seriously hampers future investments. To create effective institutions to deal with issues as water demand management, capacity building and financial autonomy are crucial.

- With all that is known about the advantages of demand management, there is still a long way to go before demand management practices will be common place. The demand management is a very good and effective tool, if it is based on a national economic development plan. For the successful implementation of demand management strategies it is essential to have a proper institutional framework.

- Provided that a proper public sector framework exists, private sector financing can contribute substantially. However, that poor cost recovery in the water and sanitation sector constraints private financing should be taken into consideration. A key element in achieving success are the partnerships built in and around the water sector at all levels between national and local organizations, user groups, the government and the private sector.

- In developing water supply and sanitation programs, the first concern should be to ensure community participation and mutually decide the levels of service and maintenance. Participation is a process in which users influence policy formulation, alternative designs, investment choices, and management decisions affecting their communities and establish the necessary sense of ownership. As communities increase their participation in managing water resources, project selection and service delivery then cost recovery will likely improve.

- A key component of the reforms is to support the incentives for efficiency and financial discipline. Many of the problems encountered in providing water services are due to lack of incentives both for performance by providers and for efficiency by users. On the issue of economic incentives, gradually but decidedly subsidies had to be removed from water to discourage waste. Whenever subsidies are removed, it must be insured that the money released is used for increasing water efficiency and conservation. To compensate the poorest sections of the society the introduction of progressive block rates may be an option.

- Governments, because of their limited financial and administrative resources, need to be selective in the responsibilities they assume for water resources The principle is that nothing should be done satisfactorily at a low level. Thus, where local or private capabilities exist and where an appropriate regulatory system can be established, the central government's efforts to decentralize responsibilities to local governments or municipalities and to transfer service delivery functions to the private sector, to financially autonomous public corporations, and to community organizations such as water user associations.

- In discussing the decentralization process in the water sector, emphasize should be given to the importance of solidarity. Solidarity with low income communities may come from solidarity taxes levied in developed urban areas.

CONCLUSIONS

More efficient and accessible delivery of water services and treatment with the ultimate goal of providing universal coverage is essential for domestic water supply. This will be achieved by extending existing supplies through water conservation and reuse and by using other sustainable methods. Greater involvement of the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and user groups will be required, as will cost recovery to ensure financial viability while applying graduated fees to assist tne poor.

The limited water resources of a country should be considered as a national asset that must be properly managed, if they are to bring maximum benefit to the country as a whole as well as to the individual's wealth.