‘Water management: 3 minutes to understand’: a new video series from OiEau, with a first episode dedicated to IWRM
To mark its 35th anniversary, the International Office for Water has produced a series of educational videos entitled ‘Water Management: 3 minutes to understand’, designed to make the major themes about water accessible to all.
Discover IWRM with OiEau!
A video series to raise awareness about water issues
Face to climate change and growing pressure on natural resources, water resource management has become a key global issue. Droughts, floods, water pollution and geopolitical tensions over access to water: these challenges call for collective, innovative and sustainable responses.
In light of these challenges, awareness-raising and education appear to be essential pillars for promoting awareness. Informing and explaining enable all stakeholders – citizens, businesses, local authorities – to be mobilised around the responsible and shared management of this vital resource.
As a recognised public interest organisation certified for environmental protection, promoting knowledge is at the heart of OiEau's DNA. Our goal? To document the debate, in a neutral manner and in the public interest, in order to present, in three languages, a holistic and concerted approach to water resource management, which is the cornerstone of convincing and sustainable results.
It is with this in mind that the series ‘Water Management: 3 minutes to understand’ was conceived.
A video format to educate all audiences
This initiative, which is aimed at both professionals in the sector and the general public, aims to explain complex topics in a concise and understandable way. Each video, lasting around three minutes, addresses a key topic related to water resource management, providing a clear and quick understanding of the current and future challenges facing this shared heritage.
The choice of video format reflects a desire to make technical and scientific concepts more accessible, while promoting wide dissemination.
By combining expertise and education, OiEau aims to provide keys to understanding and raise awareness of the major challenges of water management.
Key themes for understanding water issues
Every two months, we invite you to join us for a new episode that will address a different topic.
To kick off this series, we would like to introduce you to Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).
For more than three decades, the International Office for Water (OiEau), a recognised public interest organisation, has placed IWRM at the heart of its identity and actions. In the context of global climate change, this systemic approach has become essential for reconciling human uses and the preservation of ecosystems. OiEau stands out for its ability to support States and basin organisations in the implementation of operational solutions, drawing on a cross-cutting vision of water governance around the world.
OiEau, four complementary areas of expertise
This mission to structure governance is manifested in concrete terms through institutional support and leading-edge international cooperation. Operating in more than 80 countries, the association supports the creation of basin organisations and the development of appropriate legal frameworks, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The DYNOBA project, which aims to revitalise transboundary basin organisations in Africa, perfectly illustrates this commitment by strengthening concerted resource management in countries such as Senegal and Chad. Similarly, in Asia, OiEau supports the IWRM process in Cambodia through the WAT4CAM project, which is working in the Tonle Sap watershed to stabilise the governance system and improve agricultural resilience.
Skills development is another fundamental pillar of the association's strategy. With its training centre, which is unique in Europe, OiEau trains more than 6,000 professionals every year. These educational engineering programmes disseminate best practices in IWRM, covering both the technical management of networks and mediation between different water users. This skills development is essential to ensuring the sustainability of local infrastructure and public policies, transforming theoretical knowledge into a lever for action in the field.
Sustainable resource management also relies on reliable information, as data is the real fuel for political and technical decision-making. OiEau helps regions design and deploy robust Water Information Systems (WIS) to ensure a transparent view of available resources. The EU4Environment Water & Data programme, carried out in Eastern Partnership countries such as Ukraine and Georgia, demonstrates the impact of this expertise by harmonising environmental data in line with European standards. In Côte d'Ivoire, OiEau's support for the development of the Bandama Basin WIS also makes it possible to better anticipate needs and share knowledge among all stakeholders in the region.
Finally, OiEau plays a major role in facilitating networks and hydrodiplomacy at all levels. By facilitating reference structures such as the International Network of Basin Organisations (INBO), the association promotes the exchange of experiences and actively promotes peace through water. This dialogue is crucial for the management of transboundary rivers, where potential tensions are transformed into opportunities for sustainable cooperation. The BIO-PLATEAUX project, located between French Guiana, Brazil and Suriname, demonstrates this ability to build cross-border bridges for data sharing and biodiversity conservation in the Maroni and Oyapock basins.
Through this global approach, OiEau has established as a key player in global water resilience.
FAQ
Contribution of IWRM to three objectives: to know more
The goal of efficiency is to use water as rationally as possible to support development. This means maximising the value derived from every cubic metre used in agriculture, industry or energy production, in order to avoid waste while boosting the region's economic growth.
Through the pillar of social equity, IWRM requires democratic and fair access to water. It is not just a matter of providing water, but of ensuring that all users — whether large operators or ordinary citizens — have a say in decisions and equitable access to this vital resource.
This is what environmental balance is all about. This pillar aims to preserve aquatic environments and wetlands. By protecting the health of ecosystems, we ensure that nature can continue to provide us with essential ecosystem services (natural purification, flood control, biodiversity) in the long term.
Some of our major projects on IWRM
