Water beyond boundaries

Access to water is the greatest risk to global prosperity and addressing the SDGs.

Policymakers face multiple challenges regarding water management and must grapple with both an uncertain future and competing interests, while also ensuring there is enough water for people, cities, agriculture and ecosystems.

The SEI cross centre inititative, Water Beyond Boundaries, will introduce new ways of thinking about sustainable water planning to respond to these challenges.

Project objectives

Identify

Identify inequalities at multiple scales and dimensions of water use

Analyse

Identify and analyse factors contributing to reduced water access for women and vulnerable groups

Address

Address key existing knowledge gaps in water management

The issue

The status quo approach to addressing challenges in water planning is Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). In the past three decades, IWRM has had a profound impact on water planning practices but has not yielded the level of outcomes required to achieve sustainable water for all, falling short on three levels: space, time and scope. The result has been policies that can inadvertently create conflict or ignore gaps in water management.

The research

Through three new pillars; teleconnections, early ecosystem consideration, multi interest- multi participatory approaches, applied in two places where SEI has a presence and has developed a strong reputation and body of work: the Magdalena (Colombia) and Mekong (Asia) watersheds, Water Beyond Boundaries (WBB) will introduce new ways of thinking about sustainable water planning.

The initiative's five-year vision is to respond to the central role of water in the global sustainability agendas by addressing key existing gaps in water management to set it on a more equitable and sustainable trajectory.

Project details

Start: 2020
End: 2025
Funder: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
Collaborators: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia, SEI US, SEI Latin America, SEI Asia
Region: Latin America, Asia
Country: Colombia, Mekong