And, as UNEP's Water Policy and Strategy points out, having adopted a catchment approach, it is critical to promote an intersectoral approach that recognizes the interlinkages that affect water management - for example between land and water, agriculture and water, technology and water, health and water. A multi-objective planning approach that bases catchment management decisions on a transparent, systematic and integrated assessment of environmental, economic and social factors is vital. This is because of the interlinkages that exist between these three factors. Environmental degradation inevitably has economic and social consequences for human beings. In the case of catchment degradation, agriculture and energy production are reduced, which imposes direct economic costs.
Contaminated water imposes harsh economic and social costs on people.
Water is the key resource and as we can never create more water, we must act to improve the health of the water we have, in both quantitative and qualitative terms.