Managing water sustainably requires an integrated approach covering everything from freshwater rivers, streams, lakes and aquifers, to deltas, wetlands, coastal zones and the oceans. It can no longer be seen as a sectoral issue, for it cuts across a vast number of uses from irrigation and industry to domestic uses and fisheries. This will demand new skills, new institutional structures, and new planning methods and procedures. All possible attention must be focused on the role that water can have in eliminating poverty. Access to safe fresh water for households, farming and small-scale industrial activities improves living standards and can significantly increase opportunities for the poor to increase their incomes.
Water can also generate employment and sustainable livelihoods.
Jobs can also be created in constructing, operating and maintaining the water distribution infrastructure. Women and young girls in the rural areas of developing countries spend as many as five hours a day fetching water from distant sources, several studies show. Bringing water closer to their homes would free time for them to generate more income. It would also have tremendous benefits for health. Urbanization presents an immediate challenge for managing water, just as it does for energy and waste.