Mission of the Basin Focal Projects(BFP)- A workshop

It isn't just about doing executing a project and publishing results in journals. The projects cease to be of any significance of the findings do not get translated into impacts on the ground. Quite clearly it can be seen that in today's world, water cuts across a lot of development issues. Some have talked of possible wars for water resources, which reveals a lot about the state of water and the imperative to devlop solutions towards this !

The theme leader for the BFP - IGB project, Vladimir Smakhtin believes that this kind of a workshop should have happened much earlier. His take? At least it is happening! And that this in itself could be a great step ahead. He puts together the context and mission of the Basin Focal Projects under the CPWF program.

 Vladimir Smakhtin

The BFPs are accomplishing a very important job in setting the research agenda for the times to come and they identify essential research gaps which must be rectified to achieve sustainable water resources management. He says, "What I want to see from this project is some sort of an impact on the ground". It should have impact in human development and scientific research.

• There are many groups working in the area of water resources management, funded by various donors.
• These groups, he hopes would help in identifying the priorities better and lead to effective coordination between projects in the IG basin.
• There is an acute data scarcity, particularly in IGB and in India, in general. It is the lack of access to the already available data in the country notso much about availability.This is a critical concern among many researchers working in the sector.
• Assessment of ganges indicate a dire need for sustainable development of water resources, based on religious and cultural requirements of the river. This is not particularly so in other river systems of the world.
• A lot is being talked regarding crisis. I think what we currently have is a crisis of manifestation of problems. The problems come and go. The problems can remain. The projects like these identify the gaps which need to be addressed.