Status and Challenges of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Brunei Darussalam

Abstract

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has drawn worldwide attention as the endorsed approach by many international agencies help countries achieve better solutions to water management. To determine the worldwide status of implementation of IWRM, United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP) conducted a global survey in 2011 among 134 countries. However, data on the progress of Brunei Darussalam is not available. The current progress of IWRM in Brunei Darussalam is constrained due to lack of adequate information available on the water resources management. To close the research gap, a questionnaire survey was conducted to four government departments related to water management. We compared the primary data from the survey with existing IWRM progress in ASEAN countries. Constraints and challenges of implementing IWRM in Brunei Darussalam were also investigated. The study recommends appropriate tools that would be suited for Brunei Darussalam based on the analysis of tools from successful IWRM cases in ASEAN countries. In analysing the questionnaire against the performance of ASEAN countries, the study finds that there is still space for further improvement on the three pillars of IWRM. The performance of Brunei Darussalam is below the average status in comparison to other ASEAN countries except for component, Management Instrument. It is important that, for a successful implementation of IWRM, focus should be given in terms of Enabling Environment and the Institutional Roles.