Integrated Water Resources Management Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Water Resources Managers, WASH Programme Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-WS-031

Before you join: Participants should have basic familiarity with water, sanitation, environmental management, infrastructure planning or development programmes.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Water resources decisions regularly involve conflicting demands: domestic supply, irrigation, industry, hydropower, ecosystems, sanitation, flood protection and drought response. Decisions made in one part of a catchment can affect water availability, quality and livelihoods elsewhere. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) gives professionals a structured way to assess these interdependencies, agree priorities and turn basin evidence into feasible actions.

This course develops the practical skills required to diagnose water-resource problems, assess supply and demand, manage competing allocations, protect water quality and incorporate climate risks. Participants work with water balances, stakeholder maps, allocation scenarios, environmental flow considerations, water-quality monitoring plans, economic appraisal and results frameworks. The course also addresses institutional coordination, water rights, transboundary issues, social inclusion, financing and monitoring arrangements needed to move from plans to implementation.

Teaching combines instructor briefings with realistic cases from river basins, groundwater systems, urban water supply and rural sanitation programmes. Participants assess competing water-use scenarios, interpret planning data, compare intervention options and prepare elements of an IWRM action plan. Delivery is available as a five-day classroom course in 50+ cities or live online. Participants receive a certificate of completion and leave with a reusable basin planning pack containing diagnostic, allocation, stakeholder, monitoring and implementation templates.

The course is suited to professionals working in government water agencies, utilities, development programmes, humanitarian organisations, environmental regulators, infrastructure projects and catchment management bodies.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose basin water-security problems using water balances, flow records and stakeholder evidence
  • Prepare a catchment water account covering supply, demand, withdrawals, returns and storage
  • Map water-sector stakeholders, mandates, rights, interests and decision accountabilities
  • Assess allocation options using equity, reliability, economic value and environmental flow criteria
  • Develop water-quality risk controls using Water Safety Plan and pollution-source methods
  • Integrate climate, flood and drought risks into water-resource planning assumptions
  • Appraise IWRM interventions using life-cycle costs, cost-benefit analysis and affordability tests
  • Produce an implementation roadmap with indicators, responsibilities, risks and review milestones

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Make defensible water-allocation recommendations supported by evidence and stated criteria
  • Interpret basin data without relying solely on specialist hydrologists or modellers
  • Lead more productive discussions between utilities, farmers, regulators and communities
  • Prepare stronger water-resource project concepts and funding justifications
  • Apply a structured IWRM action plan to an active catchment or programme

For your organisation

  • Improve coordination between water, sanitation, agriculture, environment and disaster-management functions
  • Reduce poorly targeted investments by linking interventions to basin evidence and priorities
  • Strengthen drought, flood and water-quality preparedness arrangements
  • Create clearer accountability for water allocation, monitoring and stakeholder engagement
  • Produce fundable water-resource plans with costs, risks, indicators and implementation responsibilities

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can frame water-resource problems using IWRM principles, water-security dimensions and basin boundaries.

  • Global Water Partnership IWRM principles and Dublin Principles interpreted for basin decisions
  • River-basin, aquifer and catchment boundaries distinguished from administrative jurisdictions
  • Source-to-sea thinking links upstream abstraction, pollution loads and downstream services
  • Water security assessed through availability, quality, access, affordability and risk
  • SDG 6 targets mapped to IWRM planning responsibilities and indicators
  • Problem statements frame competing uses, affected people and decision constraints

Participants can build an initial basin diagnosis from hydrological evidence, demand data and water accounts.

  • Water balance equations reconcile precipitation, inflows, storage, withdrawals and return flows
  • Catchment conceptual models connect land use, runoff, recharge and demand
  • Water accounting distinguishes blue, green and grey water flows
  • Seasonal flow-duration curves identify dry-season reliability and allocation pressure
  • Groundwater safe yield assessed against recharge uncertainty and declining levels
  • Data-quality checks address missing records, units, outliers and spatial mismatch

Participants can map decision rights, institutional roles and stakeholder interests affecting basin management.

  • Stakeholder mapping identifies power, interest, rights, dependencies and representation gaps
  • RACI matrices assign basin-planning decisions, consultation duties and accountabilities
  • Customary water rights considered alongside permits, licences and statutory mandates
  • Gender and social inclusion analysis identifies unequal water burdens and voice
  • Conflict-sensitive consultation records grievances, trade-offs and agreed response routes
  • Transboundary basin commissions compared with national coordination mechanisms and mandates

Participants can assess allocation choices and demand-management measures against agreed water-resource criteria.

  • Allocation frameworks rank domestic needs, productive uses and environmental requirements
  • Environmental flow methods use hydrological indices, habitat needs and seasonal patterns
  • Permit registers reconcile legal entitlements with measured abstractions and returns
  • Demand management combines metering, leakage control, tariffs and irrigation scheduling
  • Drought triggers connect reservoir levels, groundwater thresholds and staged restrictions
  • Allocation scenarios test equity, reliability, economic value and ecological consequences

Participants can identify water-quality risks and specify source-to-consumer control measures.

  • Catchment protection zones reduce pathogen, nutrient and chemical contamination risks
  • Water Safety Plan steps connect source risks to consumer protection
  • WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality inform parameter selection and risk interpretation
  • Sanitation service chains trace containment, emptying, transport, treatment and reuse
  • Pollution-load inventories identify point sources, diffuse sources and control options
  • Water-quality monitoring plans specify locations, frequencies, parameters and response thresholds

Participants can incorporate climate uncertainty, flood exposure and drought response into IWRM measures.

  • Climate risk screening tests exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity
  • Climate scenarios translate rainfall and temperature changes into water-planning assumptions
  • Flood risk management combines catchment retention, warnings, zoning and preparedness
  • Nature-based solutions assessed for infiltration, storage, water quality and maintenance
  • Managed aquifer recharge options screened against hydrogeology, quality and governance
  • Contingency plans define drought roles, emergency supply triggers and communication

Participants can compare IWRM investments using cost, affordability, benefit and risk criteria.

  • Life-cycle cost analysis separates capital, operating, renewal and financing costs
  • Cost-recovery assessments compare tariffs, subsidies, collection rates and affordability
  • Economic appraisal applies cost-benefit analysis, distributional effects and sensitivity testing
  • Polluter-pays and user-pays principles inform incentive and financing choices
  • Water allocation economics distinguishes financial returns from social and ecosystem values
  • Project concept notes define objectives, costs, risks, benefits and funding rationale

Participants can design a monitoring framework and use water data to support transparent decisions.

  • Monitoring frameworks link indicators, baselines, targets, data sources and owners
  • SDG 6.5.1 reporting assesses IWRM implementation across four questionnaire dimensions
  • WEAP schematics represent supply nodes, demand sites, return flows and priorities
  • GIS map layers combine catchments, infrastructure, hazards, ecosystems and communities
  • Decision matrices score options against agreed technical, social and environmental criteria
  • Dashboard specifications distinguish operational indicators from strategic outcome measures

Participants can structure an implementable IWRM plan with safeguards, procurement and adaptive review arrangements.

  • River basin plans sequence diagnosis, objectives, measures, budgets and review cycles
  • Logical frameworks connect outcomes, outputs, activities, assumptions and indicators
  • Safeguard screening identifies resettlement, biodiversity, cultural heritage and livelihood risks
  • Procurement packages define scope, performance standards, supervision and acceptance criteria
  • Implementation roadmaps assign milestones, dependencies, responsible parties and escalation routes
  • Adaptive management reviews monitoring evidence and revises measures under uncertainty

Participants can prepare a focused application plan for a priority water-resource challenge in their work.

  • Priority basin issue statements distinguish symptoms, causes, evidence and affected groups
  • Results chains link water interventions to service, livelihood and ecosystem outcomes
  • Multi-criteria analysis ranks interventions using weighted, transparent decision criteria
  • Risk registers record likelihood, impact, owner, mitigation and contingency actions
  • Stakeholder engagement plans schedule decisions, consultations, disclosures and feedback channels
  • 90-day application plans set actions, evidence needs, sponsors and review dates

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Basin water-balance template
  2. Stakeholder and water-rights mapping matrix
  3. Water-allocation scenario model
  4. Water-quality risk and monitoring plan
  5. IWRM intervention appraisal worksheet
  6. 90-day IWRM application plan

Who should attend

  • Water Resources Managers — responsible for allocation, basin planning and regulatory decisions
  • WASH Programme Managers — need source protection and service-chain planning skills
  • Catchment or Basin Officers — coordinate users, agencies and environmental requirements
  • Environmental Regulators — assess abstractions, pollution controls and compliance priorities
  • Development Project Managers — design and supervise water-sector investments
  • Humanitarian WASH Advisers — plan drought, flood and emergency water-supply measures

Skills and tools covered

Basin water accountingWater allocation planningStakeholder governanceWater quality protectionClimate risk screeningIWRM implementation planning

Tools and standards

GWP IWRM Toolbox, WEAP (Water Evaluation And Planning System), Water Safety Plan, SDG Indicator 6.5.1

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short technical briefings followed by guided case work, group analysis, simulations and application planning. Participants examine river-basin, groundwater, urban supply and rural sanitation cases to interpret data, identify trade-offs and compare response options. Facilitated discussions test how institutions, rights, financing and political incentives affect planning choices. Trainers use worksheets for water accounting, stakeholder analysis, allocation scenarios, climate screening and implementation planning. Participants apply selected methods to a current or anticipated work challenge.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic familiarity with water, sanitation, environmental management, infrastructure planning or development programmes. Experience reading project reports, monitoring data, maps or budgets is useful. The course assumes that participants understand their own organisational or national water context and can discuss operational challenges. Prior training in hydrology, engineering, economics, GIS or environmental science is not required. Advanced mathematical modelling and specialist software experience are also not required; examples and calculations are explained step by step.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need basic familiarity with water, sanitation, environmental management or development projects. Specialist hydrology, GIS, engineering and modelling experience are not required.

Participants may bring a current water-resource challenge, basin plan, monitoring report or project concept for reference. Bringing documents is optional; course cases and templates are provided.

It suits mid-level professionals who influence water planning, WASH programmes, catchment management, regulation, environmental protection or infrastructure investment. It is particularly relevant where several agencies or user groups share water resources.

This course focuses on managing trade-offs among water users, institutions, ecosystems, financing and risks at catchment or basin scale. It does not train participants to design treatment plants, operate distribution networks or build advanced hydrological models.

Participants can use the templates to structure a basin diagnosis, stakeholder process, allocation review, water-quality plan or investment proposal. The final application plan identifies actions that can begin within 90 days.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with about 6.5 contact hours daily. Time is divided between technical instruction, case analysis, group work, simulations and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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