origins=<b>Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) can trace its origins to two key events in 1992 - the International Conference on Water and the Environment and the UN Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED).</b>

<b>Dublin Principles</b>
The International Conference on Water and the Environment, held in Dublin Ireland, developed the Dublin Principles that state the main issues of water management:
<li>Freshwater is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment;</li><li>Water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy-makers at all levels;</li><li>Women play a central part in the provision, management, and safeguarding of water;</li><li>Water has an economic value in all its competing uses, and should be recognized as an economic good;</li>
<b>Agenda 21</b>
Following the Dublin conference, the UN Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED) was held in Rio de Janerio.  The UNCED released Agenda 21 that for the first time strongly associated development with the environment. Agenda 21 also encouraged the global management of freshwater and the integration of sectoral water plans and programmes within the framework of national economic and social policy. 
<img src="images/agenda21.png">