Disintegrated Water Resources Management in the US: The Union of Sysiphus and Pandora

It is important to think of the future in a more comprehensive way. The present high-level water policies have good intentions, but little follow-through, giving them a Sysiphean aspect. We need a broad guiding national philosophy directly related to the principles of integrated water management (IWRM) and sustainable development (SD). Both IWRM and SD require a uniform set of planning and management principles, consistently applied. A national water policy would be a good starting-point. In the absence of a central federal water infrastructure agency or an interagency council, a President's Water Council may be the needed interim solution. There is a Pandora's box of current difficulties in federal water management, but we can always have hope that among the changes that are surely coming we will have positive solutions.