Data Sharing for International Water Resource Management: Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS

This text deals with the issues of data, data sharing and data management. Sharing data and information enables people to think together in solving problems, in building the trust that is essential for co-operative efforts at sustaining shared vital natural resources, and in avoiding conflict. It is axiomatic that all planning and policy making, not least for environmental and resource sustainability, depend for their success on accurate data and information, dispensed freely to all who need it, from farmers to heads of state. These maxims are especially apt when applied to water resources that are international and trans-boundary. In such circumstances, the need to co-operate and share are acute if the water resource is to be managed, distributed and used equitably and efficiently.