In spite of an urgent need to consider land and water development in combination, fragmentation in education and training and existing institutional structures form important constraints. Intense past disappointments with water projects in many countries have now created a new readiness to persuade planners and decision makers to consider an integrated approach to land, water and other related resources in river basin development. The author proposes that with the massive investments in water development projects in developing countries, systematic monitoring and evaluation should become an integrated part of the management process. The information produced has to be timely, cost-effective, relevant and correct, and free from professional biases. Monitoring and evaluation have to comprise both planning, design and construction; operation and maintenance; agricultural production; and achievement of socio-economic objectives.
By Asit K. Biswas, Chapter of the book: Strategies for River Basin Management: Environmental Integration of Land and Water in a River Basin, edited by Jan Lundqvist, Ulrik Lohm and Malin Falkenmark, 1985, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, pages 49-61. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-5458-8_6