Wadi Madarba, YemenAt Mott MacDonald we have considerable depth of skills in water resources planning. We understand the nature of demands on water resources from urban, rural and industrial users and we are wholly familiar with the environmental conditions which affect resource availability and use. Our water resources work takes us from the frozen tundra through maritime and continental zones to the arid and humid tropics.

We assist governments in their strategic planning, development of action plans and in identification of project programme pipelines. Often we are engaged in providing direct assistance to national specialists responsible for water resources planning, introducing new techniques and developing the capacity of their organisations.

We have assisted the new government in Iraq in undertaking a thorough review of its infrastructure, the demands on its water resources and its plans for the future. This included developing an internet-based data management system with secure and controlled access to different zones. In Abu Dhabi, for the Environment Protection Agency, we undertook a comprehensive review of their water resource records and developed database tools to allow staff to interrogate these and obtain a more accurate overview of the country’s water resources.

With our help, members of the Commonwealth of Newly Independent States are adapting to the challenges of working with their neighbours to plan and develop water resources in shared river basins. We have promoted the development of trust between professionals and raised skills and confidence in measurement and planning.

We have introduced decision support tools, covering the management of water resources under competing demands and have evaluated the potential environmental impacts of planned schemes. This has included extensive signal testing for determining impact of groundwater abstractions on wetlands and assessing flood risk. We have investigated potential pollution of aquifers arising from saline intrusion, whether from abstractions for supply, or from groundwater dewatering needed for infrastructure development.