Sustainable use of water resources and preserving the quality of the environment has become central to the debate on economic growth, world wide. This requires policy makers and specialists to take an integrated approach to economic and social development with the aim to combine environmental and technical aspects, and institutional, legal, financial, spatial economic and communication components. They also face the major challenge of growing competition for water as the population increases, and the ever shrinking access to useable water due to climate changes and contamination. In regions where surface water and ground water are shared between countries, another major challenge is dealing with trans-boundary issues on water supply and maintaining water quality. 

ECORYS’ services in water and environment give clients an economic and social perspective on integrated water resources management (IWRM) and related environmental policies. We help our clients to bridge the gap between environmental engineering solutions for spatial and water issues, and the financial/economic feasibility and social desirability of those solutions. For many clients in the public and private sector we have offered a broad range of services. This includes research; advice; training and technical assistance; financial and economic cost-benefit analysis; water supply and demand forecasting; water pricing and economic scenario development. For more information on these and more services provided by ECORYS, please follow the links below.

ECORYS Netherlands is also a member of NEDECO (link: http://www.nedeco.nl/), a consortium of leading consulting companies.

Areas of work

• Enabling environment:
  - Water and environmental policy
  - Water and environmental regulation
  - Financial structures
   
• Framework for implementation:
  - Institution building and social processes
• 
  Implementation instruments:
  - Water resource management and planning
  - Financial and economic analysis
  - Information and communication