Rising incidents of water-borne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, amoebiasis, and hepatitis A etc. caused by water pollution is generating concern in many communities. By failing to take advantage of the work that healthy watersheds and freshwater ecosystems perform naturally, cities and rural areas in many basins have shrunk their ability to guaranty safe drinking water supplies, alleviate hunger, mitigate flood damages, and meet other societal goals at a fraction of the cost of innovative alternatives. Also, sand mining in local watersheds is increasing the economic and human toll of floods and other economic and social disasters, a toll almost certain to increase as climate change challenges the water cycle. One direct problem from sand mining has been the increased concentrations of soil particles washed into the stream by land disturbance, which sink to the bottom of the river and increase the bed loads while, depending on the stream velocity, smaller particles remain in suspension. Suspended matter in both rivers obstructs the penetration of light and limits the photosynthetic zone to less than 1 m depth. Suspended sediments in the rivers in addition to nutrient loadings from nitrates and phosphates.

There is the need to mitigate morbidity, mortality and problems of poverty that are inextricably linked to poor land use practices, especially those that breed pollution through agriculture, leaky septic -pits, and sand mining etc. IDRRUR seeks to improve the quality of the living environment and public health. Poverty eradication efforts will fail if people are allowed to live on filth. Well-targeted interventions can prevent much of this environmental risk, the WHO report said. The report further estimates that more than 33% of disease in children under the age of 5 is caused by environmental exposures. Preventing environmental risk could save as many as four million lives a year in children alone, mostly in developing countries. By focusing on the environmental causes of disease, and how various diseases are influenced by environmental factors, the analysis breaks new ground in understanding the interactions between environment and health. The estimate reflects how much death, illness and disability could be realistically avoided every year as a result of better environmental management. The report estimates that more than 13 million deaths annually are due to preventable environmental causes. Nearly one third of death and disease in the least developed regions is due to environmental causes. Over 40% of deaths from malaria and an estimated 94% of deaths from diarrhoeal diseases, two of the world's biggest childhood killers, could be prevented through better environmental management. The four main diseases influenced by poor environments are diarrhoea, lower respiratory infections, various forms of unintentional injuries, and malaria. Measures which could be taken now to reduce this environmental disease burden include the promotion of safe household water storage and better hygienic measures etc.

By adopting the Nature –Based Solution (ecosystem-based management) approach, IDRRUR aims to improve the management of the freshwater resource by forging a more effective connection among people, nature and the government. Particularly, the adoption of ecosystem based agricultural practices in local watersheds is usually aimed at empowering hundreds of farmers to grow more crops without exacerbating river pollution or environmental damage, educate households to better manage their septic –pits, and motivate sand miners to adopt environmentally friendly alternatives. For example, IDRRUR recognizes that agriculture is the chief element that triggers long term growth process everywhere. The objectives for land and water resources management in this context therefore are related first and foremost to the integrity, vitality, and resilience of ecosystem structures and processes. The project is scheduled to reflect growing global awareness and acceptance of environmental values on ecological concerns such as water quality and changing professional practices that view conditions of the land to be just as relevant as the quantities of outputs that can be produced. We acknowledge that the key to ecosystem management is the goal of ecological sustainability – protecting and restoring critical ecological components, functions, and structures in perpetuity so that future as well as current generations will have their needs met, in this case – clean drinking water.