Water is absent in the ‘Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of Food Security’ (FAO, 2012). This paper explored whether and how the people-centred approaches and the human rights values that underpin this document can be better applied in the water sector and how more recognition of the land-water interface can support this.

This study is carried out in semi-arid to arid Karkheh Basin of Iran, where massive water allocation planning is on the way, but a comprehensive knowledge on basin

hydrology and impact of these developments on different water uses and users across the basin are lacking.