As a result, even where power price reforms have occurred, they are insufficient to create major incentives for efficiency or reductions in demand. Communication and transport systems expand access to information, goods, finances and people to better enable access to water in more efficient ways to meet the needs to sustain local livelihoods. As Biswas (2008) points out, such calls for comprehensive planning have a long history. A unique feature here is that whereas in the past such strategies as “integrated rural development” (IRD) were wholly national or sub-national attempts, now the proposition is to include cross-border collaboration in multisector planning covering entire river basins.