With water scarcity worsening, vulnerable humanity must change course in managing this “precious commons,” the UN Secretary-General urged Friday at the end of a conference not seen in nearly half a century that has raised some hope.
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Health, sanitation, hygiene, peace, development, poverty, food security or just drinking… Water, “the most precious common good”, must “be at the heart of the global political agenda”, stressed Antonio Guterres.
“All of humanity’s hopes for the future in some way depend on a science-based shift in course to bring the water agenda to life,” he added, calling for “groundbreaking” efforts to ensure everyone on the planet has water.
The world has moved away from 2030 water goals, including access to safe drinking water and sanitation for all.
“Now is the time to act,” began Antonio Guterres, who on Wednesday denounced humanity’s “vampiric overconsumption” and the climate crisis it caused.
From building toilets to restoring 300,000 km of degraded rivers, this “Action Program” recorded almost 700 pledges from NGOs, governments or the private sector before and during the three days of this unprecedented conference, which since 1977 has welcomed around 10,000 people.
But “about a third is likely to have a significant impact” and less than a third have identified funding, said Charles Island of think tank World Resources Institute.
However, it is “a good start,” he told AFP, citing the example of a project implemented by Germany to manage the Niger River Basin in nine countries it traverses.
“Probably the most fragile part of the world where you’re starting to see violent water-related conflicts between certain groups,” he noted.
But water “is a huge problem and one conference will not be enough,” he acknowledged, calling for the exercise to be repeated annually.
“The future speaks to you”
While “all is not rosy” and “some commitments are not as strong” as hoped, “I’m pleasantly surprised,” WWF’s Stuart Orr told AFP.
“Often at such conferences you hear a lot of promises (…), here I have the impression that it’s different,” he added, describing the energy that water lack of attention generated in the community of previously “frustrated” actors for this vital resource.
“The problem isn’t going away, it’s going to get worse, and I think that’s why everyone is starting to think it’s time to move on.”
To provide impetus, the conference called for the appointment of a UN special envoy for water. Recommendation that Antonio Guterres will take into account.
Without its own UN agency or global treaty, “water has no home here at the UN,” noted Henk Ovink, Water Ambassador of the Netherlands, co-organizers of the conference with Tajikistan.
In 2020, 2 billion people were still without safe drinking water and 3.6 billion lacked access to safely managed sanitation, of which 494 million had to defecate outdoors, according to the latest figures from the UN Water platform.
At least two billion people drink water contaminated with faeces, and 2.3 billion lack basic sanitation. Conditions conducive to the spread of deadly disease, cholera or dysentery.
As global warming intensifies droughts, UN climate experts (IPCC) estimate that “about half the world’s population” suffers from “severe” water shortages for at least part of the year.
Jumping back in time to 2050, from the podium, a Dutch woman from the youth climate movement described the ‘alarm signal’ that will have represented this conference, a moment when global management has changed to ‘become ‘more sustainable, fairer and fairer’ .
27 years ago, “the conference was a success because delegates, representatives and companies decided to join forces with the younger generations,” Aniek Moonen started.
“The future is talking to you, don’t forget to listen”.