The United Nations Water Conference has not been held since the 1970s. It ended this Friday in New York with commitments from the 149 participants to protect “humanity’s most precious common good.”
The Conference began with the alarming words of António Guterres who stressed in his opening speech, the centrality of water for human survival and for the sustainable development of societies, underlining that this resource is the blood that flows in the veins of the planet and on which we depend for survival. “Water is about health, sanitation, hygiene and disease prevention. Water is about peace,” reinforced Guterres
After three days of talks, plenaries and presentation of results, the conference came to an end with the presentation of Water Action Agendawhich brought together 689 action commitments submitted by governments, private companies, and non-governmental organizations, and which should serve as a guiding agenda for water management in the next decade.
The document is made up of a set of voluntary commitments from various society actors such as governments, non-profit organizations, and regional associations. The emphasis was on the need to accelerate the implementation of measures related to Sustainable Development Goal number 6 associated with water and sanitation.
These were days dedicated to the search for transformative solutions, and the document follows the guidelines that guided the entire conference, which sought to be inclusive and leave no one behind, focused on concrete actions with real and transversal impacts, uniting all sectors of society and inviting them to create their plans for better water management.
The Agenda, created in 2022 and updated over months for the final version to flow into the Water Conference, has now gained new nuances, since in the latter half of last year several actors from society were consulted and invited to contribute with solutions. The document, which could serve as a handbook for the next decade, consists of 5 thematic lines: Water for Health, Water for Development, Water for Climate, Resilience and Environment, Water for Cooperation, and the Water Decade of Action. There is also a sixth division devoted to additional questions.
The consulted institutions were also asked to answer four essential questions. First, what are the main challenges and obstacles that boycott progress in this area. Second, what are the transformative actions that would have to happen for progress to exist. Third, how your organization could contribute to generating positive change. Finally, what new approaches could prove decisive and how they could be implemented.
The New Action Agenda on Water is composed of about 700 submissions from 73 countries around these issues. Each chapter includes the identification of the main challenges associated with each theme, as well as some examples of projects and strategies to overcome them. This may be a fundamental handbook for the next decade, so it is worth consulting. This conference ends then with an updated agenda and the certainty that there is no development without water, so it is essential to create bold strategies to deal with this resource. Although this is not a legally binding document, it has united various parts of society around this issue to talk about obstacles and solutions and finally create an action manual.
Finally, the United Nations Organization, responsible for the Conference and for many actions of global negotiation, also thought of the individual dimension and invites everyone to review their habits through a platform especially dedicated to the theme. In addition, theplatform for submissions platform for the Water Action Agenda will remain open for new submissions.
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The Water Conference at the UN is the most important event on the topic so far. In this article you will learn the most important
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