UNOPS to manage UN-Water Trust Fund

Updated arrangements for the UN-Water Trust Fund have moved the responsibility for administering the Fund from the rotating UN-Water Chair to a permanent anchoring in the United Nations Office for Project Service (UNOPS). The new arrangements calls for an MoU between each of the 27 UN-Water member agencies to establish an MoU with UNOPS. The MoU between the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNOPS was concluded on 21 February 2011. WHO stated that this will significantly facilitate the flow of funds in support of, for example, the Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Water (GLAAS) from interested bilateral and multilateral agencies to WHO.

Web site: UN-Water

Source: Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health Newsletter, no. 129, 25 Feb 2011

CSD-18/19: UN-Water and UNSGAB highlight water issues

UN-Water and the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB) have prepared a background document [1] for the eighteenth and nineteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-18/19) that highlights the water related aspects of the current CSD’s thematic issues of mining, sustainable production and consumption, chemicals, transport and waste management.

The key messages of the document are:

• Water should be considered in any policy response or decision taken in relation to the CSD thematic issues of mining, sustainable production and consumption, chemicals, transport and waste management.
• Linking water-related issues to decisions made outside the water domain is critical. A global water crisis will not be averted, and sustainable development will not be advanced, if water managers and experts in other fields do not communicate, plan, find joint solutions and work in a participatory manner with planners, policy makers and users.
• Decision-making in all sectors has a significant impact on water resources issues. At the same time, the management of increasingly stressed water resources will have direct impacts on the themes of CSD-18/19. The contribution of water in areas such as mining and waste management, the impact on water resources of consumption and production patterns and the linkages to broad development goals must be articulated and understood at the political, policy and decision-making levels.

[1] UN-Water and UNSGAB (2010). Water issues : contributing to the success of the eighteenth and nineteenth sessions of the Commission on Sustainable Development. Read full document

Related web sites:

• UN-Water
• UNSGAB
• CSD-18

Aid for sanitation and water going down from 8 to 5 percent of development spending

Aid commitments for sanitation and water fell from 8% of total development aid to 5% between 1997 and 2008, lower than commitments for health, education, transport, energy and agriculture, according to the latest UN-Water Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report, launched by UN-Water and the World Health Organization (WHO).  This drop occurred despite compelling evidence that achieving the water and sanitation target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) would lower health-care costs, increase school attendance and boost productivity.

The findings from the UN-Water GLAAS report were tabled at the first annual High Level Meeting of Sanitation and Water for All, hosted by UNICEF on 23 April 2010 in Washington, DC. The High Level Meeting provided a forum for Ministers of Finance from developing countries, accompanied by Ministers responsible for sanitation and water from 20 developing countries, and representatives from 12 donor countries to gain a greater understanding of the linkages between water, sanitation, and economic growth, in order to commit the appropriate resources, as well as to promote a culture of mutual accountability, partnership and shared responsibility.

Related web site: UN-Water - Sanitation and Water for All – A Global Framework for Action

Source: Source Weekly, 07 May 2010

Water at core of climate change impacts-UN experts

The main impact of climate change will be on water supplies and the world needs to learn from past cooperation such as over the Indus or Mekong Rivers to help avert future conflicts, experts said on 7 February 2010.

Desertification, flash floods, melting glaciers, heatwaves, cyclones or water-borne diseases such as cholera are among the impacts of global warming inextricably tied to water. And competition for supplies might cause conflicts.

“The main manifestations of rising temperatures…are about water,” said Zafar Adeel, chair of UN-Water which coordinates work on water among 26 U.N. agencies.

“It has an impact on all parts of our life as a society, on natural systems, habitats,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview. Disruptions may threaten farming or fresh water supplies from Africa to the Middle East.

“Therein lies the potential for conflicts,” he said. Shortage of water, such as in Darfur in Sudan, has been a contributing factor to conflict.

But Adeel said that water had often proven a route for cooperation. India and Pakistan have worked to manage the Indus River despite border conflicts and Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia have cooperated in the Mekong River Commission.

“Water is a very good medium (for cooperation). It’s typically an apolitical issue that can be dealt with,” said Adeel, who is also director of the U.N. University’s Canada-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-IWEH)

A Meeting of UN-Water Senior Programme Managers was held from 2-4 February 2010 at UNU-IWEH in Hamilton, Canada.

250 Million

Regions likely to become drier because of climate change include Central Asia and northern Africa. Up to 250 million people in Africa could suffer extra stress on water supplies by 2020, according to the U.N. panel of climate experts.

“There are many more examples of successful transboundary cooperation than conflict over water,” said Nikhil Chandavarkar, of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and Secretary of UN-Water.

“We are trying to take the examples of good cooperation — the Mekong, the Indus are examples. Even where there were hostilities in the surrounding countries the agreements did function,” he told Reuters.

Adeel said that water should have a more central role in debates on food security, peace, climate change and recovery from the financial crisis. “Water is central to each of these debates but typically isn’t seen as such,” he said.

And efforts to combat global warming will themselves put more strains on water because of rival economic demands — such as for irrigation, biofuels or hydropower. Adeel noted efforts to manage water supplies by counting how much water goes into products — from beef to coffee.

One study showed that it took 15,000 litres to produce a pair of blue jeans, he said. Making industries aware of water use could help shift to conservation. He said the world might reach a “millennium goal” of halving the proportion of people without access to safe water by 2015 but was failing in a related target of improving sanitation. About 2.8 billion people lack access to basic sanitation.

Source: Alister Doyle, Reuters, 07 Feb 2010

Public consultation on 4th UN World Water Development Report

The World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) is inviting comments on the annotated Table of Contents for the fourth edition of the UN World Water Development Report (WWDR4). The main theme of WWDR4, which will be launched in March 2012, is “Managing water under conditions of uncertainty and risk”.

The WWAP intends to involve decision-makers and stakeholders inside and outside the “water box” as well as the concerned public in the production process to ensure that the Report is relevant to the targeted audiences and helps them tackle water-related issues.

Informed comments will be received until 12 February, 2010. Once these comments have been compiled, the WWAP Secretariat and report authors will review them for consideration in the finalization of the Annotated Table of Contents and the drafting of the report.

The World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), founded in 2000 and housed in UNESCO, is the flagship programme of UN-Water.

Comments on the WWDR4 can be posted on the UNESCO/WWAP public consultation page.

Water experts of 26 UN agencies to meet in Canada, plan coordinated response to looming crisis

UNU-INWEH Director assumes Chair of UN-Water: ‘The greatest impacts of climate change are all about water’

More than two dozen leading United Nations water experts will convene in Hamilton, Canada on 2-4 Feb. 2010 to plan fresh strategy for a coordinated approach to the global water crisis that increasingly threatens both human health and international security.

At its first-ever meeting in Canada, the group known as UN-Water will also formalize international ceremonies to mark the World Water Day 2010 (March 22) and help set both direction and UN agency contributions for the next triennial World Water Development Report in 2012.

Dr. Zafar Adeel

The meeting is being convened by UN-Water’s new Chair, Zafar Adeel, Director of the United Nations University’s Hamilton-based Institute for Water, Environment & Health.

Elected at a UN-Water meeting last August in Stockholm, Dr. Adeel formally assumed the two-year post in 2010, taking over from Pasquale Steduto of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome.

UN-Water was created in 2003 to coordinate global water-related work of 26 relevant UN agencies, and to interact with 17 major partners such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN). (See full list of members).

“This meeting of UN agencies comes at a crucial time, just two months after the UN’s historic Copenhagen conference on climate change and four months before leaders of the G8 and G20 nations meet in Ontario,” says Dr. Adeel.

“The global importance of water issues cannot be overstated,” he adds. “Virtually all climate change impacts are expressed through water in one form or another, including more severe storms and extreme floods, and rapidly disappearing glaciers, often called ‘Earth’s water towers’.”

“Meanwhile, nearly 3.5 million people die each year due to water-related diseases like cholera and diarrhea. Likewise, water scarcity and drought in many parts of the world is directly linked to poverty and high public health costs. And the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts worsening impacts in immediate decades to come.”

“My goal as the UN-Water Chair is to demonstrate the significance of water issues in global policy debates, including the ongoing financial crisis as well as food security, climate change, international peace and stability. Water is central to each of those debates but typically isn’t seen as such.”

“UN-Water members and partners help assure better, more cohesive delivery of water services in several countries. It does this though guidance to world policy makers and the collection of case studies of best practices for mitigating water problems that can be prevented and adaptation to those that can’t. UN-Water also helps establish strategic priorities and eliminate overlap and duplication in order to make fullest possible use of scarce international resources.”

Dr. Adeel notes that, while science can predict the average impact of climate change with relative confidence, its implications are far less clear at the level of countries or even world regions, especially with respect to future precipitation patterns.

He predicts that helping policy makers navigate questions surrounding local and regional water-related impacts of climate change will assume growing importance for UN-Water members and partners in years to come.

Source: Eurekalert, 03 Jan 2010

Water evaporates from climate change negotiations – campaigners

Much of the talking at climate change negotiations ahead of a big gathering in Copenhagen [COP15] in December 2009 has been focusing on emissions, prompting campaigners at this week’s Barcelona meeting to point out that water is also critical to the success of any efforts to adapt to the impact of climate change.

The way that water is managed in and between countries is a vital component of future planning. Water is also crucial to many mitigation activities, including hydropower, agriculture and forestry projects.

“Let me be very clear, there is no development without water,” said Pasquale Steduto, chair of UN-Water and service chief at the Food and Agricultural Organisation.

“There is no food security without water. There is most likely also no energy security without water,” Steduto added in a statement. “Water is the primary medium through which climate change influences the earth’s ecosystems and therefore people’s livelihoods and well-being. If water is not further recognized in adaptation strategies and plans, we are making a big mistake.”

To a large extent, the global climate crisis is a global water crisis. The campaigners’ warning comes against a backdrop of drought and famine as many developing countries begin to experience the devastating impact of climate change on the water cycle.

Water experts have long warned that this may lead to an increase in conflicts related to water availability and distribution.

Extreme weather events leading to drought and floods, as recently witnessed in Kenya and the Philippines, are predicted to increase in frequency and intensity, possibly as a result of climate change.

“Even with the best mitigation strategies, water related effects of climate change will come,” said Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute. “The challenge for many nations is how to adapt. Climate change is in effect water change, since it will be through water that the changes will be realised first and foremost.”

Yet the latest draft of the negotiating text on adaptation, the so-called Non-Paper No. 31, has deleted any clear references to water and its management as a vital consideration for climate change adaptation, the campaigners say. This is despite mounting pressure from the water community for a strong outcome on water from Copenhagen.

To make sure water is at the top of the agenda, governments, UN agencies, international NGOs and civil society advocates gathered at a “Water Day” event at UN climate talks in Barcelona on 3 November to urge negotiators to consider the critical role that water plays in climate change adaptation.

They highlighted five key points in the water and climate change debate:

Climate change impacts on water resources will affect livelihoods and development .
90 percent of the 3 billion people who are expected to be added to the population by 2050 will be in developing countries, many in regions already under water stress conditions. Integrated land and water management arrangements will be critical to manage water flexibly among competing users, prioritising human needs.

Climate change adaptation is not just a national issue
More than 75 percent of the world’s nations have shared river basins within their boundaries. Regional co-operation on climate change adaptation will be vital for addressing climate change impacts on shared water resources, even as a way to prevent potential conflicts.

Investing in ecosystems can help preserve water supplies
Ecosystems build resilience to climate change. Healthy ecosystems need water and in turn help maintain a healthy water cycle. Care must be taken that climate change mitigation activities do not damage and degrade ecosystems, and that adaptation efforts prioritise their preservation. This is critical not least to food security.

Data, information and governance are key
Understanding climate change impacts on water resources will require enhanced data collection and sharing, and increased capacity for gathering and using data. However, climate change impacts are being felt now and improving water governance arrangements to respond to uncertainty and variability will be the key to good adaptation.

Climate change mitigation efforts must take water into account
The projected increase in hydropower and bio-energy to meet low-carbon energy needs will depend heavily on sustained water flows and water availability. Projected changes in the water cycle as a result of climate change must therefore be taken into account. Building dams for water storage and energy needs must be done in the context of understanding and mitigating potentially negative impacts on human populations and the environment. Bio-energy must be balanced with food security and ecosystem protection.

See also: SEAL THE DEAL: Climate change illustrates need for better water management, UN News Centre, 03 Nov 2009 and the joint Water Day press release “Water evaporates from the climate change negotiating text” by SIWI, UN-Water and Stakeholder Forum, 03 Nov 2009

Source: Astrid Zweynert, Reuters Alertnet, 03 Nov 2009

New UN-Water pilot report on sanitation and drinking water presented at the UN High Level Event on the MDGs

The Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) is a UN-Water pilot initiative led by the World Health Organization (WHO). UN-Water GLAAS constitutes a new approach to reporting on progress in the sanitation and drinking-water sectors that aims to strengthen evidence-based policy-making towards and beyond the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

UN-Water GLAAS complements other UN-Water reports, such as the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation or the World Water Development Report, by concentrating on the factors affecting the capacity of countries and external support agencies to progress towards the sanitation and drinking-water MDG target.

The purpose of the GLAAS pilot report is to present the concept of a possible global, periodic, comprehensive reporting mechanism to inform policy-making in the sanitation and drinking-water sectors. The GLAAS pilot report does not draw conclusions on the sector status, but it is meant to stimulate discussion on how to improve reporting on the sanitation and drinking-water sectors.
To download the report or for further information, please visit www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/glaas or www.unwater.org.