Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

X X I I/ P R E L I M I N A R YPrefacePrefaceAS WE ENTER THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY A GLOBAL WATER CRISIS IS THREATENING the security, stability and environmentalsustainability of all nations, particularly those in the developing world. Millions die each year from water-related diseases, whilewater pollution and ecosystem destruction grow. Again, those in developing countries are hardest hit. In its Millennium Declaration,the United Nations (UN) called on the nations of the world to ‘halve by 2015 the proportion of people who are unable to reach, or to afford,safe drinking water’, and to ‘stop the unsustainable exploitation of water resources by developing water management strategies at theregional, national and local levels, which promote both equitable access and adequate supplies’.Action Now!Current thinking accepts that the management of water resources must be undertaken using an integrated approach, that assessment of theresource is of fundamental importance as the basis for rational decision-making and that national capacities to undertake such assessmentsmust be fully supported. Management decisions to alleviate poverty, to allow for economic development, to ensure food security and thehealth of human populations as well as to preserve vital ecosystems, must be based on our best possible understanding of all relevantsystems. Hence the need for comprehensive assessments.The World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in August/September 2002 suggested that there are five priority areas thatneed immediate action: water and sanitation, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity. Water is at the heart of sustainable human development.There have been many assessments in the past, but up until now there has been no global system in place to produce a systematic,continuing, integrated and comprehensive global picture of freshwater and its management.The United Nations Response: The World Water Assessment ProgrammeThe need for a more people-oriented and integrated approach to water management and development has been more fully accepted as aresult of a number of major conferences and international events. The UN has responded by undertaking a collective system-wide continuingassessment process, the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP).The UN system has the mandate, credibility and capacity to take on the task of systematically marshalling global water knowledge andexpertise to develop, over time, the necessary assessment of the global water situation, as the basis for action to resolve water crises.Building on the achievements of the many previous endeavours, WWAP focuses on the evolving freshwater situation throughout the world.The results of this assessment are to be published at regular intervals in the World Water Development Report (WWDR). The programme willevolve with the WWDR at its core. There is thus a need to include data compilation (geo-referenced meta-databases), interpretation anddissemination, information technologies, comparative trend analyses, methodology development and modelling. The recommendations from theWWDR include capacity-building to improve country-level assessment, with emphasis on developing countries. This includes the capacitybuildingin education and training, in monitoring and database science and technology. The programme identifies situations of water crisis andthus provides guidance for donor agencies. It develops knowledge and understanding necessary for further action.WWAP focuses on terrestrial freshwater, but links with the marine near-shore environments and coastal zone regions as principal sinks forland-based sources of pollution and sedimentation; these are areas where the threat of flooding and the potential impact of sea-level rise isparticularly acute.WWAP is undertaken by the concerned UN agencies, aided by a Trust Fund, donors providing support in cash and in kind. The generosityand foresight of the government of Japan initiated the programme and allowed production of the first edition of the WWDR. The UnitedNations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) currently provides and manages the Trust Fund and hosts the WWAPSecretariat at its headquarters in Paris.The programme serves as an ‘umbrella’ for coordinating existing UN initiatives within the freshwater assessment sphere. In this regard it will linkstrongly with the data and information systems of UN agencies.