Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

1 8 / S E T T I N G T H E S C E N EThe World’s Water Crisis■ Water has an economic value in all its competing uses andshould be recognized as an economic good.The focus of these principles, and of the action plan, on issues ofenvironment, gender, governance and sustainability are still relevanttoday. They are taken up in Chapter 18 of Agenda 21, prepared atRio, which states that:The holistic management of freshwater as a finite andvulnerable resource, and the integration of sectoralwater plans and programmes within the framework ofnational economic and social policy, are of paramountimportance for action in the 1990s and beyond.This same document approved seven programme areas for action atthe national and international levels:1. Integrated water resources development and management.2. Water resources assessment.3. Protection of water resources, water quality and aquaticecosystems.4. Drinking water supply and sanitation.5. Water and sustainable urban development.6. Water for sustainable food production and rural development.7. Impacts of climate change on water resources.Despite the content of Chapter 18, water resources were not aparticularly prominent issue at Rio, with issues such as forests, climatechange and biodiversity having a far higher profile. The balance has,to a great extent, been redressed since then through the importancegiven to freshwater issues by the Commission on SustainableDevelopment (CSD) in its second (1994), sixth (1998) and eighth(2000) sessions and in the 1997 UN General Assembly SpecialSession. All contained a call for a concerted effort to develop moreintegrated approaches to water management and for a stronger focuson the needs of poor people and poor nations. Actions to protectecosystems and to ensure better participation by women, the poorand other marginalized groups in the governance of water wereidentified as specific priorities. The importance of policies that createan enabling environment, protect the weak and create bettergovernance conditions were particularly recognized.The CSD 2 meeting in May 1994 set the tone. It emphasizedthat, if existing trends continued, 35 percent of the world’spopulation would be living in conditions of water scarcity or stressby the year 2025, up from 6 percent in 1990. Problems with waterquality, the threat of water-related disasters and water-relatedhealth, food security and environmental deterioration wereidentified as deepening this acute situation:‘While in the past there was a tendency to regard waterproblems as being local or regional in nature, there is agrowing recognition that their increasingly widespreadoccurrence is quickly adding up to a crisis of globalimportance’ (CSD, 1994, p. 3).This statement reflects the increasing prominence given to waterresource issues in international policy processes on environment andsustainable development in the period following Rio in 1992. TheCSD 2 report on freshwater also drew out the strong link betweenwater resources and poverty.The CSD 6 session was of particular importance in thedevelopment of international approaches to water policies, buildingon the detailed discussions held in an expert group meeting onstrategic approaches to freshwater management held in Harare(Zimbabwe) in January 1998. The Harare meeting represented agathering of key stakeholders in international water policydevelopment and concluded that water stresses were of globalsignificance and that water was a key resource in sustainabledevelopment. The need for fundamental changes in the dominantapproaches to water management was recognized, with a move awayfrom technical and sectoral approaches and towards integratedapproaches in which the social dimension of water management wascentral. This is reflected in the overall CSD 6 report (CSD, 1998, p. 5):it is important that consideration of equitable andresponsible use of water become an integral part in theformulation of strategic approaches to integrated watermanagement at all levels, in particular addressing theproblems of people living in poverty.A growing trend in international policy debates is emphasized here:that IWRM on its own is not enough; it must be focused on thespecific causes of water stress and the needs of those peoplewithout water security.The report of the Harare expert group meeting goes moredeeply into the rationale for this policy refocusing. While progresshad been made in some areas,overall progress has been neither sufficient norcomprehensive enough to reduce general trends ofincreasing water shortages, deteriorating water qualityand growing stresses on freshwater ecosystems. There isa compelling case for integrating these approaches tofreshwater management into national economicframeworks as key elements in policies for sustainabledevelopment and poverty alleviation (CSD, 1998, p. 5).