The Global Water Crisis: Addressing an Urgent Security - Unu-inweh ...

Ethical considerations also need to be taken into account in order to ensure equitable access and sufficient provision
of water to all, particularly to marginalized groups who often have no say in the decision-making process. However,
establishing a basic constitutional right to water come with its own limitations and implications, and can erroneously be
seen as the magic silver bullet that will address many of the issues related to the water crisis.
What has also become clear is that there currently is a vacuum in international water leadership. New forms of hydrodiplomacy
are desperately needed in order to address the lack of political will, financial resources and effective governance.
Although leaders and policy-makers are increasingly inundated by ‘legislative congestion’, the fact remains that inactivity
in the face of a growing global water crisis cannot go ignored. Future generations trust us to get it right; they will drink
the very same water we drink. There is, therefore, considerable urgency in creating the political will to address the root
causes of the global water crisis.
2. There Is Hope: Challenges and Opportunities
Growing populations, changing diets, increased urban, agricultural and industrial water demands, and a growing
understanding of nature’s need for water require that we radically reform our attitude toward water and how it is managed
globally. Water needs to be on the global political agenda not only in order to feed the projected 9 billion people that
will inhabit the earth by 2050 with less agricultural water than is available today, but also in order to address the critical
development challenge of doing so in a safe, sustainable way without compromising water resources that are essential
to ecosystem services and functions. By addressing critical water issues, we will simultaneously address economic and
public health woes while advancing our capacity to adapt to climate change. Addressing water security issues will create
a foundation for peace and well-being.
What’s more, not all solutions will require large amounts of funding. On the contrary: finance ministers may be inclined
to action if they knew that inadequately addressing water and sanitation issues was costing them a significant portion
of their country’s GDP. However, having said that, the resolution of the global water crisis will require a level of funding
commensurate with the seriousness of the problem. Despite the critical need, investment in water management has
dropped by more than 25% in most countries since the late 1990s (World Bank, 2010). There is a disturbing mismatch
between investment in the form of aid and results. Too often, there is a focus on water treatment at the expense of
providing basic services in the areas where it is most needed. Achieving the target for both water supply and sanitation
would bring economic benefits: investing US $1 would give an economic return of US $3-$4, depending on the region.
Achieving this target would require an estimated additional investment of around US $11.3 billion per year over and
above current investments (World Health Organization, 2012), an amount far less than the annual military budgets of
many developed countries.
Money alone though will not be enough to solve all the problems. In many countries, major public institutions do not have
the capacity to address water issues even if sufficient funding is available. Help from other countries as well as financing
are required to ensure that water quality and availability issues do not stall economic or social progress or, worse yet,
result in further conflict in many parts of the world. Development cooperation also needs to be encouraged in order to
ensure that it includes all economic flows, and not just direct aid.
It will also be important to support and advance established United Nations international water protocols in order to
make further advances in water security. The InterAction Council was informed that the UN has already devised a Legal
Analytical Framework for water security, but that this is not being met by many countries (Wouters et al., 2009). On the
other hand, an example of real progress toward higher international standards of water management is the 1997 UN
Watercourses Convention. Unfortunately, many nations have yet to ratify this treaty.
Regional cooperation is essential to creating transboundary relationships that result in optimal levels of water, food and
health security for all users sharing a particular river system. International examples, such as that of the Nile River Basin,
suggest that effectively orchestrated basin-scale management of water resources can generate increased benefits for all
within a regional context if there is cooperation between all stakeholders. Other globally relevant models also exist, such
as Canada’s Northwest Territories ‘Northern Waters, Northern Voices’ water stewardship strategy, which demonstrates
how the rights of both people and nature to water can be a foundation of sustainable economic development.
4 The Global Water Crisis: Addressing an Urgent Security Issue