Water holds the key to sustainable development

“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” That was how the United Nations’ World Commission on Environment and Development first defined sustainable development in its 1987 report “Our Common Future”.
More than 25 years later, sustainable development has become an organising principle of development, particularly throughout the UN system.
In September, the UN will launch the Sustainable Development Goals agenda, which is poised to guide national governments and the international community in our common quest to achieve a sustainable world.
Water is the primary natural resource upon which nearly all social and economic activities and ecosystem functions depend.
As we are about to embark on a new development agenda, recognising and planning around the role of water in achieving sustainable development is of critical importance.
The 2015 edition of the “United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR)”, released around this year’s World Water Day on March 22, is a call to action to policymakers, researchers and academics and all who care about our shared future to recognise and act upon this importance and share the benefits of our freshwater resources equitably.
The WWDR is the flagship publication of UN Water, prepared by the World Water Assessment Programme, which is hosted by Unesco and financially supported by the government of Italy.
The WWDR benefits from the input of the 31 UN agencies and 37 partner organisations that comprise UN Water. The Asia-Pacific launch will be in Bangkok on March 23 with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha scheduled to attend.
At the 2013 Water Summit in Budapest, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said water’s role in development is immense.
“Water holds the key for sustainable development. We need it for health, food security and economic progress,” he said.
According to current estimates, nearly half of the world’s population could be facing water scarcity by 2030, with demand outstripping supply by 40 per cent.
The WWDR delves into the implications of these looming shortages, laying out the numerous, complex and often subtle linkages between water and sustainable development.
Along with describing water’s social, economic and environmental dimensions, the report examines the resource’s role in addressing some of the most pressing developmental challenges of our time, from food and energy security to urbanisation and climate change.
The WWDR is enriched by regional perspectives and provides concrete examples of measures that can be taken to address these interconnected challenges through water.
The report breaks from tradition by opening not with a summary of the grim situation we currently face, but with a look into the future that could be – provided appropriate actions are taken now.
This look at a future where water resources are managed equitably and well worldwide is not merely a fictional utopian outlook, but a vision of the future that we believe is achievable, one where water is recognised and managed as the fundamental resource that supports all aspects of sustainable development.
Sustainable development is a straightforward concept, but the challenges and potential solutions to achieving it are often seen from divergent perspectives. The WWDR endeavours to provide a fact-based, balanced and neutral account of the most recent developments pertaining to water and sustainable development.
The Sustainable Development Goals cannot be achieved without significant improvement of water resources across the globe. Water is the common denominator when it comes to food and energy security, environmental health, as well as improvements in social well-being and health that affect the lives and livelihoods of billions.
Development challenges abound – accelerating urbanisation, increasing food and energy demands, sustainable industrial growth, poverty eradication, shifting consumption patterns, conserving threatened ecosystems and climate change.
Each of these generates increasing pressure on limited water resources – resources, which, if properly harnessed, could play an integral role in addressing each of these 21st Century problems.
Water must be managed across competing sectors to ensure that progress in one of them is not offset by declines in others.
The report takes a strategic look at these factors in the context of economic growth, social equity and environmental sustainability.
It provides an overview of major and emerging trends from around the world, detailing successful approaches that have been taken and their implications for policymakers as well as further actions that must be taken by stakeholders and the international community.
Although the central role that water occupies in all dimensions of sustainable development has become progressively recognised, the management of water resources and the provision of water-related services remain far too low on the scales of public perception and governmental priorities.
As a result, water often becomes a limiting factor, rather than an enabler, of social welfare, economic development and healthy ecosystems.
The fact is that there is enough water available to meet the world’s growing needs, but not without dramatically changing the way water is used, managed and shared.
The global water crisis is one of governance much more than of resource availability, and this is where the bulk of the action is required in order to achieve a sustainable, water-secure world.

Jayakumar Ramasamy is chief of the natural sciences sector at Unesco Bangkok.