What was the U.N. water conference and what happened there?

Source: The post is based on the article “What was the U.N. water conference and what happened there?” published in The Hindu on 5th April 2023

What is the News?

The 2023 UN Water Conference took place at UN Headquarters in New York.

What is the 2023 UN Water Conference?

The 2023 UN Water Conference was co-hosted by Tajikistan and the Netherlands.

Aim: To support the achievement of internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, including those contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

It took 46 long years for the UN to organize the Water Conference in 2023, the first being held in 1977 in Mar de Plata, Argentina.

The 1977 conference resulted in the first global ‘Action Plan’ recognising that all peoples, whatever their stage of development and social and economic conditions, have the right to have access to drinking water in quantities and of a quality equal to their basic needs. 

This declaration led to several decades of global funding and concerted effort to provide drinking water and sanitation for all.

What were the challenges in front of the 2023 UN Water Conference?

Firstly, finding money to pay for extending access to water and sanitation to underserved populations is challenging.

Secondly, improving access to water and sanitation no longer translates directly to sustained access to water and sanitation. For example, many drinking-water projects have failed because they drew too much groundwater or their water sources were contaminated. This in turn resulted in communities “slipping back” into having no access.

Thirdly, the water problem is no longer about access to water and sanitation; these represent only two of the eight water-related SDGs. The remaining SDG 6 targets address the need to sustain agriculture, industry, and natural ecosystems. They have metrics that track better governance, improve the efficiency of irrigation water use, restore the water quality in lakes and rivers and improve wastewater management.

– These problems are inherently harder because they can’t be fixed by better infrastructure. They require tough political choices, empowering agencies and strengthening democratic processes.

What was the outcome of the 2023 UN Water Conference? 

The complexity of today’s water problems was reflected in the conference’s proceedings –  fragmented discussions and no binding commitments.

Instead, there were 713 diverse voluntary commitments by philanthropic donors, governments, corporations, and NGOs. 120 of these were relevant to India. They included a USD 50-billion commitment from India to improve rural drinking water services under its Jal Jeevan Mission.

Some of the commitments announced at the event, with examples of projects that showed potential are,

– Technology: There were specific innovations in wastewater treatment or solar treatment of water in remote areas and a number of proposals for incubation platforms including IBM Sustainability Accelerator focused on water management.

– Data and models: Large investments must be done with careful simulation. But the simulation requires a large amount of data.

– Knowledge sharing: One useful tool here is the W12+ Blueprint, a UNESCO platform that hosts city profiles and case studies of programs, technologies, policies that addresses common water security challenges.

– Capacity building: Many people lack access to basic services because they are unable to advocate for themselves. Efforts like the Making Rights Real initiative offered to help marginalized communities and women understand how to exercise their rights. 

– Environmental, social, and corporate governance:  The conference concluded that a big barrier to farmers and industries using water more efficiently is that they have no incentive. Specifically, farmers aren’t becoming more efficient or going pesticide-free unless consumers are willing to pay a premium for more sustainably produced goods.