{"id":236488,"date":"2023-04-06T20:20:54","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T14:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=236488"},"modified":"2023-04-07T18:34:24","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T13:04:24","slug":"the-takeaways-from-the-un-world-water-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-takeaways-from-the-un-world-water-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"The takeaways from the UN World Water Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>&#8211; The post is based on the article <strong>\u201cThe takeaways from the UN World Water Conference\u201d <\/strong>published in the <strong>\u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/strong>on <strong>5th April 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Global groupings and agreements. GS1- Economic geography<\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>&#8211; Issues related to water management at domestic and international level<\/p>\n<p><strong>News<\/strong>&#8211; Recently, the World Water Conference that was convened by the United Nations<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the important outcomes of the conference?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The conference held a <strong>mid-term review of the Water Action Decade 2018\u00ad-2028<\/strong>. It envisages the sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.<\/p>\n<p>The central outcome of the conference was the <strong>international Water Action Agenda<\/strong>. Under it, Governments, multilateral institutions, businesses, and non\u00adgovernmental organisations submitted over 670 commitments to address <strong>water security issues. <\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the key issues related to developments at conference?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The commitments made at the conference <strong>must be scrutinised<\/strong>. There is a need to see whether they will yield <strong>universal, safe, affordable and equitable access to water<\/strong>. Meeting this target by 2030 will need <strong>capital expenditures of $114 billion per year.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The World Bank estimates that <strong>operations and maintenance for basic water and sanitation service costs<\/strong> will rise from about $4 billion to over $30 billion per year by 2030. It is far more than the <strong>capital costs for basic WASH services. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As per WB study, funding from regional, national, and international sources prioritises <strong>new water infrastructure<\/strong> rather than on<strong> water maintenance service<\/strong>s. It results in <strong>decreased service<\/strong> for water customers.<\/p>\n<p>As per <strong>World Resources Institute<\/strong>, commitments made by the states lack <strong>proper finance and targets<\/strong> that are <strong>quantifiable in nature<\/strong>. Investment of this range would require <strong>valuing water. <\/strong>This will require robust <strong>water measurement and accounting. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are <strong>serious limitations<\/strong> in our knowledge about the <strong>volume, flux and quality of water<\/strong> in lakes, rivers, soils and aquifers. There are <strong>huge gaps in water usage data.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Water is not considered as a<strong> global public good<\/strong>. It is not considered to be an area of <strong>urgent funding <\/strong>as compared to climate change. GEF is the only <strong>international funding mechanism<\/strong> that has provided <strong>grant and concessional loans<\/strong> for 300 watersheds and an even greater number of aquifers.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are major developments related to India on water management?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>India has committed an <strong>investment of $240 billion<\/strong> in the water sector and efforts to <strong>restore groundwater level <\/strong>at the conference.<\/p>\n<p>A <strong>2021 CAG repor<\/strong>t says that<strong> groundwater extraction<\/strong> in India increased from 58% to 63% between 2004\u00ad-17. This has been further exacerbated by climate change.<\/p>\n<p>The<strong> revised Groundwater Bill 2017<\/strong> gives power to State groundwater boards for <strong>creating laws, managing water allocation and other relevant issues. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The State boards are<strong> understaffed, and lack expertise<\/strong>. They prioritise <strong>socio political conflicts over groundwater resources. <\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are legal aspects related to conference?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In international law, states have the authority to make<strong> voluntary commitments<\/strong> to address <strong>issues of global concern<\/strong>. These commitments are distinguished from other legal forms. They are generally <strong>independent of the commitments of other parties<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>States have taken <strong>voluntary commitments<\/strong> to curb greenhouse gases and to take measures to <strong>promote sustainability,<\/strong> even in the absence of a <strong>legally non binding instrument. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the case of climate change, these voluntary commitments take place within a broader context of binding agreements: the <strong>UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 2023 Water Conference takes place within the <strong>context of SDG 6<\/strong>, and not within the context of the<strong> UN Water Convention 1997 and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Water Convention 1992<\/strong>. These are <strong>two legally binding legal instruments<\/strong> on <strong>regulation of trans\u00adboundary river water courses. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Common thread between the Water Conference and the two conventions are SDG 6 targets that focus on implementation of<strong> integrated water resources management <\/strong>\u00a0at all levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source&#8211; The post is based on the article \u201cThe takeaways from the UN World Water Conference\u201d published in the \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 5th April 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Global groupings and agreements. GS1- Economic geography Relevance&#8211; Issues related to water management at domestic and international level News&#8211; Recently, the World Water Conference that was convened by&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-takeaways-from-the-un-world-water-conference\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The takeaways from the UN World Water Conference<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498,11377],"class_list":["post-236488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","tag-un-world-water-conference","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700742001},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}