UN Water Analytical Brief on Water Security (original) (raw)
Related papers
Water Security and the Global Water Agenda. UN-Water Analytical Brief
2013
"In a report released today to mark World Water Day and 2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation, UN-Water is proposing a common definition of water security. UN-Water, which coordinates water programs within the United Nations system, claims that a single description of the problem will help global collaboration around water, one of the world’s most vital needs. world water day 2013 united nations un-water water security paper report analytical brief Image courtesy of UN-Water ‘Water Security and the Global Agenda’ is the title of an analytical brief published by the United Nations for World Water Day 2013. Click image to enlarge. The authors define water security as: “The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development; for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters; and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.” This work builds on the UN High Level Expert Panel convened at the UN in New York (Sept 2012) where I was invited as a panellist. (see my earlier post on this). I was invited to peer review this Analytical Brief.
UN Water Global Water Security Analytical Brief (March 2013)
The UN-Water Task Force on Water Security would like to thank Harriet Bigas, UNU-INWEH for leading the coordination and development of the Brief, and Stéfanie Neno and James Morgan, FAO for facilitating the design and layout of the Brief. v Foreword It is fitting that the topic of water security, through the launch of this Analytical Brief, figures among the many celebrations marking the 20 th anniversary of World Water Day on 22 March 2013 and the 2013 International Year of Water Coopera-
Global Water Crises and Challenges for Water Security
How humans have used and misused water is the story of civilization itself. Water is paradoxical-it is ever-renewable but often scarce-and humanity's relationship to it is often contradictory. Although water is essential and non-substitutable it is often taken for granted. While it is finite and fugitive, humans flock to cities and expand agricultural enterprises as if the water will always be there in abundance. The challenges for water security are many and varied, and go to the heart of social organization. The chapter argues that seeing 'security' through different lenses reveals different sets of threats and vulnerabilities. Changing the referent object-the state, individuals, the environment-changes the context for action. Given water's central role in building political and economic power, 'water security' is generally tied to the security of the sovereign state. Actions taken in support of securing water for the state generally involve a confluence of political, economic and technical power. Over the last several decades, numerous attempts have been made to structure action in support of the greater social and environmental good. A variety of discursive framings have emerged to drive collective action. Yet, the legal and institutional frameworks for action remain state-centric, not only in terms of the primary beneficiary of water security, but in terms of the ontological framework for seeing security and insecurity. As shown in the chapter, limited formal space has been created for civil society participation, and for alternative perspectives and approaches to water security to emerge. The chapter concludes that despite numerous attempts to draw the world toward new ways of seeing water, deeply embedded interests, practices and processes ensure that efforts in support of "water security" will continue to yield highly uneven outcomes: security for some, insecurity for many.
Towards Global Water Security: A Departure from the Status Quo
Chapter of the book ‘Global Water Security’, World Water Council (Editor), 2018, Springer Nature, Singapore, pages 1-19, 2018
Water resources are, and have always been, a multidimensional resource that crosses all social and economic sectors. Globally, growing population and urbanisation have increased the pressure to meet the water, energy, and food demands of larger populations with higher expectations. As a result, both developed and developing countries seem to be racing against the clock to respond to the needs of societies in which inequalities continue to grow. Water resources are scarcer and more polluted; their management, governance, and development increasingly depend on decisions that are made in other sectors, many times without sufficient coordination; and their availability is more than ever threatened by issues, such as climate variability and change, that impose nothing but uncertainty. These factors have led to water resources being seen through the lenses of risk and security. The security of water resources necessitates a departure from the status quo, to an innovative system that is able to understand and appreciate how different natural, policy, and political variables interact and affect each other. This system requires a wholesome perspective that is able to propose alternatives that consider complexity and that are adaptive to an uncertain future. A departure is necessary because the status quo has proven unable to respond to the present needs and expectations, much less to future ones.
Global Water Governance and International Security
The Wold Economic Forum (WEF) recently released its sobering Global Risks 2016 report. The findings are the results from The Global Risks Perception Survey whereby approximately 750 experts and decision-makers participated from business, academia, civil society and the public sector from various regions and of different ages contributing different areas of expertise. The survey asked respondents to rank 29 global risks over a 10 year time frame – categorized as societal, technological, economic, environmental or geopolitical – according to their perceived likelihood of it occurring and impact if it does. The two ranked categories were: international security threat likelihood and impact of those threats if they happened. The top five international security threats in terms of likelihood were (in order): Large-scale involuntary migration, extreme weather events, failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation, interstate conflict with regional consequences and major natural catastrophes. In terms of ranking the impact of these threats, the failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation was first, weapons of mass destruction second and a fresh water crisis the third. Two things are striking about this report. The first is environmental issues are considered a key international security threat – more than nuclear weapons. Second, among the top 5 most likely international security threats to occur, water is tied to all of them – and may even cause most of them. The 2016 Global Risk report highlights a glaring problem: global water governance (GWG) is nowhere near the level it needs to be in terms of preventing a water crisis, which can take many forms ranging from fresh water scarcity to flooding. This Insight will focus on one issue: the global governance of fresh water resources – one of the keys to avoiding a water crisis. The Insight highlights the multifaceted GWG challenge as a result of the nature of the global fresh water resource context and the problems with the two existing GWG frameworks: the Nexus Approach and Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), which for several reasons do not offer an adequate GWG.
World Water Resources and Achieving Water Security
Agronomy Journal, 2015
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2012
There is now a clear recognition by the global community that we are in the midst of a global water crisis. As shifting population dynamics and growing economic activity place an increased demand on finite fresh water resources, governments struggle to secure the needs of their citizens by ensuring access to an adequate amount of food at reasonable cost, a reliable energy supply, a robust water infrastructure and supply system, all while continuing to sustain economic growth. Meeting these challenges is a tall order if we are also to consider that there must be enough water to support essential ecosystem functions and services, and that climate change will have adverse impacts on the global water cycle. Nonetheless, the global community must strive to achieve critical development targets by ensuring adequate access to safe water and sanitation services, alleviating poverty for the world’s ‘bottom billion’, and bridging the gender divide.