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Water security through science-based cooperation:
UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme
Blanca Jiménez-Cisneros, Alexander Otte, Miguel de França Doria, Giuseppe Arduino,
Léna Salamé, Siegfried Demuth, Anil Mishra, Alice Aureli
T
he International Year of Water Cooperation reflects the
global recognition that fresh water is vital for human
health, prosperity and peace and that internationally
agreed development objectives, in particular poverty eradica-
tion, gender equality, food security and the safeguarding of
ecosystems and their life-supporting functions, cannot be faced
without resolving current and future water challenges.
In June 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development underlined the need to address an array of water issues
including extreme events, pollution and wastewater treatment. Heads
of state, governments and high-level representatives stated in the
outcome document
The Future We Want
that “water is at the core
of sustainable development as it is closely linked to a number of key
global challenges. We therefore reiterate the importance of integrating
water in sustainable development... In order to achieve this end we
stress the need for international assistance and cooperation.”
1
Given its vital role, water has a specific target under the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), is a thematic area under consultation
for the post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda and is recog-
nized as a human right. While water is a distinctive feature of our
planet, allowing life to flourish, freshwater is a limited resource and
is unevenly distributed in space and time. Billions of
people are affected by water challenges including scar-
city, water supply and sanitation.
Currently, 85 per cent of the world’s human popu-
lation live in the drier half of the Earth. All regions
– particularly Africa – face serious freshwater chal-
lenges, albeit in different contexts. Our water resources
are under increasingly severe pressures from climate
change and other global changes such as urbaniza-
tion, intensified agricultural and industrial production,
and population growth. Combined with the current
economic and financial crisis, this situation endangers
the significant progress achieved over recent decades in
providing safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.
Almost 800 million people still have no access to safe
water; nearly 2.5 billion lack access to basic sanitation;
and 6-8 million die each year fromwater-related disasters
and diseases. Climate change is aggravating this situa-
tion, as is the fact that almost 85 per cent of the world’s
total wastewater is discharged without adequate or any
treatment. Women, children and those living under
conditions of poverty suffer most of the burdens caused
by the water crisis. In some parts of the globe, they often
walk for hours to fetch unsafe water, sometimes under
life-threatening conditions, jeopardizing their chances
for education. The water crisis contrasts with the goal of
‘water security’ – that is “the capacity of a population to
safeguard access to adequate quantities of water of accept-
able quality for sustaining human and ecosystem health
on a watershed basis, and to ensure efficient protection of
life and property against water-related hazards – floods,
landslides, land subsidence, and droughts.”
2
Water management must go beyond protection and restoration, and recognize the
carrying capacity of ecosystems in the face of increasing human impact
Image: © Alexander Otte/UNESCO
Facts and figures
• Groundwater is critical for the livelihoods of nearly 1.5
billion rural households in the poorer regions of Africa and
Asia, and for domestic supplies of a large share of the
world’s population elsewhere
• Almost 85 per cent of the world’s total wastewater is
discharged without adequate or any treatment
• 145 nations have territories within at least one
transboundary river basin
• The costs of adapting to climate change impacts on water
are estimated to be around US$12 billion per year by 2050,
with 83-90 per cent in developing countries.