Fair Sharing of Water Resources Essential for Ending Wars, Ensuring Human Well-Being, Deputy Secretary-General Tells Political Forum

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson’s remarks at the High-level Political Forum Side Event on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, in New York today:

I am very pleased to be with you today.  Water is since many years a subject close to my heart.

Today’s event — held on the margins of the successful High-Level Political Forum — highlights a critical observation:  Without substantial progress on water and sanitation, we will not fully achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and we will not fulfil the commitment to leave no one behind.

Paraphrasing the interdependent relationship between peace, development and human rights, I would say:  water is peace, water is life, and water is dignity.

Let me address each of these three challenges.

First, water is peace.  Scarcity and pressure on water is rising in all regions of the world.  Climate change, pollution and growing demand for water are presenting ever greater challenges and risks.  As populations grow and consumption patterns evolve, agriculture and livestock production are using ever more water.  So, too, are expanding cities.

Around the world, floods and droughts are inflicting huge social and economic costs.  Climate variability threatens to make extreme weather events more frequent and more destructive.

If we continue on our current path, the world may face a 40 per cent shortfall in water availability by 2030.  I have personally over the years witnessed the implications of such stress at local, transboundary and global levels.  In today’s interconnected world, access to fresh water is often directly linked to peace and security.  

The 2030 Agenda demonstrates the interrelationship and mutually re-enforcing nature of the Sustainable Development Goals.  The Agenda could be seen as a global “Declaration of Interdependence”.  It acknowledges that the root causes of a problem are not always or exclusively found in the same country as the problem itself.  And lack of progress on the goals can have effects on stability and security.  That is why we must search for shared and collaborative solutions both inside and between countries.   

Scarcity of water presents a challenge of fundamental importance to the world.  The availability and sustainable management of water for all will require new levels of international attention, joint analyses, new spaces for dialogue and a renewed commitment to cooperation among nations, communities and different sectors of society.

We have all heard talk of the risk of “water wars” and of access to water being used as an instrument of war.  I have seen it in conflict situations like Darfur.  ISIL [Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant/Da’esh] has used it in Iraq.  So, we may very well see a period where water is a reason for competition or conflict.

But let me instead offer you the vision of water as a means to achieve peace and as a reason for cooperation.  Through water diplomacy, or “hydro diplomacy”, powerful signals can be sent about the value and benefits of sharing of water resources.  Water, fairly shared, can become a confidence-building measure that is so desperately needed in many of today’s conflict areas.  

My second point is:  water is life.  It is absolutely essential to the viability of ecosystems and to the health and well-being of people.  Currently, hundreds of millions of people are suffering and being left behind due to lack of safe water and adequate sanitation.  At least 1.8 billion people worldwide drink contaminated water.  2.4 billion people lack safe sanitation.  

In the developing world, roughly 90 per cent of sewage is discharged untreated into rivers, lakes and coastal areas.  An estimated 800 children under the age of five die every day from diarrheal diseases.

Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to ensure, by 2030, the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, regardless of location or circumstances.  

We must settle for nothing less than equitable access to safe water and adequate sanitation for all.  For water to continue to sustain life, we must work together in innovative ways.  And we must reach out to new partners.

I commend Sanitation and Water for All for bringing people together across different sectors in search of lasting solutions.  In the same way, the United Nations is to engage the private sector, civil society and the scientific community to support Member States in implementing the 2030 Agenda.

With the High-Level Panel on Water and networks such as Sanitation and Water for All and UN-Water, we can generate greater cooperation in the areas of water, sanitation and hygiene for the benefit of all.  Let us take advantage of the positive dynamics between the Sustainable Development Goals and of the power of working horizontally between different sectors of society.

This brings me to my third point:  Water is dignity.  We need a coherent approach to the water challenge based on the indivisibility of human rights.

The Sustainable Development Goals must be a vehicle for supporting efforts to achieve the rights to water and sanitation for all.  When we call for no one to be left behind it is not from a sense or perspective of charity, but as an acknowledgement of a duty, of a right.

A child missing school to collect water is deprived of an essential right.  So too is a girl denied an education because her school lacks toilets for girls.  And there is a glaring lack of dignity in illness and death from diarrhoea, in open defecation, or in paying an outrageous price for water in slum areas around the world.

By seeing water and sanitation as a human right we are demanding accountability — of local and national Governments, of businesses and donors.

Investing in water and sanitation rapidly translates into improved public health and food security, into poverty reduction and economic growth, into livable cities and energy for all, as well as into environmental balance and climate action.  And let us remember — taking forceful action on water and sanitation not only strengthens development but also security and human rights.

Again, water is peace, life and dignity.  We have huge tasks ahead of us in a troubled world.  But we also have great tools in our hands with the new Sustainable Development Goals which cover the whole agenda of the United Nations, including the crucial water issues.  So, let’s go to work with hope and determination, working together for a better future.