| Issue 11. 13 September 2013 | www.un.org/waterforlifedecade |
| This week in focus | Editor’s note
Welcome to the Decade’s Weekly! Every week it brings you the latest news from the International Decade for Action ’Water for Life’ 2005-2015. Please feel free to forward this newsletter. You can also access this newsletter online. Tip of the week
UN-Water ’Water for Life’ Best Practices Award: final stretch for applications!
Deadline for nominations is Sunday 15 September 2013. |
| #UNWater This September UN-Water celebrates its 10 Years Anniversary! UN-Water was formally established in September 2003 by the United Nations High Level Committee on Programmes, building on a long history of coordination in the United Nations System. UN-Water provides the platform to address the cross-cutting nature of water and maximize system-wide coordinated action and coherence; and serves the UN Member States in their efforts towards achieving development goals related to freshwater and sanitation. UN-Water is well placed in the UN System to provide the coordination platform to address water issues in the post-2015 development agenda. Through UN-Water the UN System is acting as "One UN". On the occasion of its 10 years anniversary, UN-Water presents an interactive timeline highlighting milestone events and important outputs since its establishment in 2003. |
| In the news | Forthcoming events |
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#RightToWater
Human Rights Council receives water and sanitation thematic report
Human Rights Council receives annual thematic report, devoted in 2013 to the topic of sustainability and the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation, from the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation Catarina de Albuquerque. The report examines how the rights to water and sanitation can and must be met for present and future generations. It highlights challenges to sustainability and particularly aggravated risks in times of economic and financial crisis. After addressing the relevance of sustainability to the core human rights concepts of "progressive realization" and "non-retrogression", the report explains how the normative content and principles of the human rights to water and sanitation contribute to ensuring sustainability.
An exploration of groundwater resources has identified reserves of water in Turkana County in drought-stricken northern Kenya. The findings were announced at the opening of an international water security conference in Nairobi on 11 September, and are the result of a groundwater mapping project, GRIDMAP (Groundwater Resources Investigation for Drought Mitigation in Africa Programme), spearheaded by UNESCO in partnership with the government of Kenya and with the financial support of the Government of Japan.
Would you like your tweet to reach thousands of people from all around the world? Participate in the 2013 World Tourism Day Twitter Competition: What do you do and recommend when travelling to ensure a more sustainable water future? Get tweeting! How do you save water during your travel? Using water-resistant sun block to protect marine life? Being sensitive to renewing bed linen and towels in a hotel? Informing yourself on water efficiency in your accommodation? Whatever you’re doing, whichever measure you recommend - we want to know! Participate until 17 September!
The voices of more than 1 million people all over the world were gathered to produce a United Nations report launched on 10 September that reflects their priorities concerning development issues, which will help Member States shape the post-2015 sustainability agenda. The report, A Million Voices: The World We Want, is the result of 88 national consultations, 11 thematic dialogues and an online global survey, which were carried out over the past year. The report is meant to help Member States draft a successor framework to the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which will expire in 2015. Blogging
How the Issue of "Going" Outside Hit Home
If a year ago you told me that I would be able to speak authoritatively on the technical aspects of sanitation, I would have thought you were crazy! Kenya is my home; I am 130% Kenyan and haved lived here my whole life. In all this time, I never fully realized the sanitation issues in my country. True, I knew the statistics but until recently I didn’t fully realize how the impact was hitting my home. |
#Post2015
Corporate Water Stewardship and the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda
Date: 19 September 2013 This side event, which will coincide with the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit on September 19-20, will advance the CEO Water Mandate’s ongoing discussions regarding water and the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda. This session will further explore and unpack the prospective role of business in advancing potential policy objectives relating to increased access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services; improved water resources management and governance; efficient water use; and pollution reduction. In particular, it will delve into the role of business in supporting achievement of these goals, how the goals can be framed to ensure maximum impact and alignment with emerging water stewardship practice, and how to get from goals to meaningful corporate action on-the-ground. Date: 25 September 2013 On the occasion of the UN General Assembly Special Event on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, this Ministerial luncheon will provide an opportunity for a high level roundtable discussion with country representatives, international organisations, civil society and the private sector on best practices and key factors of success to address water-related risks in five major areas: economic prosperity, human health, political stability, disaster risk management and governance.
Date: 23-24 September 2013
This workshop convened in the International Year of Water Cooperation aims to highlight opportunities and inspire effective practices/solutions in advancing the legal and institutional frameworks and tools for transboundary water cooperation through the exchange of experience and cross-fertilization within existing joint bodies, as well as to support the emergence of new joint bodies for transboundary water cooperation. Latest videos
• New playlist on UNW-DPAC YouTube channel focuses on Water in the Post-2015 agenda
This new playlist will feature videos on the water debate in the post-2015 agenda. |
- Basin wide groundwater management using the system of nature, Kumamoto City, Japan
Kumamoto City in Japan won Category 1 of 2013 edition of UN-Water ’Water for Life’ Best Practices Award with the project "Basin wide groundwater management using the system of nature". Since then, the City of Kumamoto has joined the Water for Life Decade’s campaign and organized a symposium on the Award in August 2013. The Decade’s logo was included in all materials produced for the event.
Contact: mizuhozen@city.kumamoto.lg.jp
- Water Management and Global Challenges Conference 2012: Advances in Technology, Innovation, Health, and Policy
The New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) joined forces with the Center for Water Research at Peking University to hold a conference addressing the issue "Water Management and Global Challenges". The conference, which took place on 16 October 2012 in Beijing, China, discussed and shared potential solutions/technology around the globe to address the need for clean water. They joined the Water for Life Decade's campaign and the Decade’ logo is included in the conference website.
- Master on sustainable river management and integrated water management, University of Zaragoza, Spain
The main purpose of the Master on sustainable river management and integrated water management of the University of Zaragoza in Spain is to establish and reinforce new approaches, criteria and objectives for water management as set by the European Water Framework Directive. Given the new legal and institutional context, the situations of uncertainty and vulnerability and new social demands and expectations, this master offers a range of training activities to current and future managers in charge of public management of ecosystems and water services. This master has been authorized the use of the Water for Life Decade’s logo. Information on the academic year 2013-2014 is available on its website.
Contact: master.gestion.fluvial@unizar.es