Why in news?
- The United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) was released ahead of World Water Day (March 22).
Ensuring the sustainable use of the planet’s resources is vital for ensuring long-term peace and prosperity.
What is the report on?
- The WWDR is an annual and thematic report that focuses on different strategic water issues each year.
- It aims to provide decision-makers with the tools to implement sustainable use of our water resources.
- The development of the WWDR is coordinated by the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP).
- The report is a joint effort of the UN agencies and entities which make up UN-Water.
- The latest report was released at the 8th World Water Forum in Brasilia, hosted by Brazil.
What are the highlights?
- Water - Global demand for water has increased six-fold over the past 100 years and continues to grow at the rate of 1% each year.
- Demand for water is projected to rise faster in developing countries.
- The report highlights that more than 5 billion people could suffer water shortages by 2050.
- This could be due to the effects of climate change, increased demand and polluted water supplies.
- Climate change will put an added stress on supplies because it will make wet regions wetter and dry regions drier.
- Drought - It is arguably the greatest single threat from climate change.
- Drought and soil degradation, the biggest risks of natural disaster, are likely to worsen.
- Water quality - Pollution has worsened the water bodies and water is expected to deteriorate further in the coming two decades.
- This would be mainly due to agriculture runoffs of fertiliser and other agrochemicals.
- They load freshwater supplies with nutrients that lead to the growth of pathogens and choking algae blooms.
- Industry and cities are also a significant problem.
- About 80% of industrial and municipal wastewater is discharged without treatment.
- Threat - Water scarcity can lead to civil unrest, mass migration and even to conflict within and between countries.
- The report thus warns of conflict and civilisational threats unless actions are taken.
What is the concern with the present approach?
- For too long, the world has turned first to human-built, or ‘grey’, infrastructure to improve water management.
- In doing so, it has often brushed aside traditional and indigenous knowledge that embraces greener approaches.
- But accelerated consumption, multi-faceted impacts of climate change and increasing environmental degradation is the reality now.
- All these call for new ways of managing the competing demands on freshwater resources.
What are the suggestions?
- Water - Reducing the stress on rivers, lakes, aquifers, wetlands and reservoirs is important.
- Water shortage cannot be offset by groundwater supplies, a third of which are already in distress.
- Nor is the construction of more dams and reservoirs likely to be a solution.
- The report emphasises a shift away from watershed management.
- It calls for a wider geographic approach that takes in land use in distant areas, particularly forests.
- Although farmers have long seen trees as a drain on water supplies, the vegetation helps to recycle and distribute water.
- Evidently, the São Paulo (Brazil) drought of 2014-15 has been linked to Amazon deforestation.
- The key for change, even for the water problem, will be agriculture.
- Agriculture - This is the biggest source of both water consumption and pollution.
- The report thus emphasises the importance of nature-based solutions.
- Nature-based solutions can be personal – such as dry toilets – or broad landscape-level shifts in agricultural practices.
- In agricultural practices, it is essentially an approach to rely more on soil and trees than steel and concrete.
- It calls for shift to “conservation agriculture”.
- This would make greater use of rainwater rather than irrigation, and regularise crop rotation to maintain soil cover.
- This is crucial to reverse erosion and degradation, which currently affects a third of the planet’s land.
- The suggestions imply that the potential savings of such practices exceed the projected increase in global demand for water.
- This would ease the dangers of conflict and provide better livelihoods for family farmers and poverty reduction.
Source: The Guardian
Quick Fact
World Water Assessment Programme
- The WWAP focuses on assessing the developing situation of freshwater throughout the world.
- The primary output of the WWAP is the periodic World Water Development Report.
- UNESCO hosts the WWAP Secretariat.
World Water Forum
- The World Water Forum is the world’s biggest water-related event and is organized by the World Water Council.
- It is the biggest single gathering of policymakers, businesses and NGOs involved in water management.
- Its mission is to promote awareness, build political commitment and trigger action on critical water issues.
- It takes place every three years.
World Water Council
- The World Water Council is an international multistakeholder platform organization.
- Its members include organizations from the UN and intergovernmental organizations, the private sector, governments, academic institutions, civil society groups, etc.
- Its mission is to mobilize action on critical water issues at all levels, including the highest decision-making level.
- The Council focuses on the political dimensions of water security, adaptation and sustainability.s
