Historic UN water meeting opens, with climate as 'DNA' of discussions

Global negligence has failed at least a quarter of the world’s population — 2 billion people can’t access clean drinking water and 3.6 billion don’t have access to safely managed sanitation. Experts gather this week at the United Nations headquarters in New York for a historic three-day conference, which kicked off on Wednesday on World Water Day. This is a rare moment — the U.N. hasn’t hosted a water conference in nearly 50 years and has dubbed it “the most important water event in a generation.” Some attendees are pushing for a fundamental change in the way water is managed and have called for it to be treated as a common good rather than a tradeable commodity. Some even want it protected under international law. “Achieving universal and equitable access to safe and affordable water for all means prioritizing the personal and domestic use of water for human beings as a public good, over industrial, commercial, or recreational uses,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk wrote in an open letter last week. The conference will likely adopt a Water Action Agenda this week, including voluntary commitments by governments, civil society, and the private sector. The idea is to provide clear guidelines for the water sector in a similar way the 2015 Paris Agreement provided a road map for the climate change movement. A rallying call of attendees at the U.N. 2023 Water Conference is the need to move beyond firefighting water and sanitation disasters to a more holistic management, one that prioritizes investments in sustainable water and sanitation infrastructure — such as drainage systems, piped water and treatment plants, inclusive governance of water systems, and the preservation and restoration of natural ecosystems that provide communities with water. Climate change is part of the “DNA” of the discussions this week, said Lord Goldsmith, minister of state for the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office of the United Kingdom during an address on Wednesday. The changing climate is leading to unprecedented levels of natural disasters, such as droughts and flooding, which lead to water scarcity and contamination. Malawi is in the spotlight at the conference as one of the most visible examples of the climate crisis wreaking havoc on clean water and sanitation. The southeastern African country is dealing with the worst cholera outbreak on record. The flare up originated from a deadly combination of flooding and weak water and sanitation infrastructure, which has allowed the bacteria to spread rapidly throughout the country, contaminating water and food. Malawi has battled the latest outbreak for a year and then last week it was pummeled by Cyclone Freddy, the longest-lasting tropical storm on record, sending the country deeper into crisis. “We cannot address the climate crisis by a fragmented approach,” Jagan Chapagain, chief executive officer and secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies told the conference. He cautioned that short-term solutions to this overarching problem can lead to even more headaches. The Horn of Africa, for example, is struggling through a crisis stemming from years of a prolonged drought that has led to widespread malnutrition. One solution several years ago was to dig deep boreholes, he said. But without proper analysis of how the boreholes would impact the water table, the drought is now exacerbated because the water table levels had been reduced by the drilling. “Today’s problems were because of yesterday’s solutions,” Chapagain said. “Sometimes looking for short-sighted solutions in dealing with the climate crisis actually compounds the water related issues moving forward.” Only about 67% of Malawi’s population has access to drinking water, which means they “cannot absorb the shocks” of a natural disaster such as a cyclone, the country’s Water and Sanitation Minister Abida Sidik Mia said. For now, water and chlorine are delivered by trucks, but this is not sustainable. In the long term, the government wants to build solar-powered piped water systems across the country, fix damaged boreholes, and construct toilets. “We’re looking at how we stop these cholera outbreaks,” Sidik Mia said. The climate crisis is driving migration in different forms — such as slow-onset changes like sea level rise, natural disasters, and conflict. Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, spoke about a visit he made to northern Cameroon, where Lake Chad is drying up which caused “two communities sharing increasingly scarce water resources to turn against each other,” leading to the displacement of tens of thousands of people. “The origin is also climate change, it transforms into conflict, and it translates into displacement,” Grandi said. And that underscores the importance of environmental preservation to water security, U.K.’s Goldsmith said. The Congo Basin, for example, contributes a large portion of rainfall in its region, for example. “If we see the destruction of the Congo Basin, we’re going to see displacement, famine, humanitarian crises on a scale that we’ve never had to deal with before,” he said. Systematically changing the way water and sanitation is managed requires enhanced investment. For the African continent, it’s estimated that $50 billion is needed annually to achieve water security and sustainable sanitation by 2030. Currently, only between $10 billion and $19 billion is invested each year.