Water
a shared responsibility
The United NationsWorld Water Development Report 2
E x e c u t i v e S u m m a r y
UN-WATER/WWAP/2006/3
For some, the water crisis means having to walk long distances every day to fetchenough drinking water – clean or unclean – just to get by. For others, it meanssuffering from avoidable malnutrition or disease caused by drought, flood orinadequate sanitation. Still others experience it as a lack of funds, institutions orknowledge to solve local problems of water use and allocation.
Water,
a shared responsibility
The United Nations World Water Development Report 2 (WWDR 2)
Many countries are still not on track to reach thewater-related targets of the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs) – threatening theirsecurity, development and environmentalsustainability – and millions of people die each yearfrom treatable water-borne diseases. While waterpollution and the destruction of ecosystemsincrease,we are witnessing the consequences that climatechange, natural disasters, poverty, warfare,globalization, population growth, urbanization anddisease – all of which impinge on the water sector– have on so many of the people of the world.It is widely accepted that sustainable and equitablewater management must be undertaken using anintegrated approach, that assessment of theresource is the basis for rational decision-making,and that national capacities to undertake suchassessments must be further supported andexpanded at local through international levels. It istherefore paramount to provide the best possibleunderstanding of the state of the world’s freshwaterresources to the world at large.The triennial World Water Development Report(WWDR) lays the foundation for a continuous,global monitoring system and shows the UnitedNations system at work, pooling the uniqueperspectives and expertise of the 24 UNagencies that compriseUN-Water, inpartnership with governments andother entities concerned withfreshwater issues.
Water, a Shared Responsibility
(March 2006) is themain outcome of Phase 2 of the World WaterAssessment Programme (WWAP), founded in 2000as a collective response of the UN system to assistcountries in reaching their commitmentsin keywater-related challenge areas. WWDR 2 offers acomprehensive and holistic assessment of theworld’s water, while bringing the issues of watergovernance, knowledge accessibility and thespecific challenges of managing water into themainstream of development thinking and practices,across all the major intersections of water, humanwell-being and development.Bearing in mind users needs, the 2006 Report aimsto be practical in orientation, offers best practicesas well as in-depth theoretical and analyticanalyses to help stimulate ideas and actions forbetter stewardship in the water sector. The use of hundreds of maps, tables, figures, boxed examples,indicators and case studies illustrate that only ourglobal cooperation will help to ensure an integrated,equitable and sustainable management of theworld’s most precious resource – water.
Table of Contents
SECTION 2 - CHANGING NATURALSYSTEMS
SECTION 3 - CHALLENGES FOR WELL-BEINGAND DEVELOPMENT
SECTION 4 - MANAGEMENT RESPONSESAND STEWARDSHIP
SECTION 5 - SHARING RESPONSIBILITIES
1
In the three years since the launch of the first World WaterDevelopment Report (2003), the world has witnessed considerablechange. There have been many instances of major water-relateddisasters: the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; the 2004 and 2005hurricanes in the Caribbean, the west Pacific and the United States; the2005 floods in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in many otherregions; and the extensive droughts in Niger, Mali, Spain and Portugal.These are reminders of both the destructive power of water and themisery deriving from lack of it in so many regions of the world.These extreme events are only the most prominent illustrations of fundamental changes that are affecting water resources worldwide. Inmany cases, this evolution is most probably linked to slow butpersistent changes in global climates, a phenomenon that is supportedby a growing body of evidence: the combination of lower precipitationand higher evaporation in many regions is diminishing water quantitiesin rivers, lakes and groundwater storage; while increased pollution isdamaging ecosystems and the health, lives and livelihoods of thosewithout access to adequate safe drinking water and basic sanitation.Major demographic changes are also seriously affecting the quality andquantity of available freshwater on the planet. While the moredeveloped countries enjoy relatively stable populations, the less-developed regions of the world are generally experiencing rapid growthand population shifts, particularly in towns, small cities and mega-cities. In many rapidly growing urban areas, it is proving impossible tobuild the infrastructure necessary to deliver water supply andsanitation facilities to service the population, leading to poor health,low quality of life and, in many cases, to social unrest. To the urbandemands for water must be added the increasing demands on water forfood production, energy creation and industrial uses.Large shifts in the geographic distribution of populations occur invarious contexts, often adding to water supply problems and socialtension. In areas, such as Darfur, there are both internally displacedpersons and transboundary refugees. Legal and illegal economicmigrants are swelling populations in parts of the United States andWestern Europe, as elsewhere. Tourism to many holiday destinations of the world often exerts a strain on the water supplies of these regions.Whether it is the result of continued unrest and warfare, terroristactivities or economic instability, population movement is a factor thathas a substantial impact on water availability in the world.
PREFACE
Water
a shared responsibility
The United NationsWorld Water Development Report 2
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