New water action agenda offers renewed hope

Approximately 7000 people attended the United Nations global water conference that took place from March 22-24, 2023, at UN Headquarters in New York City. The conference took place with a backdrop of worldwide crises including droughts, floods, the melting cryosphere, unprecedented human induced climate changes, biodiversity loss, toxic pollution, and war. To say that the conference was important and needed would be an understatement. 

As often in large global ecological conferences there was no shortage of descriptions of the problems. 

“Billions of people around the world still lack access to water. It is estimated that more than 800,000 people die each year from diseases directly attributed to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene practices,” according to Unwater.org news.

However, the conference publicly professed to be focused on participatory, inclusive solutions and delivered a Water Action Agenda that if realized could be transformational.

The feeling at UN Headquarters in New York during the Conference was generally positive. There were many ideas and a general understanding that we have the ways and means to restore the water cycle. What remains a question is whether there is the actual political will to do what is necessary.

The last time the world came together like this to address the global water crisis was in 1977. The final report of that conference is downloadable here.

It is sobering to realize that the problem and the hope of working toward the solutions to the problems described in the 1977 conference is much more complex now 46 years later than they were then. It seems clear to me and to most, if not all, of the people who attended the 2023 UN Water Conference that we simply don’t have another 46 years to lose. It is not hyperbole to say that the future of human civilization now depends on our understanding and our actions on water problems. The “window of opportunity” to save human civilization is closing fast. As the UN acknowledged water issues together with climate change, biodiversity loss, and more, are now at crisis levels. We cannot be complacent. Our children’s and our grandchildren’s lives, and in fact the quality of life for all living beings in the future, depend on what we understand and what we do now.

Over 700 commitments were made at the 2023 UN Water Conference. The conference statements are not binding and so in some ways are aspirational. This is wonderful but each commitment needs to be followed up and assessed for its effectiveness. It seems to me that every person on the Earth needs to take to heart exactly what is the basis of life, health and wealth. Could we create a new civilization embracing an economy of equality and justice where we removed the perverse incentives to destroy natural systems?

I participated in a side event called: Nature Based Solutions for Water and Peace – video below:

While the 2023 UN Water Conference was overall a very positive experience there were a couple of moments that made me consider how efficient and effective the United Nations is. The first was the 2 and ½ hours that I had to stand in line just to get the credential to enter the conference. The second was the audio recording of the panel I was in was distributed on CD ROM which hasn’t really been a convenient or sustainable method of distributing audio files for quite a long time. These experiences made me wonder about what is needed to deal with the level of complexity needed to solve the many water problems we face.

It is a very good thing that the world came together in 2023 to discuss the importance of water and how to deal with the natural water cycle and the many problems surrounding human usage of water. The United Nations probably needs to consider whether 46 years between water conferences is a good idea. The UN might also consider what is required, to sustainably and efficiently, lead humanity toward harmony with the Earth’s natural systems. Yet the fact remains that the UN is the only United Nations that we have. Finally, it is humanity’s collective consciousness that needs to develop and for this higher vision to be reflected in our institutions. 

My takeaway from the conference is we won’t be able to solve the water crisis by talking about it. We have a lot of work to do.