“The Water Summit in March must result in a bold Water Action Agenda that gives our world’s lifeblood the commitment it deserves.”
Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
Water is at the core of sustainable development. It is essential for human well-being, energy and food production, healthy ecosystems, gender equality, poverty reduction and more. Access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene (SDG 6) is the most basic human need for health and well-being.
But decades of misuse, poor management, overextraction of groundwater and contamination of freshwater supplies have exacerbated water stress. This leads to negative impacts on human health, economic activities, and food and energy supplies.
The world is facing a crisis of “too much water” (extreme rainfalls and flooding), “too little water” (droughts and groundwater scarcity) and “too dirty water” (pollution). Urgent action is needed to ensure a sustainable and equitable distribution of water for all needs. This month’s UN 2023 Water Conference will be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to raise awareness, define a roadmap and advance the water agenda.
Gaps
Billions of people around the world still lack access to safely managed drinking water. Universal access to water is key for global health as we’ve seen with the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, more than 800,000 people die each year from diseases directly attributed to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene practices. Many around the world still lack access to basic hand washing facilities and services. Without water, sanitation and hygiene, people’s wellbeing, and opportunities are severely compromised, particularly women and girls’.
Water is needed across all sectors to produce food, energy, combat climate change, provide healthy ecosystem services, and more. But with growing demands for water and mounting pressures from agriculture, energy and climate, water resources are severely stressed. Over the past 300 years, over 85 per cent of the planet’s wetlands have been lost, mainly through drainage and land conversion, with many remaining wetland areas degraded. Water stress levels in Southern Asia and Central Asia registered at over 75 per cent, whereas Northern Africa registered a critical water stress level of over 80 per cent.
Moving forward
At the current rates of progress, 1.6 billion people will lack safely managed drinking water, 2.8 billion people will lack safely managed sanitation, and 1.9 billion people will lack basic hand hygiene facilities in 2030. To reach universal access to drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene by 2030 for all, the current rates of progress need to increase fourfold.
UN 2023 WATER CONFERENCE – (22 – 24 March)
This month, the world will come together in New York to tackle water-related issues during the UN 2023 Water Conference. The Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of Tajikistan, co-hosts of the Conference, are committed to make the event a watershed moment that will bring stakeholders from all sectors together and that will create a global momentum for accelerated implementation and improved impact to advance the broad challenges surrounding water. The primary aim of the Conference is to decide on the concerted and game-changing actions needed to achieve the internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, including those contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Issues under discussion include health, cooperation across borders, resilience and climate, human rights and water governance. A full programme of the Conference can be found here.
Water Action Agenda
The main outcome of the Conference will be the Water Action Agenda that will capture all water-related voluntary commitments from the Conference. The Agenda will encourage Member States and stakeholders across all sectors to unify and address today’s global water challenges. Learn more about the Water Action Agenda here.
Registration & Media Accreditation
Registration for the Conference is now open! Media accreditation online is now open until 10 March 2023 (more information is available here: Media Advisory).
Get Involved: #WaterActions That You Can Take
Water is everyone’s business. Everyone can do their part to reverse the degradation of water by taking simple actions that can help protect this vital resource. Play your role in #wateractions to be part of the solution:
- Use the Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving Water
- Organize an event with the Be the Change Toolkit
- Test your water skills with the Kahoot Quiz (game pin: 007996792)
- Participate in the World Water Day Campaign
- Join the SDG Book Club and read a book on water and SDG 6
- Act Now and register your water actions
#Social Media
What to Watch For
| Join UN DESA for a virtual Global Policy Dialogue on “Youth and Indigenous Solutions for Clean Water,” highlighting ways to improve water access for better health and for improving resiliency. By raising the voices of youth and Indigenous Peoples, this event aims to underscore the intersectionality of the issues these vulnerable groups face and showcase their innovative solutions to the water crisis. Register here: https://bit.ly/dialogue9march |
In celebration of World Water Day and the UN 2023 Water Conference, the UN-Water Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6 is preparing a set of snapshots to draw attention to successful country action in delivering SDG 6. These country examples demonstrate that accelerated progress is possible, for inspiration and learning. The snapshots have been identified based on the official country data reported on the SDG 6 global indicators, to ensure that the progress is measurable and verifiable.
Join the launch webinar on 16 March from 09 :00 -10.30 CET AND 16:00-17:30 to learn more about these examples of successful country action, and to discuss the importance of evidence and data when formulating and following-up on water and sanitation targets. Register for the webinar here
Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 6 to 7 years by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC is expected to release the final installment to the Sixth Assessment Report, the Synthesis Report, on 20 March. The report will inform the 2023 global stock take by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and guide the review of progress towards the Paris Agreement goals, including the goal of keeping global warming to well below 2°C while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. For more information, visit here.
The United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) is UN-Water’s flagship report on water and sanitation issues. The 2023 edition, Partnerships and Cooperation for Water, gives policy recommendations to decision makers by offering best practices and in-depth analyses. The report is published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on behalf of UN-Water.
This World Water Day is about accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis. Because water affects us all, we need everyone to take action. Take part in this year’s World Water Day campaign, led by UN-Water, which runs through World Water Day on 22 March 2023. Water is everyone’s business and individuals have a powerful role to play. One stone thrown in the water creates ripples that travel far and wide. Get inspired by the story of a hummingbird that fetched a few drops of water from a stream to put out a forest fire while all the other animals watched in disbelief. To cynical bystanders, she said: “I am doing what I can.” Visit the 2023 campaign website here.
To complement the UN 2023 Water Conference, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Republic of Tajikistan have joined forces with the New York City government to host New York Water Week. The week will feature workshops, high level discussions, hackathons and much more. Learn more and see how you can get engaged in New York Water Week here.
Coming Up
Water is a broad issue that cuts across the SDGs. Water is crucial to wildlife. Limited access to clean water is a life-and-death matter in the least developed countries. Women and girls are hit harder by the water crisis. Water is vital to managing forests. Water needs to be sustainably used and consumed. When we manage water well, it will help achieve sustainable development for all and everywhere.
World Wildlife Day (3 March)
Billions of people around the world benefit daily from the use of wild species for food, energy, materials, medicine, recreation, inspiration and many other vital contributions to human well-being. The accelerating global biodiversity crisis, with a million species of plants and animals facing extinction, threatens these contributions to people.
We need to change our relationship with nature, and we need to work together. This year’s World Wildlife Day celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)under the theme of “Partnerships for wildlife conservation“. Visit the World Wildlife Day 2023 website for more information.
LDC5 (5-9 March, Doha)
The world’s 46 least developed countries are in a race against time to deliver the SDGs by 2030. World leaders, businesses, civil society, young people and other partners will gather in Doha, Qatar from 5 to 9 March for the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5), a once-in-a-decade opportunity to accelerate sustainable development in the most vulnerable countries. The LDC5 Conference in Doha will seek to advance new ideas, raise new pledges of support, and spur delivery on agreed commitments, through the Doha Programme of Action that was adopted in March 2022.
For more information, visit the Conference website: https://www.un.org/ldc5/
International Women’s Day (8 March)
This year’s theme of the International Women’s Day is: “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality.” Annually observed on 8 March, the Day will be marked by a high-level event at 10:00-11:30 a.m. EST. The event will bring together technologists, innovators, entrepreneurs, and gender equality activists to provide an opportunity to highlight the role of all stakeholders in improving access to digital tools and be followed by a high-level panel discussion and musical performances.
For more information, read this article: International Women’s Day 2023: “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”
The Commission on the Status of Women (6-17 March)
Around this time of the year, the UN Headquarters complex bustles with diplomats and women’s rights activists who gather at one of the most important annual events for gender equality. The sixty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place from 6 to 17 March 2023, under the theme: “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls” as well as the review theme: “Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls.”
International Day of Forests (21 March)
The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day of Forests (IDF) in 2012. The Day celebrates and raises awareness of the importance of all types of forests. The theme for this year is “Forests and health.”
Join the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) at a high-level event to celebrate the International Day of Forests 2023, including the launch of the new FAO Tree Cities of the World award. The event will take place on 21 March 10 to 11:30 CET in Rome. Further details and event links can be found here.
International Day of Zero Waste (30 March)
The International Day of Zero Waste aims to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns and raise awareness about how zero-waste initiatives contribute to the advancement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The President of the United Nations General Assembly will convene a one-day high-level meeting on Zero Waste on Thursday, 30 March 2023 at 10 am EDT, in New York.
The meeting will provide a platform to exchange the experiences and success stories of Member States in developing and implementing solid waste management solutions and technologies. Additional details and resources will be available here.