The much-awaited UN World Water Conference ended on March 24, 2023, with, according to  the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, “An ambitious vision that would help in propelling us all towards a sustainable, equitable and inclusive water-secure future for people and planet alike. This conference demonstrated a central truth: as humanity’s most precious global common good, water unites us all, and it flows across a number of global challenges.”  

On March 20, 2023, two days before this UN conference, the first official report on the number of deaths due to drought in Somalia last year, reported that about 43,000 people had died due to drought in Somalia last year. About half of these deaths are of children under the age of five. 

It took 46 long years for the UN to organize this Water Conference in 2023, the first being held in 1977 in Mar de Plata, Argentina. Meanwhile water scarcity and water pollution has only worsened. This water availability got further challenged and strained by the impacts of climate change. Disease, hunger, death and migration has increased, and humans now have ‘forever chemicals’ which will never degrade flowing in their blood. 

Speaking at the inaugural event, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for game-changing commitments on water, the world’s most important resource. No words were minced. He stated that the world’s clean water supplies were in deep trouble due to humanity’s ‘vampiric’ overconsumption of life’s essential resource, as countries continued to drain humanity’s lifeblood. 

What emerged from the action agenda at the end of the Conference appeared to please all. Yet mention of the most fundamental of stakeholders and most effective of resources – the people themselves and their local and indigenous wisdom , which they put to good use while regenerating water resources and rejuvenating nature through their decentralised approaches was missing. Rain – the primary source of water for many and the need for robust groundwater and healthy rivers in ensuring sustained and equitable supply found no mention.

 

The Secretary General identified four areas to accelerate results and change: Closing the water management gap; massive investment in water and sanitation systems, focusing on water resilience and addressing climate change. The acknowledgement of the climate change and water linkage was welcome, even though it took 27 long years for the COP – COP 27 – to recognize water as key for ecosystem restoration and climate change adaptation. 

A few practical questions come to mind regarding the call for massive investment for creation of disaster-resilience infrastructure: Where is the water going to come from? Unless water sources are available and sustainable, no matter what the investment, the pipes will be dry as bone. Where is the money going to come from? The President of the General Assembly announced pledges worth Rs three billion, a welcome contribution. Where and for who will this money be spent? Will the most marginalised and impoverished be reached, given that scientists are acknowledging that the disasters due to climate change are occurring at frequency, scale and geographies beyond even their calculations? 

Parts of US, Europe and Australia continue to struggle with heatwaves, drought and flood, affecting their economies. Heatflation is now a recognized term, as soaring temperatures continue to affect production and therefore prices. When countries who can afford to give, have disasters occurring in their own backyard, will they open their purse strings for others? One can only hope that the money pledge comes through, and when it does it is used effectively and in places where it is needed the most. 

Drought devastates, destroys and kills 

The world today faces unprecedented drought and flood. Droughts are among the greatest threats to sustainable development, having increased by 29 percent since 2000, as compared to the two previous decades. More than 1.8 billion people living worldwide are at risk of severe floods: Most reside in low- and middle-income countries in Asia, and four out of 10 live in poverty. When more than 2.3 billion people already face water stress, this is a huge problem. 

Severe drought affects Africa more than any other continent: In the last 100 years, more than 200 drought events were recorded, accounting for 44 per cent of the global total. In 2022, large parts of East Africa suffered devastating floods after debilitating drought. In the same year, large parts of West Africa experienced large scale flooding, destroying infrastructure and agricultural fields. The World Bank and other groups have warned that climate change impacts are more intense in sub-Saharan Africa than other parts of the world. 

Rain refills, restores and rejuvenates

Barring the Atacama Desert in Chile, known as the driest place in the world, there is no region in the world where it does not rain. Arica city in this desert, the record holder for the longest dry spell – 173 months without a drop of rain in the early part of the 20th century, receives 0.08 cm of rain.

Drought is decentralised, affecting hamlets and villages and urban settlements. How quickly can all these people be reached? Rain is manna from heaven and is also decentralised. Rain recharges wells and groundwater aquifers. It maintains balance between ground and surface water. It cleanses water sources and adds flow to rivers. Unless the rain is ‘managed’ well, it can lead to both, drought and flood: It’s conservation help address drought and flood. 

The answer for equitable water security for all and for always lies in decentralised approaches, in catching the rain, slowing its flow and directing it for groundwater recharge. The Earth is wounded and in dire need of healing, for which nature needs to be rejuvenated. Water holds the key for nature rejuvenation.  Rain conservation leads to groundwater recharge and revival of rivers, increase in greenery and healthy forests. It leads to carbon sequestration and green economies d.  The communities live in peace and security. This nature rejuvenation lead to climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience, and water security. 

If the UN is really serious about the right to water and sanitation, it’s time that people were put at the centre of all efforts of water security. Or else the world will be left with superfluous infrastructure, no water, and desperate families who have no choice but to migrate, traffic their children, or worse still, bury their dehydrated and starving children as they trudge towards what they think are better situations. And sometimes also drown in the process.

In situ possibilities of nature healing are immense. It’s time to believe again in people, their inherent knowledge of their ecology and get ready, squaring up our shoulders for decentralised water conservation. 

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Views expressed above are the author's own.

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