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Add to Preferred SourcesUN-Habitat was one of the organizations that were active in the lead-up and the staging of a global convocation on water held recently in the United States. The UN 2023 Water Conference saw about 10,000 attend both in person and virtually to discuss issues around water- its availability and scarcity.
The New York parley was crucial in that it came at the mid-point in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Consequently, it was a watershed moment in the final push to achieve SDG 6 and other water-related development goals and targets.
The Conference had six Plenary Sessions and five Interactive Dialogues. UN-Habitat worked closely with UNDESA and the Conference Secretariat in the preparatory activities leading u the Conference.
The main highlight of UN-Habitat’s engagement at the Conference was the participation of the Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif as a panelist in Interactive Dialogue 2 “Water for Sustainable Development: Valuing Water, Water-Energy-Food Nexus and Sustainable Economic and Urban Development.”
Speaking here, the Executive Director stated: “As the world continues to urbanize, we must place water in the center of urban development to leverage water ecosystems, for healthy, resilient, and productive cities, where people live most.”
Projections show that the global urban population will increase to 68 percent of the total by 2050 and that 96 percent of the projected growth will occur in less developed regions of Asia and Africa, already home to some of the countries hard-pressed to provide adequate water and infrastructure to services to their inhabitants.
The bulging urban population means demand for water will increase and estimates show that 1.9 billion urban dwellers will live with seasonal shortages by 2050.
Climate change is another culprit affecting water availability and some 517 million urban dwellers in 530 cities are already exposed to diseases and lost livelihoods and destroying infrastructure. Climate change is also undermining the capacity of local governments to provide basic services to their citizens.
Also compounding the situation is the COVID-19 pandemic which has exposed and exacerbated underlying inequalities and vulnerabilities in cities. It has highlighted the essential role of water, sanitation, and hygiene in strengthening community preparedness, response, and recovery in slums and informal settlements where the lack of such services makes simple public health interventions such as regular washing of hands extremely difficult.
In response to these challenges, UN-Habitat and its partners have undertaken concrete actions to support member states in promoting sustainable urban development and limit the footprint that cities have on water quality and quantity.
UN-Habitat and its partners also convened 10 side events to share and discuss with member states, development partners, and various stakeholder groups, concrete solutions in cities and human settlements to address challenges and fill gaps in the attainment of SDG 6. The ‘Together We Walk app’ was developed with our Shelter Programme partner Arcadis to explore and experience the role of water in cities.
UN-Habitat collaborated with partners to draw up three concrete, transformative, and measurable commitments as a contribution to the Water Action Agenda, the main outcome of the Conference. These include Localising SDG 6- Transforming access to water by the strengthened capacity of those closest to water provision; Wastewater 2030: Striving for a circular economy in a climate-resilient world, and Global Report on Sanitation and Wastewater Management in Cities and Human Settlements.
As a follow-up to the Conference, UN-Habitat, together with the International Water Association and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will convene an event at the second session of the UN-Habitat Assembly to be held from 5 to 9 June 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya to discuss the outcome of the UN 2023 Water Conference and its implications on urban development.
The Executive Director summed it up all by stating: “Safe and affordable housing (SDG 11.1) is a basic human need that cannot be attained without access to basic services such as water and sanitation (SDG 6). These services are essential for maintaining a healthy, inclusive, and productive urban living environment in which people can thrive”.