PRESS BRIEFING ON FORTHCOMING UN REPORTS ON FRESHWATER RESOURCES AND CRITICAL TRENDS IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Press Briefing
PRESS BRIEFING ON FORTHCOMING UN REPORTS ON FRESHWATER RESOURCES AND CRITICAL TRENDS IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
19970121
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Maintaining freshwater resources was presently one of the most critical and principle elements of sustainability, Under-Secretary General for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development Nitin Desai told a Headquarters press briefing today as he introduced two forthcoming United Nations reports on global sustainable development issues.
The two reports -- "Comprehensive Assessment of the Freshwater Resources of the World" and "Global Change and Sustainable Development: Critical Trends" -- are the most recent in a series of United Nations studies prepared for the Commission on Sustainable Development's five-year review of progress achieved in sustainable development since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Earth Summit. The reports will also be considered by the special session of the General Assembly (23-27 June) to review and appraise the implementation of Agenda 21, the programme of action adopted by UNCED.
Mr. Desai said the report on freshwater resources was undertaken after the Commission on Sustainable Development agreed that the prospects for global freshwater supplies, in terms of water availability and water stress, were not very good, and that it would be necessary to make a thorough scientific assessment of the situation. The critical trends report focused on the trends in certain key variables and what they reported for the possibilities of sustainable development in the future. It was an attempt to see what were the consequences of a "trends-as-usual scenario". Both reports had been finalized and would be distributed in early February.
Mr. Desai then introduced Emily Matthews, of the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, to discuss the trends report; and Gunilla Bjorkman, of the Stockholm Environment Institute, and Pierre Najlis, of the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, to present the report on freshwater resources.
Ms. Matthews said the idea behind the trends report arose in reviewing progress since the Environment and Development Conference. The issues chosen were the key issues of sustainable development: economic growth, human development, human welfare, environmental sustainability, and the natural resources of soil and water. Using projections drawn from research institutes from around the world, as well as within the United Nations, the trends report projected what the world would look like if economic, social and environmental trends followed the same patterns that they had for the past 25 years.
The report showed that food projections and water projections did not come together, she continued. There was a disparity between the amount of water needed to produce the projected amount of food necessary, and projections of water availability, particularly in areas of greatest population concentration. Clearly there was a need to do something to avoid such situations, including growing more food in areas where it was viable and transporting to where it was not. The common theme that emerged in the report was that, based on the continuation of present trends, the situation did not look good. There were solutions, but they involved more and different actions than what were being taken now. Nothing was unavoidable, but additional efforts and forward planning were going to be essential.
Ms. Bjorkman said the report on freshwater resources had been initiated by the Swedish Government and the Commission on Sustainable Development in 1994. It had been a common effort made by the United Nations system, with Pierre Najlis as a key player, working together with the Stockholm Environment Institute. Contributions had also been made by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Health Organization (WHO), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the World Bank. Financial support was provided by the United Nations and by the Governments of Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark and Canada.
The report examined global freshwater resources in terms of food security, water security for drinking, watery supply and sanitation and water security for the environment, she said. In the future, it would be necessary to integrate water use issues into social and economic planning, and water needed to be discussed together with land issues. People needed to realize that water was not a free good and it should be treated as an economic good. The users of water also need to be examined. Everyone should have access to clean water, but everyone also had to use water responsibly. During the fifth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development and the Assembly's special session, it was hoped that Governments could adopt a strategy that all countries could adhere to and agree on policies to deal with water issues in the future.
Mr. Najlis said the report on freshwater resources presented a "rather bleak picture", but not necessarily a "doomsday scenario". The situation was serious, but the tools for correcting the situation were available now, and action was needed if the crisis was to be averted. Very often people thought of water resources as a local problem or, at most, a regional problem, but if the situation was not corrected, some of the problems that arose in the future might have global implications in terms of poverty, trade and water quality.
Freshwater Resources Briefing - 3 - 21 January 1997
He said the water quality situation was very serious in developing and developed countries, in terms of fresh resources and the impact that freshwater resources have on oceans. Eighty per cent of pollutants in the oceans came from land-based resources conveyed by water. In many large cities in developing countries, as much as 90 per cent of the untreated sewage was dumped into rivers or groundwaters, polluting rivers and groundwaters and, in some cases, causing irreversible damage. In many places in Europe and the Middle East, groundwaters were being utilized beyond sustainable development limits, and the end result could be that there would be sea water intrusion and irreversible damage.
Regarding food production, there were many areas in the world where countries might have to move away from self-sufficiency and use water resources to produce goods of higher value and import food from other places, he said. There were also strong global market implications. Concerning shared water resources, some of the approximately 300 international watercourses were so important that unless cooperation was implemented there was a potential for conflicts.
A correspondent asked if water was not a free good, were there concerns it could become a strategic asset? Ms. Bjorklund said that regarding shared water systems and river basins, there was a need for a means of developing systems to promote cooperation over water use. A section of the report, entitled "From Conflict to Cooperation", emphasized the need for cooperation in such circumstances.
Asked what actions should be taken at the sessions of the Commission and of the Assembly on global cooperation, Mr. Desai said until the present the focus had been on producing an agreement amongst countries on what constitutes a good water use management policy and what constitutes a good policy framework for encouraging regional cooperation in the use of water resources. Those were the types of issues that would be addressed in the Commission. One of the major questions before both sessions, he stressed, was "what's next"?
A correspondent asked if there would be an oversight group or regulatory body to protect the environment in the implementation of water usage policies. Mr. Najlis said that in terms of the environment, it was necessary to include the cost of environmental damage into the calculations of costs and benefits. Unfortunately, that had seldom, if ever, been done. Some countries might choose to accept some damage to the environment. With current levels of population growth, there was no such thing as leaving the environment pristine anymore. The issue was how countries were going to manage the affects to the environment.
Freshwater Resources Briefing - 4 - 21 January 1997
Asked why the panellists had not used the word "crisis" in their presentations, Mr. Desai said that the reports did not understate the nature of the problem. Today, one third of the population lived under water-stress conditions. The projection was that in 2025, two thirds of the world's population would suffer moderate to severe water stress. Water stress conditions would also affect many areas which were not thought of as water scarce areas today. A crisis would occur if governments did not respond, but the Sustainable Development Commission was working under the assumption that, on the basis of those facts, governments would take action.
The trends report is actually called "Critical Trends", Ms. Matthews said. The assumption behind the report was that there were potentially critical situations in a few areas. The word "potentially" was used because those crises could be averted, but it was a question of using government policies, private sector mechanisms and all available technology. If water supply, water quality, and conventional patterns of energy use all continued, they would bring about global and regional climate change and affect the health of hundreds of millions of people.
She also stressed that in 10 to 15 years, food scarcity would become more and more serious at the regional and local levels, and an increasing number of people would go hungry unless policies were changed. Those were the issues in which the continuation of current patterns, policy approaches, and levels of consumption and production would bring about a crisis.
Within the report and the executive summary the word crisis was not avoided, but the crisis could be averted if actions were taken, Ms. Bjorklund said. And governments and all water users must be involved in those actions.
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