InterAction Council, UNU-INWEH Launch Report on Global Water Crisis

The UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) and InterAction Council (IAC), along with the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, have published a report calling for the UN Security Council to take stronger action on water issues. “The Global Water Crisis: Addressing an Urgent Security Issue” presents the outcomes of a May 2011 meeting of IAC, and outlines steps in the Québec Declaration on the World Water Crisis, which resulted from that meeting.

Calling the water crisis one of this generation’s largest challenges, the report addresses a range of issues including: water impacts on energy security, water and environmental security; water and climate change; human development approaches to water security; water, sanitation, hygiene and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); water and food security; women’s participation in water security; and the human right to water. The report concludes that solving the global water crisis is possible.

The Québec Declaration of May 2011 calls for, inter alia: placing water at the forefront of the global political agenda; increasing investment in sanitation and access to water; supporting UN international water protocols; supporting ratification of the UN Watercourses Convention and development of draft articles on transboundary aquifers; discussing water security in the UN Security Council; improving hydrological monitoring and water systems assessment; and supporting conservation of freshwater ecosystems and ecosystem restoration.

The InterAction Council is a group of 40 former heads of state and government, co-Chaired by former Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chrétien and former Chancellor of Australia Franz Vranitzky.