Major City Networks Partner for a Water-Secure World

According to the United Nations World Health Organization, over half of the world’s population now lives in cities and this figure will continue to grow, especially in less developed regions. Therefore, delivering safe water and sanitation in cities will be key to securing sustainability for human, economic and environmental prosperity in the future.

On Tuesday, 28 October, six organizations joined forces to tackle this issue. Through the signature of a Partnership Agreement, UN-Habitat’s Global Water Operators’ Partnership Alliance, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, United Cities and Local Governments, the Daegu Gyeongbuk Development Institute, the National Committee for the 7th World Water Forum and the World Water Council committed to work together to address the important role that local and regional authorities and operators play in managing and providing water and sanitation for their populations while safeguarding water resources and to support cities in rising to this challenge.

This Partnership Agreement will serve as an important stepping stone for the preparation and organization of the Local and Regional Authorities Conference of the 7th World Water Forum, which will take place 12-17 April 2015 in Daegu-Gyeongbuk, Republic of Korea and towards the Habitat III conference on housing and sustainable urban development in 2016. The partnership with these key players will allow for greater mobilization of local and regional authorities and water operators and will help make their voices heard in the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The objectives of this partnership include: 

• To propose a roadmap for local and regional authorities to reach quantitative and qualitative objectives for water and sanitation, with the Istanbul Water Consensus;
• To support cities world-wide in their commitments to facilitate access to basic services; 
• To promote the definition and the implementation of local water policies.