Coinciding with the 6th World Water Forum, the Global Environment Facility has published a report highlighting some of the key results from two decades of support for countries collaborating in the management of transboundary freshwater basins and aquifers.
The report, Contributing to Global Security, features case studies showing how GEF support for innovative approaches has enabled participating countries to cooperate across different sectors and national borders to balance the competing uses of water resources. The report explores linkages in GEF-supported projects between water, food, energy and health security and describes GEF efforts in support of climate change adaptation in developing countries. In addition to the environmental and economic benefits, programs of this kind can play a critical role in fostering regional stability and security and conflict prevention.
“We are living in a period of rapid global change that is creating even more stress on water resources,” Monique Barbut, CEO and chairperson of the GEF, wrote in the foreword to the report. “Today about one billion people lack access to safe drinking water, a similar number are undernourished, and 2.6 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation. If we do not reform our wasteful use of water for growing food, 50 percent of global grain production will be at risk within a generation, leading to massive political instability and conflict.”
Stakeholder Involvement, Sustainable Financing
Opening a forum on transboundary water issues, Barbut noted the success of GEF-supported projects in conflict-driven regions such as the Balkans, with the Danube Basin project, and the Middle East, with an effort to protect fragile coral environments in the Gulf of Aqaba between Egypt, Israel and Jordan. She emphasized two key ingredients to success: the involvement of all sectors of society with a stake in shared water resources, and a sustainable international financing program to address transboundary water issues. To that end, Barbut announced that the GEF is committing to substantially contribute to at least double support for managing transboundary basins and aquifers compared to the past four years.
By their transboundary nature, these multi-country water resources represent international public goods that provide national water and food security, regional conflict mitigation, and the protection of important international ecosystems, the GEF report finds. Sustaining the many benefits that these complex water systems generate requires collective, multi-country cooperation toward a shared vision of action.
Successful Global Impacts
The report provides details on GEF-supported efforts across a wide variety of international water systems including the Danube River Basin in Central Europe, Africa’s Lake Victoria, the Senegal River, flood mitigation in Fiji, and a global program to address mercury pollution threats. The report points up the impact of climate shifts, population increases and global economic pressures on water supplies. But the foremost factor contributing to the bleak forecast for fresh water resources, the report notes, is the fact that many countries have not yet integrated water resources considerations into their strategies for agriculture, energy and other sectors of their economies.
The World Water Forum as brought together public and private stakeholders from around the world every three years since 1997 to develop a common framework of goals, targets and strategies for securing sustainable water resources. The 6th World Water Forum, meeting in Marseille, has set as its goal to elevate water on all political agendas.
The GEF strongly supports the Forum agenda, noting that integrated water resources management has been the subject of many conferences but few practical applications. During its first 20 years, the GEF has filled this gap by helping developing countries create the practical experience needed to build a truly cross-sector and ecosystem-based approach to the management of water resources.