We Are Water Foundation

Last October the conference titled "Water in the Green Economy in Practice: towards Rio +20" was held in Zaragoza, organised by the UN-Water Programme for Advocacy and Communication within the framework of the International Decade. The international meeting has become a part of the preparatory process for the next meeting of the Earth Summit Rio +20 – officially called the UN Conference on Sustained Development – which will take place in Rio de Janeiro, from the 4 – 6 of June 2012, and represents a continuation of those held during World Water Week 2011, held in Stockholm last August. (See newsletter of the 13 September 2011).

The summit of Rio de Janeiro is an initiative by the United Nations in the search for new sustainable solutions and for the commitment of states and the world community faced with the challenges of change that the 21st century poses. The summit will be held twenty years after the first historic summit in Río de Janeiro in 1992, which marked the requirements and philosophy of the United Nations in the field of sustainability, and ten years after that of Johannesburg in 2002. The main aim of this summit is to bring together all the efforts and initiatives of governments and international bodies to lay the foundations of what is called the Green Economy; as well as achieving economic growth with an improvement in justice and eliminating poverty without the deterioration of natural resources and the environment.

During the three days that the conference lasted in Zaragoza, more than 80 representatives from around the world explained, during the sessions and talks, their different experiences in implementing projects with the aim of finding practical solutions and proposals for the summit in Rio.

The aims of the Zaragoza conference have also had a special bearing on the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 17) held in Durban, South Africa, from the 28 November to the 9 December.

At this summit, which did not obtain conclusive results and which has represented a declaration of intent before tangible agreements in the coming years, presented a study drawn up by researchers from the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), with headquarters in Nepal, about the glaciers of the Himalayas, one of the most detailed and exhaustive produced until now.

The report mainly highlights the negative affect that climate change is having on the Himalayan region. The highest mountain range of the planet holds 30 per cent of the world's glaciers. And it is this region where the great rivers that flow across the entire continent spring from and which supply drinking water to more than 1,000 million people in Asia. According to the Nepalese institution, around 50,000 glaciers have been able to be located on a surface area of some 60 thousand square kilometres. After undertaking an exhaustive study on a dozen of them, Chinese researchers have proved that the glaciers are retreating above all in the centre and east of the Himalayas, with a reduction of approximately 20 per cent in Bhutan and Nepal in the last 30 years.

Water, the foundation of any progress

The Zaragoza conference constituted a valuable and exceptional opportunity for interaction and exchange of experiences in implementing projects among representatives of case studies from different parts of the world. One of the priority aims of the organisation was to configure and establish, through the documents and reports presented by their representatives, the base of the toolbox of what are called "tools for water" which will be presented next June in Rio.

Kenza Robinson, Senior Official of Sustainable Development in the UN-DESA, stresses a new focus of her organisation to move on from theory to practice, at a time when they must revise and adapt practices in search for new solutions starting from the shared and common work of all those involved. Robinson stated on closing the meeting: "Change occurs when people come together, as has occurred at this conference. Rio focuses on practice, it does not focus on theory ".

For the UN, the solution to the problems of water is the undeniable foundation of any progress in the green economy and this philosophy was clearly shown at the conference. The President of UN-Water, Zafar Adeel, closed the conference pointing out that "water is the driving force of the Green Economy" and that "we must ensure that both remain permanently connected".

In this sense, the President of UN-Water also identified, on summing up on the last day of the conference, other recommendations and key aspects for Rio +20: technology and innovation in questions of drinking water to achieve greater efficiency; the economic instruments, as one of the key aspects of the platform for the green economy; and the political commitment and policies of capacitation as something basic.

All those present were in agreement in that a really green economy is not possible without the eradication of poverty and without combating environmental degradation, in order to ensure and guarantee the access to services of water and basic sanitation. The speakers in Zaragoza also coincided in the necessity for an urgent transformation regarding current practices due to such rapid changes that have been taking place worldwide in recent years. On this question, the experts predict that, in 2030, the amount of water necessary for humanity will surpass the amount available by 40%.

The conference was a very important step forward to advance and specify practices of change, in the long and winding road towards Rio +20 and – as Josefina Maestu, Director of the UN-Water Programme for Advocacy and Communication within the framework of the International Decade (UNW-DPAC) - "we all have the shared responsibility of progressing towards a different economic model. We must not let this opportunity pass by".

The main challenges towards the Green Economy

For the Zaragoza Conference, the UN-Water Programme for Advocacy and Communication within the framework of the International Decade (UNW-DPAC) prepared a series of informative notes about the different questions and tools proposed.

The transition towards a green economy requires a change of direction as regards current practices. The UN-Water conference identified four priority questions relating to water in which change is necessary towards a green economy: agriculture, industry, cities and the hydrographic basins.

Agriculture: the problem of hydric stress and efficient irrigation

According to the experts, in general terms, human beings face a future of scarcity in food and raw materials that will affect an increasingly greater number of people all over the world.

Today, 70 per cent of the water taken from nature is used in agricultural production and it is this activity to which four out every ten people in the world dedicate their time. In 2011, 1,600 million people already live in areas affected by the physical scarcity of water, and the forecast for 2025 is that two thirds of the world population will live in regions of hydric stress.

Among the other alarming data provided by UN-Water is that if changes are not introduced into eating habits or the food chain and the productivity of the land and water is not improved, world consumption of water in agriculture will increase by between 70 and 90 per cent over the next 40 years.

Alexander Müller, Assistant Director-General of Natural Resources Management and Environment of the United Nations for Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) pointed out the importance of developing much more efficient irrigation systems, another of the great challenges that food security of the future is facing: "A lot needs to happen in terms of how we irrigate. Old, rigid systems of water distribution in large irrigation schemes will need to be replaced by much more flexible ones, offering more reliable water supply, and therefore allowing for progressive higher value crops diversification. In such modernised systems, drip irrigation will play an important role in boosting water use efficiency and productivity."

It is precisely in this context that the We Are Water Foundation works with the Vicente Ferrer Foundation for the installation of drip irrigation systems that will benefit the rural population of the state of Andhra Pradesh, in India.

This irrigation system is one of the most efficient methods for making the utmost of the water that the region receives during the rainy season. In this way, farmers will be able to conserve their own horticultural species, as well as save up to 75 per cent of water that will be able to be used to irrigate new farmed areas.

Industry: the danger of pollution

Industry, although it uses less water than agriculture, produces toxic waste that notably damages human health and deteriorates ecosystems. In this sense, as one of the palliatives to ensure that there is suitable and reasonable industrial growth, there will have to be a notable reduction in the use of water and waste per unit produced; and to achieve this, important technological, educational and institutional barriers must be overcome.

The data provided by experts are also reason for concern. Every year between 300 and 500 million tons of dissolved heavy metals, toxic sludge and other waste products are dumped. Moreover, the forecast is that global consumption of raw materials will triple and go from 50,000 to 160,000 million tons annually by 2050.

The reports of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) highlight, nevertheless, the controlled relation today between industrial development and water and warn of the danger of pollution, highlighting that industry and sustainable development must walk hand in hand, which is fundamental for progress. From an optimistic angle, the statistics presented at the conference show that industry is neither the biggest user of water nor the greatest polluter in terms of volume, although its effects may be and are very large at a regional and local scale.

Cities: achieving basic services

Today more than half the world's population live in cities and another of the challenges faced by the UN-Water and all those attending the conference is that no city is sustainable or can achieve a balanced coexistence if it does not have basic services of water and suitable sanitation. Although urbanisation is economic development, it can also be seen as stagnation and greater poverty since around the world 828 million people live in deprived neighbourhoods with basic needs lacking, as shown in World Water Week in Stockholm. (See newsletter of 13 September 2011). For this reason, the green economy proposes the construction of sustainable, prosperous and equitable cities.

In this respect, Joan Clos, Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), stated: "The central tenet of the green economy is that environmental sustainability and economic growth can develop harmoniously. Cities are crucial to leveraging this mutually-supportive opportunity by reducing the spatial footprint of development and allowing for shared infrastructure which itself reduces emissions and resource use."

Hydrographic basins: the recovery of the aquifers

The Zaragoza conference highlighted that people's wellbeing depends closely on the good state of freshwater ecosystems, but the current development and production models are unsustainable due to the overexploitation of the aquifers and rivers, as well as environmental degradation and loss of wetlands.

The experts highlighted that a transition is needed towards a green economy that enables finding and recovering the balance lost between natural capital and the capital manufactured by man, taking into account that less than 3 per cent of the planet's water is freshwater and the rest is undrinkable seawater.

The importance of sustainable development from the ecological point of view was underlined by Gretchen Kalonji, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences of UNESCO: "Our common efforts should lead to building green societies based on a global culture of sustainability and the efficient management of our scarce water resources. Measuring our ecological footprint is an indispensable foundation of green societies, upon which the green economy must be based."

About the We Are Water Foundation

The We Are Water Foundation, promoted by the Roca company, aims, on the one hand, to raise awareness among the general public and administrations about the need to encourage a new culture of water in the world and, on the other hand, alleviate the negative effects related to the lack of hydric resources, through the development of projects of cooperation and support together with diverse organisations such as Education without Frontiers, the Vicente Ferrer Foundation, Intermon Oxfam and UNICEF.