On World Water Day, the UN calls for accelerating the progress toward achieving water and sanitation for all. The road to SDG 6 has become challenging: we must complete a fourfold increase in speed. But, with cooperation, we can overcome anything. Our experience confirms it: alone, we will not succeed; if we unite, obstacles become opportunities.

A sustainable world must meet current human needs without compromising those of future generations. Therefore, it is necessary to reflect on what we understand by these concepts, the meaning of which varies dramatically depending on the human group to which we refer. The contrasts in access to water provide a reasonable basis for this reflection, which is essential if we are to agree on what we mean by sustainability.

The world of water shows us that we must study problems and approach solutions from a global perspective. All human activities are closely interrelated, and isolated sectoral initiatives run a high risk of failure in terms of efficiency and sustainability.

At the eastern tip of the Horn of Africa, Somalia is struggling with an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Recurrent droughts and endemic violence plague the country and show the complexity of the challenge the international community must face.

COP15 on biodiversity has been the first in which the private sector has participated. It is a realistic and practical step forward that reverses the flow of pressure from citizens and companies to political power and promotes the understanding of natural capital as an irreplaceable value that must be preserved.

They have been our partners in evolution, and now they are under threat. Wetlands represent the subtle link between land and water, which is why they suffer the consequences of climate change, overexploitation, and pollution. They should be considered internationally as carbon sinks and crucial ecosystems for 40% of the world's biodiversity. They are the best sustainability advisors we have. 

International cooperation must not remain just a goal. Achieving effective global alliances is essential to confront the climate and humanitarian crises we are experiencing. We must move from declarations of good intentions to tangible and binding commitments. Civil society is responsible for mobilizing and pushing political and institutional power in this direction. This is especially evident in the problems of access to water and sanitation.

In recent years, severe droughts and heat waves have triggered a water crisis in the basin of the Euphrates, Syria's main river and the cradle of the first civilization in history. Its deterioration threatens the survival of a population exhausted by more than a decade of war in which lack of water has been used as a ruthless weapon.