António Guterres told the UN Security Council on 23 September that conflicts may arise as climate changes affect access to clean water throughout the globe.

Ahead of COP26 to be held in Glasgow in November and calling on G20 countries to take the lead, the Portuguese Secretary-General painted a grim portrait of the water access throughout the globe.

He said: “In the Middle East and North Africa, which are among the world’s most water-stressed and climate‑vulnerable regions, a major decline in precipitation and a rise in extreme weather events is harming water and food security.”.

Pointing out the COVID-19 pandemic as a factor that has hindered governments’ ability to act, Guterres highlighted some crucial priorities.

The first item is to cap global warming at 1.5°C, which means a 45 Percent reduction of global emissions by 2030.

He then called out for developed countries to pledge to $100 Billion USD to go towards developing countries’ efforts to adapt to current and future impacts of climate change. He said: “We simply cannot achieve our shared climate goals — nor achieve hope for lasting peace and security — if resilience and adaptation continue to be the forgotten half of the climate equation.”.

Thirdly, Guterres pointed out the importance of interconnecting climate adaptation and peacebuilding, stressing that improving access to water, in particular, can be a factor contributing to peace: “And as climate change is impacting water resources worldwide, we must leverage water for peace, drawing lessons from the past.”.

Lastly, the Secretary-General mentioned the important role to be played by women in leadership positions as they also face severe risks from climate change and conflicts.

After ten years of conflict in Syria, water supplies are severely compromised, with only 50 Percent of water and sanitation systems currently functioning properly, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Infrastructure has been destroyed through the direct impact of war, power generation capacity is reduced by 60-70 Percent, and in some areas water utilities have lost 30-40 Percent of their technical staff.

Water quality has also been affected negatively: even in areas where physical water supplies are accessible, this water is sometimes contaminated. The wastewater treatment plants of Damascus and Aleppo have been incapacitated since 2012, releasing untreated wastewater directly into the environment and contaminating groundwater resources.

In response, the ICRC has implemented thousands of projects to address the water shortages as well as to support of local service providers. During the first half of 2021, the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent implemented hundreds of projects, rehabilitating infrastructure and reconnecting an estimated 15 million people in areas most affected by conflict.

Throughout the last decade, relief organisations have played a major role in the rehabilitation of infrastructure.  A nationwide assessment of water and sanitation facilities by UNICEF in 2013 reported that water supplies had dropped to one third of pre-crisis levels. The current assessment by ICRC estimates that, currently, water supplies are 40 Percent below pre-crisis levels.

The delivery effort is being hampered by funding shortages, drought and low water levels.

In northern Syria, humanitarian organisations have often resorted to trucking water in to places of need, but the reduction in funding for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) activities over the past year, has led relief organisations to cancel water trucking operations to refugee camps. As a result, there has been a rapid increase in the prevalence of waterborne diseases since June, including the spread of diarrhoea in refugee camps.

Since the autumn of 2020, Syria has experienced exceptionally low rainfall. In the same period, there has been a drop in the flows of water in the Euphrates River from Turkey, reducing the power production capacity of the Tishreen and Tabqa dams, both of which are significant water reservoirs in Syria as well as sources of hydroelectric power.

Following the murder of 219 environmental activists in 2019, 2020 is again a record year for violence against activists seeking to protect the environment, with 227 lethal attacks.

In September 2021, the UK-registered NGO, Global Witness, released its report entitled “The Last Line of Defence”, which is the result of an in-depth investigation by the organisation into threats against environmental defenders.

The report details a broad range of threats against activists, including criminalisation, intimidation, surveillance and sexual violence. Environmental defenders are defined by the United Nations as “individuals and groups who, in their personal or professional capacity and in a peaceful manner, strive to protect and promote human rights relating to the environment including land, water and air”.  Environmental defenders remain highly vulnerable across the world and have been facing increasing attacks over the course of past decade.

Global Witness  (GW) has conducted research into this area since 2012, resulting in what has now become an annual report. The cases of killings are identified by searching and reviewing what GW considers to be reliable sources of publicly available information which is corroborated where possible through contacts with in-country partners. Individual cases need to meet certain criteria in order to be registered such as biographical information on the victim, the nature of the incident and the type of violence involved and its clear linkage to a local or proximate environmental issue.

In 2019 UN Environment released its first global report on the Environmental Rule of Law, which found that despite a 38-fold increase in environment laws enacted since the first global environmental conference in Stockholm in 1972, failure to implement these laws is one of the greatest challenges to mitigating climate change, preventing pollution and preventing land degradation and the loss of biodiversity.         

Live Stream / Recorded Occasion, Geneva Press Club, Switzerland. With the Geneva Water Hub and "Geneva Solutions". Watch Here!

On September 21, World Peace Day, global and African insights into water diplomacy were presented at an event hosted by Geneva Solutions, the Geneva Press Club and the Geneva Water Hub. 

Michael Møller, formerly head of the United Nations in Geneva, underlined the existential stakes of water security, arguing that water has allowed civilisations to flourish and others to collapse. Moller pointed out water is integral to the primary work themes of the United Nations, i.e. peace and security, human rights and development. 

The transboundary and shared nature of freshwater resources involves the risk that freshwater becomes an element in interstate conflicts in which warring parties seek to control of dams, dykes and other forms of infrastructure, while the activities of extractive industries are a common cause of local protests. Armed conflicts themselves affect access to clean water through direct attacks on infrastructure or pollution of water resources. 

Nevertheless, water is also the source of cooperation and confidence building: since the establishment of the United Nations, more than 200 water treaties have been negotiated across the world. Furthermore, the human rights to water and sanitation have been recognised by the United Nations as rights that are not merely aspirational but create obligations for states to refrain from actions that negatively impact on water resources including through pollution, overextraction and depletion of water resources. 

Water is also a sustainable development goal in its own right, a sine qua non for all other SDGs and a key to building resilience to climate change. Panelist Patrick Youssef from the International Committee of the Red Cross  (ICRC) emphasised the disruption of social fabric in situations of armed conflict. The collapse of public services disables mechanisms of social justice and leads to unregulated competition over access to water; all compounded by the effects of climate.

In situations of conflict, denial of access to humanitarian services and physical attacks on water infrastructure have been used as leverage to pressurise local populations. Boubacar Barry, expert in charge of Water and Rural Development at the 9th World Water Forum, emphasised the fact that both peace and development feature in the title of the upcoming World Water Forum in Dakar, Senegal, i.e. ‘water security for peace and development’. 

He argued that looking at peace requires a focus on development: water security depends on domestic supply and is required for economic development. Among the reasons that Senegal was selected to host the World Water Forum is that it has proven that water diplomacy can work: despite conflicts between Senegal and Mauritania, cooperation on water between Senegal, Mauritania and Mali continue to exist, and the basin states wish to show the world that despite differences it is possible to cooperate around water. 

Specifically, in Sahel region, water scarcity is economic in nature rather than physical, i.e. it is the costs of building water infrastructure rather than the absolute scarcity of water that is the primary obstacle to water security in the region. Jean Bosco Bazie, President of Eau Vive Internationale, underlined the importance of local actors in strengthening the values inherent in local village culture which is centred around access to water points. In partnership with the Geneva Water Hub, Eau Vive has facilitated dialogues with local actors from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to explore local solutions, which emphasise the role of local communities and water user associations. 

Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Mauritania have signed a joint declaration to advance transboundary cooperation on the shared use of the Senegal-Mauritanian Aquifer Basin (SMAB).

The 19 September declaration was signed at the Palace of Nations in Geneva during the 9th session of the meeting of parties to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Helsinki Convention) hosted by UNECE.

In terms of the agreement, a permanent mechanism will be established for the cooperative management of the aquifer system, including both a legal and an institutional framework for cooperation. The work of the four countries has been supported since 2019 by United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Geneva Water Hub, the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre.

The work of the four countries has included a continuous dialogue with the Organisation for the Development of the Gambia River (OMVG) and the Organisation for the Development of the Organisation for the Development of the Gambia River (OMVG) and the Organisation for the Development of the Senegal River (OMVS).

Switzerland has been accepted as a neutral facilitator in the dialogue, having launched the "Blue Peace Initiative" in 2010, supporting stakeholders to come together to invest in shared water resources to promote peace. It includes the launching of the Global High-Level Panel on Water and Peace and the Global Observatory on Water and Peace, of which the Geneva Water Hub is the Secretariat.

In West Africa, a Regional Working Group has been operational since May 2020, preparing the ground for the agreement on the SMAB, meeting regularly and supported by situation assessments on data and existing implementation capacity. The SMAB agreement also builds on years of existing transboundary cooperation between the countries on surface waters through the OMVG and the OMVS.

The SMAB covers an area of some 335 000 km ², underlying much of the territory of Senegal, Guinea Bissau and Mauritania as well as the whole territory of the Gambia. Some 15 million people - 80 Percent of the population of the countries involved – depend on groundwater for their livelihoods and domestic needs.

The cooperative agreement on the SMAB is the first in West Africa and one of only seven transboundary agreements in the world that are focused on subterranean water resources. There are some 200 international agreements in existence on the shared use of transboundary waters, but most of these are primarily focused on the sharing of surface water resources.

The United Nations Security Council released a statement 15 September urging Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to resume talks over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The negotiations had been taking place under the auspices of the African Union (AU).

This follows an earlier meeting of the Security Council dedicated to the GERD that had taken place in July. Egypt and Sudan had requested the Security Council to table the matter as the African Union had so far failed to resolve the crisis. However, the Security Council stressed the need for the three countries to continue talks under AU auspices.

In August, Algeria responded positively to an Ethiopian invitation to help break the deadlock in negotiations between the countries. Algeria is seen to be an important country in the region which has good relations with all three disputing states as well as with the European Union.

Tensions had escalated over the dam in July, when Ethiopia announced the second filling of the dam, while Egypt and Sudan took the position that a binding agreement should be reached on the dam before it being filled. Ethiopia has defended the filling of the dam on the basis of the right to development as enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Upon completion the dam is expected to significantly boost Ethiopia’s power generation capacity, providing up to 16 TWH in reliable energy for itself as well as neighbouring countries. Egypt and Sudan however have argued that the human right to water, which is based on the right to life itself as well as the right to health, takes precedence over the right to development.

A study published in Nature Communications in October 2020 indicated that once the GERD had been filled there is a possibility that the average annual outflow will be equal to the average annual inflow and that under these conditions Egypt will not suffer water deficits, while Sudan could benefit from reduced flood risk. 

However, the outflow will be reduced significantly during the second filling period, and once the dam is filled, future outflows depend on rainfall conditions, which may be influenced by the effects of climate change. Furthermore, the outflow after filling will be in part determined by power generation, which is dependent on the development of a regional power grid.

In August, Sudan presented a formal request to Ethiopia to purchase 1000 MW of power, although it is not specified whether this power is to be sourced from the GERD. The GERD is the second major dam to be built on the Nile following the construction of the High Aswan Dam in Aswan, Egypt in the 1960’s. The Nile therefore has two major dams, each of which have the capacity to store the annual flow of the Nile river, without an agreement on water sharing or reservoir operation yet being in place.  

The Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are suffering economic damage and unrealised benefits in water and energy of up to $4.5 billion USD due to inefficiencies and a lack of transboundary cooperation, according to a report by the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB).

Preliminary estimates indicate the region could add $22 billion USD (7 Percent) to its GDP over five years "by remedying inefficiencies in the water and energy complex".

With the region dependent upon the dwindling resources of the Aral Sea, which has been massively depleted by over-irrigation and increased evaporation caused by climate change, the report addresses the need for investment in water and energy as well as an urgent requirement for the five republics to establish efficient interstate water regulation.

It identifies "substantial development needs" in water and energy infrastructure of at least $90 billion USD from 2021-2030, which is far in excess of current estimates of $52.8 Billion in investment proposals.

Stressing the need to strengthen trade and economic ties among the countries, the report also notes that solving the problem of shared transboundary water resources will be critical to securing economic development in the region as a whole, and cannot be regarded separately from country-specific development models.

The combined effects of mismanagement, population growth and climate change mean the population has water resources amounting to 1,405 m3 per person per year - below the internationally recognised stress threshold of 1,700.

Analysts predict that a moderate development scenario could move the region closer to the "scarcity" threshold of 1,000 m3 by 2050, and conclude that achievement of the region's sustainable socio-economic development goals will be largely dependent on the state of water resources.

"The key challenges in Central Asia’s water and energy complex will be associated with the growing scarcity of water resources, said Evgeny Vinokurov, EDB's chief economist. "Water use in Central Asia is growing rapidly, driven both by demographic factors and by the development of manufacturing and agriculture, primarily increased irrigation,” he added.

Since gaining independence from the former Soviet Union 30 years ago, the republics' combined population has grown by one third from 54.3 million to 72.4 million, with growth projected to continue to 81.6 million by 2030 and 90 million by 2050.

Photo credit: Aral Sea as photographed by NASA in 1989 and again 2014 

Collage by Producercunningham. - 1989: aral sea 1989 250mFile:Aralsea tmo 2014231 lrg.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35813435

Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta declared the drought affecting various parts of the country a national disaster on 8 September.

In August, the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) has estimated that some 2.1 million Kenyans would face acute food shortages following poor performance of both the October-December 2020 short rains and the March-May 2021 long rains. The NDMA also predicted that the population would be in need of assistance during the coming six months, and that the population in need of assistance had increased by 70 Percent since February this year.

The drought has affected 23 of Kenya’s 47 recently established counties, located predominantly in the north, north-east, and coastal parts of the country. The NDMA has predicted that the number of people facing acute food shortages could climb to 2.4 million in the period from October to December if, as predicted, the country’s short rain period will experience lower than average rainfall. Counties facing the risk of severe exposure to drought are Baringo, Kajiado, Kwale, Laikipia, Lamu, Makueni, Meru, Taita Taveta and Tharaka Nithi and West Pokot.

According to the Kenya Red Cross, the drought can be expected to have an especially disastrous impact as it follows flash floods in many of the same counties in April 2020 and swarms of locusts in the same year that had been the worst seen in Kenya in 70 years. Producers in these areas have had little opportunity to recover, despite the Kenyan government having declared in April this year that it had managed to contain the locust invasion.

Production of maize, the country’s staple crop, is projected to decline by 50 Percent in the affected regions, and urban areas are projected to face higher food prices as a result of the diminished production. The Kenya Red Cross launched a drought response operation in the country in August, aiming to deliver humanitarian assistance to 500,000 people (100,000 households) over a period of 18 months. 

Following the declaration of a national disaster by the State President, the National Treasury and the Ministry of the Interior and Coordination of National Government will spearhead government responses which will include water and food relief distribution as well as livestock uptake.               

An estimated 9 out of 10 children in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are living in areas with high or extremely high water stress, according to a new UNICEF report.

“Running dry: the impact of water scarcity on children in the Middle East and North Africa” analyses both the drivers of water scarcity in the region and the impacts on children. Eleven of the 17 most water stressed countries in the world are located in the MENA region. An estimated 66 million people in the region lack access to safely managed sanitation, with untreated or partially treated wastewater also contaminating already limited water resources. There is insufficient water supply relative to demand and the direct impacts include limited access to safe drinking water and/or water for personal and domestic hygiene.

80% of all diseases are water-related and access to safely managed water and sanitation is crucial.  Regular exposure to harmful bacteria and viruses results most often typically in diarrhoea. Regular bouts of diarrhoea in children can lead to malnutrition as the absorption of water and key minerals into the body is inhibited. 

The MENA region is home to some 6 Percent of the world’s population, but the region holds only 1.4 Percent of the world’s freshwater. Agriculture accounts for a high proportion of water demand: currently 80 Percent of current water utilisation in the MENA region is for agriculture, considerably higher than the global average of 70 Percent. In many countries in the region, groundwater is being used above the natural rate of recharge, i.e. water is being used at unsustainable rates. Population growth has also contributed to increasing water demand in the region, particularly in towns and cities, where water demand is highly concentrated geographically.

In most MENA countries, per capita water availability has declined to less than 33 Percent of the water available in the 1970’s as a result of population growth: from an average for the region of 2400m³/c/a in 1970 to 700 m³/c/a currently.  Many countries in the MENA region are dependent on transboundary waters: 60 Percent of the water resources of the region originate from outside the region. Several countries, especially Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria, are dependent on large quantities of surface water from upstream countries and have been affected by dam building by upstream states as well as by the effects of climate change.                     

Intense rainfall and rising water levels of Lake Tanganyika and its principal tributary, the Rusizi River, has led to the recent displacement of an estimated 103,305 people in Gatumba and Bujumbura towns in Burundi.

The number of displaced people has risen since June, at which time an estimated 50,000 people had been forced to move as a result of the floods. The Burundi Red Cross and the UN’s International Office for Migration (IOM) estimates that 84% of internal displacements in Burundi are caused by natural disasters. Data collected by the IOM show a rapid increase in internal displacements since 2017, most of which originate from provinces adjacent to Lake Tanganyika such as Bujumbura town, Bujumbura rural and Rumonge. Lake Tanganyika has risen more than 4 metres above its average level, inundating homes and farms in the process.

According to Save the Children Fund, climate shocks are now replacing conflict as the main source of displacement in Burundi as peaceful elections took place in the country in 2020, bringing relative stability. However, in the course of the past five years there has been a rapid increase in the frequency of floods, storms and landslides, and over the past three years all displacements have been related to natural disasters. Save the Children is calling on the international community to help fund the humanitarian response, where an estimated 2.8 million people are in need of assistance, of which nearly 1.3 million are children. Burundi’s humanitarian response plan is currently only 15% funded, leaving gaps in the provision of essentials such as food, water and shelter.                 

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has released a new report that offers an overview of the key drivers and pressures at the heart of water management challenges throughout the continent. These issues put many European water bodies at risk of not achieving key environmental objectives.

By identifying the challenges at the European level, it is believed that key issues can be prioritised at the country and local level.

Problems include pollution from urban and industrial waste water, different and diffuse pollution from agriculture, and pollution from mining and dwellings that are not connected to a sewage system. It is estimated that about 22 Percent of Europe’s surface water bodies and 28 percent of the groundwater area are significantly affected by diffuse pollution from agriculture, both by nutrients and pesticides.

Additionally, about 34 Percent of surface water bodies are significantly affected by structural changes, such as stabilization of the river channels, development of water storage and hydropower, implementation of flood protection, or irrigation. Such structural changes affect river course and flow, which can have a major impact on the river and floodplain biodiversity. There are many different types of barriers, but it is estimated that for about 40 Percent of affected water bodies the purpose of the barriers is unclear.

The report warns that water scarcity and drought events are an increasing problem in many areas of Europe. An estimated 6 Percent of Europe’s surface water bodies and 17 Percent of the groundwater area are significantly affected by water abstraction, mainly linked to agriculture, public water supply and industry.

The EEA report “Drivers of and pressures arising from selected key water management challenges — A European overview” shows that a broad range of measures are already available to improve the state of Europe’s water bodies. The research posits that water retention measures, nature-based solutions and land use change measures offer multiple benefits.

Finally, the research suggests that better and more coherent implementation of the existing legislation — including the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, the Floods Directive, and the Water Framework Directive — would reduce key pressures on water. The EEA calls on all water-using sectors, such as agriculture, energy, mining, aquaculture and navigation, to adopt management practices that can keep water ecosystems healthy and resilient.

In new research scientists at MIT have demonstrated the possibility of selective, continuous and cost-effective removal of lead from water, a long-standing and elusive goal in environmental engineering, due to the toxic nature of heavy metal contaminants in drinking water.

The use of lead pipes in plumbing has been phased out in most countries since the 1960’s, but lead piping has not been replaced everywhere, and in some countries lead contamination is a feature of drinking water supplies.

Recently controversies have arisen in the United States over water infrastructure that has reached or surpassed its lifespan. Most notably in Flint, Michigan, a water quality crisis emerged when it was identified that children had high levels of lead in their blood as a result of inadequate water sourcing and treatment.

US national water quality standards prescribe maximum levels of lead in drinking water to protect public health, which is often achieved through relatively costly techniques such as reverse osmosis. These techniques are effective but are not selective, also removing elements such as magnesium and sodium which are naturally present in healthy mineral water.

The new research has demonstrated the feasibility of selectively removing lead from contaminated water while only partly removing sodium. The results were achieved by producing an electric shockwave through porous material containing the water, and then separating the pure water from the brine. The process has been shown to remove 95 Percent of dissolved lead in the sample water, reducing concentrations to safe levels below 1 part per billion.      

It is expected that further research will be needed to enable the scaling up of the technology from laboratory conditions to its application in water treatment facilities.

A special report released by the European Court of Auditors released 28 September has concluded that current EU policies are unable to ensure sustainable water use in agriculture.

The terms of the Water Framework Directive from 2000 call for member states to ensure a ‘good’ status for water quantity by 2027. This is interpreted to mean that groundwater abstractions should not lead to the lowering of groundwater levels to the point at which the status of ‘good’ water quantity is no longer achieved. However, despite some improvements, the water quantity status of 9 Prcent of the EU’s groundwater was judged as ‘poor’ in 2015.  Agricultural water use has decreased by 28 Percent since 1990, but the current pressures are still unsustainably high.

The report argues that existing agriculture policies both at European and at member state level are not consistently aligned with the water policy. Existing systems for authorising water abstraction and water pricing mechanisms contain many exemptions for agricultural water use.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU mentions the sustainable use of natural resources - including water - as a key objective, and a large part of the CAP budget is devoted to direct payments, which include greening payments. However, few CAP payment schemes link agricultural payments to strong sustainable water use requirements.

Water stress is projected to increase in the coming decade, especially along the Mediterranean and in eastern parts of the EU. In Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Malta and Spain in particular, more than 40 Percent of both surface and subterranean water bodies are under significant pressure from agricultural water abstraction.

Additionally, in terms of the Water Framework Directive, member states should adopt water pricing policies that incentivise efficient water use and ensure adequate cost recovery for water services from the various users (including farmers). However, the report found that many Member States do not apply the principle of cost recovery for water services in agriculture in the same way as they do in other sectors.

The Court of Auditors has recommended to the European Commission that it should request member states to justify the exemptions extended to agriculture in the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. It also recommends that payments in the context of the Common Agricultural Policy should be tied to compliance with environmental standards. Lastly, it recommended that EU funds be used to improve  the quantitative status of the EU’s water bodies.     

For the first time since 1997, Shoal Lake 40, a First Nation’s community on the shores of Shoal Lake Canada, obtained a treated water supply on 15th September. This ends the community’s boil water advisory in place since 1997 and reduces the reliance on bottled water. Following the construction of a road linking the community to the trans-Canada highway system in 2019, the construction of a $25.6 Million USD water treatment facility has been completed.

The isolated location of many of Canada’s indigenous communities has presented logistical challenges to the provision of safely managed drinking water, and many communities have faced the risks associated with pathogens and chemical contaminants in their water sources.

In 2015, Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau included a pledge to provide safely managed drinking water to more than 100 indigenous communities in his electoral campaign. Once elected, Trudeau’s government allocated more than $1.6 Billion USD to the provision of water to communities with long term water advisories. This resulted in a rapid rollout of infrastructure and the increase in the lifting of advisories from 4 communities in 2015 to 38 in 2018.

In 2021, so far, 11 advisories have been lifted. However, ageing infrastructure, flooding and intermittent problems with water treatment has led to an average of 9 advisories being added every year since 2015. Several indigenous communities have united to file national level class action lawsuits against the government of Canada for its failure to address long term drinking water advisories. This included all members of First Nations whose communities had been subject to a drinking water advisory for longer than one calendar year since November 1995. In July 2021, the Canadian government agreed to settle, pending court approval, on terms that include compensation for the costs of purchasing drinking water and the allocation of extra funds to the rollout or upgrading of water supply infrastructure in reserves.               

The United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced that the country is providing $290 Million USD to help Yemen tackle its humanitarian crisis.

This adds to a total of nearly $4 Billion USD aid funded by the US since 2014 and goes towards helping 20 million Yemen nationals having access to clean water, food, health, sanitation and education.

IN September  the UN’s International Rescue Committee (IRC) urged countries to commit to further finance Yemen relief, a programme that is only 50 Percent funded but upon which 70 Percent of Yemenis rely.

According to the organisation, areas such as water and sanitation, healthcare or education are being affected by the nearly decade-long conflict involving the region’s two major powers: Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Tamuna Sabadze, Yemen Country Director at the International Rescue Committee said: “The cost of underfunding this year is clear. Fifteen million Yemenis do not have access to safe water and sanitation and require assistance, but the water, sanitation and hygiene sector is funded at less than 10 Percent. Clean water is even more important today to stop outbreaks of COVID-19 and other diseases such as cholera which wreaked havoc on Yemen’s already fragile health system.”

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres has also exhorted countries to fully commit to climate change action pointing out that in areas like the Middle-East, one of the world’s most water-stressed regions, “a major decline in precipitation and a rise in extreme weather events is harming water and food security” and this, in turn, overlaps and fuels existing conflicts.

Water and electricity shortages in the country are also causing further conflict in the country and earlier this month, three demonstrators were killed as violent protests emerged throughout the country fuelled by Yemenis rallying against lack of access to clean water, electricity and a growing employment crisis.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced its support for nuclear remediation works in Min-Kush in the Kyrgyz Republic. Min Kush is one of three sites in the Kyrgyz Republic with a legacy of uranium production in the Soviet era which has contaminated land and water in the region.

There is an urgency to the clean-up operations, as local streams feed into the Syr Darya River, which runs through the Ferghana Valley, and agricultural heartland. Similarly, there is the risk of contaminated mine water coming into contact with and polluting groundwater. Political tensions have existed between countries in Central Asia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which have included water disputes between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as problems related to mining waste in the Ferghana Valley between Kyrgyz Republic and downstream Uzbekistan.

These issues featured at a high-level meeting between the countries in Astana in 2018. The clean-up efforts in Kyrgyzstan are well underway and the aim is to complete them in the third quarter of 2021. The efforts are being funded by the Environmental Remediation Account for Central Asia, which pools donor funds from the European Union, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland and the United States to help the Kyrgyz republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to remediate their most urgent uranium legacies.

The fund was established in 2015 by the European Commission and became operational in 2016. In May 2021, a contract was signed for remediation works in Shekaftar in the Kyrgyz Republic. The mining complex in question includes three closed mines and eight mining waste disposal areas containing approximately 700,000 m³ of waste. A number of waste dumps are located in the vicinity of a village and a school. A joint mission of the European Commission and The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to the Kyrgyz Republic took place in 2017, and it was established that urgent measures were required in three locations: Mailuu-Suu, Min-Kush and Shekaftar.        

In the context of Africa Climate Week 2021, NGO WaterAid has advocated in favour of placing water at the centre of African climate policies.

In a statement issued by WaterAid Nigeria, the organisation highlighted the role of access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in improving public health, reducing environmental degradation, enabling economic development and responsiveness to climate emergencies. WaterAid pointed out that while the entire African continent contributes only 4 Percent to global emissions, it is home to 33 of the 50 countries that are the most vulnerable to climate change.

The agency further argued that the linkage between climate and water is a prominent feature of the 6th assessment report of the International Panel on Climate Change. The global water cycle is expected to intensify, resulting in greater variability of precipitation and surface water flows and higher intensity floods and droughts.  Urgent action is required to tackle the effects of climate change through access to water such as flooding, drought, unpredictable weather and salinisation due to rising sea levels. 

The WaterAid statement built on its report published in July this year entitled: ”Mission-critical: Invest in water sanitation and hygiene for a healthy and green economic recovery”. The report argued that in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and increasing risks from climate change, it is important to review investments in WASH. It calculated that long term investments in upgrading WASH facilities could yield between $ 37-86 Billion USD in economic benefits and avoid 6 billion cases of diarrhoea annually.

Columbia University researcher Harry Verhoeven confirms that Africa is at the centre of the global water predicament and climate upheaval, with limited sanitation infrastructure and with a very large proportion of the rural population engaged in weather dependent employment. However, Verhoeven warns that there is no direct relationship between investment in infrastructure and increased climate resilience.

Importantly, Verhoeven argues that access to water is also determined by the ways in which access to water is represented in local social exchanges and political participation. The ways in which local institutions respond to climate and water crises is not only affected by investments, but also strongly by local cultural, social and political dynamics. These may lead to increased resilience or even to reduced climate resilience, depending on the influence of these factors.               

An upcoming publication in the November issue of the Journal of Hydrology proposes a new model for water diplomacy which can be applied to different settings in a four-step process and posits that the increasing scarcity of freshwater, the impacts of climate change and an increasing disregard for international agreements usher in the necessity of new kinds of diplomacy.

The new research has applied a mixture of methods developed over the past three years including in depth literature review, expert interviews and focus group discussions. From this, the researchers distilled five aspects of water diplomacy, each with its own attendant set of approaches and mechanisms, which provide a practical approach to water diplomacy as well as some entry points for a generally accepted definition of the concept of ‘water diplomacy’.

The researchers have noted that there is no single, standard definition of water diplomacy and that transboundary water cooperation and water diplomacy are closely related but separate concepts. Conducting work to clearly separate these concepts helps the definition of each and demonstrates for instance that they have different geographical and legal bases as well as different institutions and processes.

Past approaches to water diplomacy have tended to focus on two key aspects. The first is the political aspect: a process of inherently political interactions that occur among stakeholders with different, often conflicting interests, positions and agendas. The second is the technical aspect, focusing on water as a physical resource  that requires allocation and use and the related monitoring, knowledge generation and management.

Between the ‘technical’ foundation and the ‘political’ roof, the authors propose three pillars, i.e. the preventive pillar focused on conflict prevention and mediation, the integrative pillar bringing together multiple and diverse stakeholders and decision making levels, and the cooperative pillar, i.e. cooperation and good governance to promote reasonable and equitable water use.