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Water is a topic of cross-cutting significance for sustainable development and increasingly high on political, environmental and development agendas of countries around the world. As the majority of freshwater flows worldwide cross borders, ensuring effective cooperation for their sustainable…
Transboundary water resources constitute nearly 80% of Africa’s freshwater resources. In this context, increased regional cooperation and joint planning, development and management of water investments and infrastructure are essential to meet targets for agricultural and industrial development,…
UNECE will be contributing to the Seventh World Water Forum, to be held from 12 to 17 April in Daegu and Gyeongju, Republic of Korea. The Forum, the world’s largest meeting on water, is where the water community — policy and decision makers, parliamentarians, civil society and experts from…
The need to ensure adequate fire-water retentionWhen being asked for causes of water pollution, most people would probably name an accidental spill of a hazardous substance or a leaking sewage system. However, contaminated fire-water — i.e. water used by firefighters to extinguish a blaze — can…
The need to ensure equitable access to water and sanitation is getting more and more visibility in global, regional and national agendas. The Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation were recognized in 2010. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly under Sustainable…
With almost one third of the world’s population living in internationally shared basins and two thirds of global freshwater being supplied by these areas, transboundary water cooperation is crucial to ensure sustainable development. Nearly 350 participants from more than 70 countries will gather…
The UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) has been in force for almost 20 years. While it has strongly impacted cooperation on the ground in the ECE region and beyond, it has strangely not attracted much attention from…
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the importance of an integrated approach to water management and the crucial role played by transboundary water cooperation in supporting recovery and prevention. Timely and sufficient availability of water of adequate quality is a prerequisite for the…
Approximately 71% of the total surface water flow in Latin America is derived from shared basins, which cover 55% of the total area of the region. In South America, international basins provide 75% of the total flow, and in Mexico and Central America, 24%. Increasing impacts from climate change…
Water resources in Latin America and the Caribbean are threatened by rising pressures related to unprecedented population growth and related exponential demand and increasing pollution, as well as the impact of extreme weather events. In the region, around 60% of freshwater resources reside in…
Approximately 40 per cent of the world’s population live in transboundary river and lake basins, which account for an estimated 60% of global freshwater flow. These shared water resources support the livelihoods of more than 3 billion of people, making transboundary water cooperation between…
The need to develop water quality cooperation with neighbouring countries was at the centre of the debates in Astana this week. A seminar discussed a draft Review of Policy and Recommendations for Kazakhstan in the Field of Transboundary Water Resources Management, prepared by UNECE experts in…
Senegal shares most of its water resources with other countries. The major part of its surface water reserves are located in the Senegal and Gambia River basins whose waters come from the Fouta Djallon Highlands in the Republic of Guinea. Cooperating on these shared waters is therefore essential…
While the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the extent to which water, sanitation and hygiene are key to human health through frequent handwashing, in the UNECE region over 16 million people still lack access to drinking water and more than 31 million are currently living without basic…
Cameroon shares most of its water resources - such as Lake Chad, the Congo, Sanaga and Niger rivers - with other states. Cooperation on these shared waters is therefore essential to ensure economic development and preserve regional stability.As a result, Cameroon is also a heavily involved in…
Water quality is a serious problem in Central Asia, but until now there was no formal cooperation between the countries in the region. A new regional working group on water quality, established under the project “Strengthening cooperation on water quality management in Central Asia” funded by…
The Niger River Basin, shared by Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Chad, is the second largest river Basin in West Africa and home to 140 million people. With increasing demands on its water resources, ensuring cooperation for their management is…
40 percent of the world’s population lives in one of the 275 transboundary river basins. Transboundary waters account for 60 percent of the world’s freshwater flows. Cooperation for the management of shared water resources is therefore crucial for economic development, peace and environmental…
Despite being a relatively water-rich country for the Middle East, water is an increasingly scarce resource in Lebanon. Transboundary cooperation for the sustainable management of its three transboundary watercourses — the Asi-Orontes, the Nahr al-Kabir and the Hasbani-Wazzani Rivers — as well…
Institutional reform in the water sector in Armenia will reach a new milestone in 2017 with the enactment of provisions on drinking water. As a result, a single water service operator will be chosen to supply drinking water for the entire country, instead of the five separate companies operating…
Kazakh university professors took part in a course on political and technical aspects of integrated water resources management (IWRM) at the German-Kazakh University in Almaty from 15-26 August. This was the first part of training for academic staff from the largest Kazakh universities within…
The challenges posed by climate change to Central Asia, the likelihood of more frequent compound water-energy-food crises and the growing strain on the shared water resources of the region due to economic development and demographic growth require more intensive joint efforts by the countries of…
Growing water scarcity, climate variability and increasing water needs for economic development have led to a rising global interest in water allocation practices. Especially where rivers, lakes and groundwater bodies cross national borders, the competing demands of countries and sectors for…
UNECE has just launched a web portal to improve water management, to share knowledge about the state of water resources and to track progress in ensuring the sustainability of water resources across the region. The portal is the virtual face of the Astana Water Action (AWA), a toolkit of…
More than 40% of the world population relies on transboundary water resources. Cooperation on these resources is necessary to manage shared waters in an integrated and sustainable way. Such cooperation has the potential to generate many significant benefits for countries involved, such as…