The UN Water Conference will be held between March 22 and 24, the objective of which will be to draw up an action agenda for water.
The Global Commission on the Economics of Water (CGEA), a body sponsored by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Government of the Netherlands, published this Friday a report that “alerts the world about a growing global crisis of water”, according to the announcement published on its website.
The text indicates that the floods, droughts y other extreme water events events that occurred last year are not anomalous episodes, but proof of the systemic crisis derived from decades of “bad management” human from water
“For the first time in human history, we can no longer count on the source of all fresh water, our rainfall,” said Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and co-chair of the CGEA. “We are changing the entire global hydrological cycle”he added.
As an example, he explained that each degree Celsius of global warming adds about 7% moisture to the water cycle, overloading and intensifying it, and consequently causing more extreme weather events. “Water is therefore both a driver and a victim of climate change,” she lamented.
What do they propose?
For her part, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of the World Trade Organization and co-chair of the CGEA, stressed the need to develop a new water economy that helps us reduce water waste, improve the efficiency of this resource and provide opportunities for greater equality of the same.
The experts propose that the innovation policy be used to favor solutions to specific problems, to increase investments in water, as well as to ensure that water has an adequate price that allows be used more efficiently in all sectors, for example, in agriculture.
The report is published a few days before the UN Water Conference is held, which will take place between March 22 and 24, and whose objective it will be draft a water action agenda that “gives the lifeblood of our world the commitment it deserves”.
