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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,…
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…
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…
Over two-thirds of Togo’s water resources are shared, notably through the Mono River basin (shared with Benin) and Volta River basin (shared with Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Mali), as well as aquifers in the coastal sedimentary basin (shared with Ghana, Benin and Nigeria).   In a…
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…
Namibia shares all its perennial rivers with neighboring countries and is both a mid-stream and downstream country. Transboundary water cooperation is therefore crucial for Namibia’s water security and sustainable socio-economic development. In today’s interconnected world, water availability is…
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…
Directive (EU) 2020/2184 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2020 on the quality of water intended for human consumption (recast) was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on 16 December 2020 and entered into force on 12 January 2021. The…
Bringing together countries to share progress and experience on how to effectively manage their shared waters is a key characteristic of the Water Convention. Cooperation for the management of transboundary waters to promote sustainability, peace and security is the Convention’s mantra - especially…
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…
Originally introduced in policy and development discussions in 2011, the water-food-energy-ecosystem nexus approach has evolved into a pivotal framework for sustainable development and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Work on the water-energy-food-ecosystems nexus under the…
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…
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…
Finland and the Republic of Namibia, both countries which are strong advocates for transboundary water cooperation in their respective regions and globally, have just embarked on a two-year pilot Twinning Initiative to exchange experiences, build capacity and strengthen bilateral cooperation on…
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…
Cooperation and management of transboundary waters, which span over 45% of the world's surface and serve as vital resources for nearly half of the global population, face the imminent threat of underfunding. The last reporting exercise on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator 6.5.2 (2020),…
Guaranteeing safe access to drinking water and sanitation remains a challenge in the pan-European region, with 16 million people still lacking access to basic drinking water services and over 29 million people not having access to basic sanitation, including hundreds of thousands who have to…
An estimated 3.6 billion people face inadequate access to water at least a month per year – a figure expected to increase to more than 5 billion by 2050.  According to WMO, over 50% of global catchment areas and reservoirs displayed deviations from normal conditions in 2022, of which the majority…
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…
Central Asian countries are actively working towards improving access to water and sanitation. Despite recent progress, Kazakhstan's aging infrastructure, lack of human resources and financial constraints still limit the access of rural population to improved water and sanitation services. In 2022…
Making drinking water and sanitation services affordable for all is key to guaranteeing the human rights to drinking water and sanitation. In the human rights framework, water and sanitation services are unaffordable when paying for them would compromise the ability to pay for other essential needs…
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…
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…