Outreach at 3rd UNCSD Informal Informals - 29 May 2012

inside: Water: The bloodstream of the green economy Water and the Future We Want

a multi-stakeholder magazine on climate change and sustainable development

out reach.

29 May 2012

Be PaperSmart: Read Outreach online www.stakeholderforum.org/sf/outreach/

pic: Sean MacEntee

contents.

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Note from the Editors

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Water and the Future We Want

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Water: The bloodstream of the green economy

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Sustainable development and poverty eradication demands a ‘waterproofed’ Rio+20

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WWF’s freshwater goals and priorities for Rio+20

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The ocean system: natural, intangible heritage of mankind

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How infrastructure can work for the poor and the environment

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In future, we want less talk and more action at field level

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Commitment to human rights essential for ensuring true sustainable development

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Top UN officials stress need for concrete commitments

OUTREACH IS PUBLISHED BY:

About Stakeholder Forum Stakeholder Forum is an international organisation working to advance sustainable development and promote democracy at a global level. Our work aims to enhance open, accountable and participatory international decision-making on sustainable development through enhancing the involvement of stakeholders in intergovernmental processes. For more information, visit: www.stakeholderforum.org

Outreach is a multi-stakeholder publication on climate change and sustainable development.

It is the longest continually produced stakeholder magazine in the sustainable development arena, published at various international meetings on the environment; including the UNCSD meetings (since 1997), UNEP Governing Council, UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) and World Water Week.

Published as a daily edition, in both print and web form, Outreach provides a vehicle for critical analysis on key thematic topics in the sustainability arena, as well as a voice of regional and local governments, women, indigenous peoples, trade unions, industry, youth and NGOs. To fully ensure a multistakeholder perspective, we aim to engage a wide range of stakeholders for article contributions and project funding.

If you are interested in contributing to Outreach, please contact the team (gmacdonald@stakeholderforum.org or acutter@stakeholderforum.org) You can also follow us on Twitter: @Earthsummit2012

OUTREACH EDITORIAL TEAM Editorial Advisors

Felix Dodds

Stakeholder Forum

Farooq Ullah

Stakeholder Forum

Editor

Georgie Macdonald

Stakeholder Forum

Co-editor

Amy Cutter

Stakeholder Forum

Editorial Assistant

Jack Cornforth

Stakeholder Forum

Print Designer

Jessica Wolf

Jessica Wolf Design

Web Designer

Thomas Harrisson

Stakeholder Forum

Web Designer

Matthew Reading-Smith

Stakeholder Forum

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Karin Lexén

Stockholm International Water Institute

Shrikant Daji Limaye

Ground Water Institute, India

Steven Downey

Global Water Partnership

Peter Bosshard

International Rivers

Flavia Loures

WWF

Marta Lobo

Freshwater Action Network

Stuart Orr

WWF

Isabella Montgomery

Freshwater Action Network

Lis Martin

Progressio Progressio

Paulo Magalhães

Cesnova/FCSH

Derek Kim

Note from the Editors Georgie Macdonald and Amy Cutter Stakeholder Forum With just over three weeks to go until Rio+20, now really is – in the words of Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon - ‘a crucial stage’.

insights for people attending the negotiations and those following from afar. To help us target hot topics and timely discussions, we will be basing each edition around a series of themes. Today’s theme is on Water and Oceans, with insights from groups such as WWF, Stockholm International Water Institute and Global Water Partnership.

In a recent statement, the Secretary-General called for countries to use every moment to ensure an agreement is reached on substantive issues and finalise the document ahead of the conference, and underlined the need for an agreement to establish Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that build on the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the anti-poverty and social development targets that have an achievement deadline of 2015. Mr. Ban also emphasised that the outcome of the deliberations over the next few weeks would help shape actions on the main issues to be addressed at Rio+20, such as the management and protection of oceans, ensuring universal access to sustainable energy and water, and improving life in the world’s cities, among others.

We would like to invite our readers to contribute to Outreach over the next four days and at Rio itself. Below is the table of daily themes for the ‘informal informal’ week, with content deadlines. Articles should be between 500-700 words in length (max. 700) and we can also include images. Please contact us if you would like to contribute articles, or would like more information on Outreach. We will publish the list of Outreach themes for Rio itself later this week.

Each of these issues will be covered in this week’s run of Outreach at the third round of ‘informal informal’ negotiations in New York. Outreach will again be tracking the negotiations, engaging stakeholders, covering events and gathering articles, in order to provide rich daily

MEETING

CONTENT DEADLINE (5pm EST) Today's issue

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DATE OF DISTRIBUTION

THEMES

Tuesday 29th May

Water and Oceans

Wednesday 30th May

Forests

Thursday 31st May

Private Sector

Thursday 31st May

Friday 1st June

Green cities and sustainable infrastructure

Friday 1st June

Saturday 2nd June

Energy

Tuesday 29th May Third round of 'informalinformal' negotiations on the Zero Draft of the Outcome Wednesday 30th May Document (New York)

In an effort to adopt UNCSD’s PaperSmart practices, we have now made Outreach more accessible in online format, with a QR code that allows you to access our improved website (www.stakeholderforum.org/sf/outreach/) and to download each daily edition. Throughout this week, and in Rio, we will be encouraging our readers to move online, allowing us to reduce our paper use and join UNCSD in a PaperSmart conference. Please contact us if you would like any further information on the best way for you to access Outreach online

RIO+20

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Water and the Future We Want Steven Downey Global Water Partnership No one knows what will end up in the Rio+20 Outcome Document. But those of us in the water world were pretty excited when we saw the Zero Draft. It said:

So if the leaders who meet in Rio really want to have an impact on creating ‘The Future We Want’, then the following needs to be achieved in relation to water management:

We renew our commitment made in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) regarding the development and implementation of integrated water resources management and water efficiency plans…. We encourage cooperation initiatives for water resources management in particular through capacity development, exchange of experiences, best practices and lessons learned, as well as sharing appropriate environmentally sound technologies and know-how.

Water security: It is crucial that the Conference outcomes include water as a part of a green growth agenda. Continued effort is needed to improve cross-sectoral integration: in particular the linkages between water, food and energy. This is not a task for water professionals only; it is a task for all who use the resource.

Who could ask for more? But watching the ‘informal informals’ can be depressing, as country after country slices and dices the text, making us wonder if we’ll lose the good stuff while they fight over the small stuff. What will remain? Who knows, but if you look at the list of ‘priority/key/thematic issues’ nearly every one of them is related to water — making its management a pre-condition for meeting those challenges (health, energy, food, education, disaster risk reduction, poverty eradication, etc.).

It’s likely that governments will be urged (yet again) to ‘accelerate progress towards water access and management.’

There are the usual fights over water supply, sanitation and the ‘human right to water’, but no one seems to disagree about the importance of improving water resources management.

This is a no-brainer. Economic prosperity depends on – not exclusively, of course – the sustainable management of water resources. There isn’t enough space to go into a history of how harnessing the productive aspects of water (and minimising its destructive elements) contributed to the economic development of the now-developed world. It did, but at a price: environmental destruction. And it took the environmental movement – which some might claim was born, internationally, at the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 – to get the world thinking about ending the sacrifice ecosystems in the name of economic growth.

We do learn from the mistakes of the past because, today, the goal is ‘to balance the imperatives of robust economic growth and the needs of a growing population against the ecological necessity to conserve our planet’s most precious resources — land, air and water’, according to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a 23rd May 2012 New York Times op-ed piece.

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Institutional effectiveness: Coordination and cohesion between the different layers of authority – international, national and sub-national – are critical for effective decisionmaking. Institutional reforms and integration must proceed in parallel with, and mutually reinforce investment in, sustainable infrastructure and protection of the natural environment. In order to achieve green growth, institutions have to be strengthened and partnerships formed, to ensure collaborative solutions. Particular focus is needed on regional cooperation between states on transboundary water resources development and management.

Integrated approaches: The positive response to the call for integrated water resources management and water efficiency plans, as agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002, needs to be translated into implementation with increased focus on water productivity and climate adaptation to ensure every drop of water contributes as much as possible to inclusive economic growth. The Conference should adopt a resolution calling for each country to develop, by 2015, its specific targets and timeframes for preparing and implementing a programme of action and financing strategy to implement integrated water resources management plans.

Future Strategy: There is a three year window from Rio (2012) to the end of the MDGs (2015). The Conference should kick off a process for setting a green growth agenda through to 2030. Green growth requires ensuring water security for future generations, and providing solutions that achieve more growth with less resource use.

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Is that too much to ask?

Water: The bloodstream of the green economy Karin Lexén Stockholm International Water Institute Key messages ahead of the third round of informal-informal negotiations on the Rio+20 Outcome Document from the Stockholm International Water Institute.

• Recognising that access to drinking water and sanitation is a human right - a SDG on water must set targets for achieving universal access to safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation.

As the negotiations in New York draw to a close, and the final preparations for Rio+20 heat up, it is a critical time for all stakeholders to reflect upon the challenges faced and how we can work to ensure that a strong outcome is reached at the Summit.

• Recognising the strong interdependence between long term sustainable energy supply and sustainable water resources management, a SDG on energy must contain clear targets for increased water use efficiency in energy production.

Population growth, expanding cities and accelerating economic activity increase the demand for energy and food, and create unsustainable pressure on our water and land resources. By 2030, in a business as usual scenario, humanity’s demand for water could outstrip supply by as much as 40%. This would place water, energy and food security at risk, increase public health costs, constrain economic development, lead to social and geopolitical tensions, and cause lasting environmental damage.

• Recognising the great risk water scarcity poses to food security for all and that addressing food losses and waste is the simplest and most direct route to reducing pressure on water resources. A SDG on food security must include targets to radically increase total food supply-chain efficiency, from field to fork, and to significantly increase water use efficiency in agriculture.

Therefore, the foundation for a resource efficient green economy must be built upon water, energy and food security – and these issues must be addressed in an integrated, holistic manner that values the natural environment and recognises the carrying capacity of the planet. Action is critical at all levels to address inequities, especially for the ‘bottom billion’ who live in slums and impoverished rural areas, surviving without access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, sufficient food and energy services. It is imperative to ensure that adequate water and sanitation services are made available for the world’s population, in accordance with the resolution of the UN General Assembly declaring these as a human right.

The Stockholm International Water Institute strongly urges for political leadership at Rio+20. The creation of global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is important to enable focused and coherent action on sustainable development. We welcome the overall acknowledgement that any set of SDGs must incorporate water. As crosscutting resource and the bloodstream of the green economy, water is an obvious candidate for one overarching SDG, but it also must be reflected in the other SDGs:

• A SDG on water must address the urgent need for significantly improved water efficiency, for substantive efforts to reduce water pollution and for improved wastewater management, including a radical increase in the reuse of wastewater.

The outcome of Rio+20 should explicitly: • Recognise the key role of water as a resource and a hazard, and address the importance of integrated water resources management in disaster risk reduction.

• Address cross-cutting issues and interlinkages, including those among water, energy, food, health, ecosystems and climate change.

• Call for more effective cooperation on transboundary waters and in particular the ratification and implementation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses.

• Recognise the importance of transparency, accountability and integrity as part of the efforts to improve water governance and prevention of corruption.

• Emphasise that availability and public accessibility of information is central for improved water governance. This also includes transparent budgets, which enable stakeholders to identify priority areas, potential funding gaps and track resource allocations.

• Encourage countries to set up procedures for local stakeholder participation in planning, budgeting and implementation of reforms related to water resources and water supply and sanitation

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RIO+20

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Sustainable development and poverty eradication Lis Martin and Derek Kim demands a ‘waterproofed’ Rio+20 Progressio

Water is an essential part of sustainable development, a fundamental resource that underpins both life and livelihood.

2.8 billion people live in areas facing water scarcity. Whilst there is enough freshwater for the needs of everyone on earth, many people around the world are chronically short of water, an issue of poor management. This is of particular concern for small-scale farmers who rely on this water to feed a third of the world’s population. Yet the poorest and most marginalised are often at particular disadvantage when there is competition over water resources. The Rio+20 negotiations and final Outcome Document must recognise this reality and agree action.

In the Co-Chairs’ text, the centrality of water to sustainable development and references to its interlinkages with food, agriculture, energy, gender, consumption and production are currently strong and fairly comprehensive.

In the inevitable (and unenviable) task of shortening the document, the focus on water, be it for drinking, sanitation, food or business, must remain strong. In the fight to eradicate poverty, this particular theme must not be ‘watered down’, and water must be central to discussions around Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Progressio’s work with the National Water Authority in Yemen seeks more equitable and sustainable management of natural resources, especially in the context of changing climate, resource scarcity and environmental degradation.

In recent years the Hodeidah governorate has experienced widespread introduction of groundwater pumps and of modern spate infrastructure. But huge obstacles are still to be overcome: the loss of access to traditional spate irrigation networks, a shift from production of water efficient subsistence crops like sorghum to water intensive cash crops like bananas, changes in patterns of land ownership, changes or abandonment of traditional water rights structures, failure to implement water laws, over-abstraction of groundwater (at the expense of downstream users), sea water intrusion of coastal fresh water aquifers (also related to groundwater over abstraction) and a lack of serious management interventions. The impact of all this has been growing levels of poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition.

Our experience demonstrates that good water management is vital to sustainable development. Management that recognises the needs of the local people and gives voice to their concerns through meaningful, active participation.

At Progressio we believe that all water users should have a say in the management of the water on which they depend for lives and livelihoods. Community- and ecosystembased management which recognises local knowledge and has poor people (especially women) at the centre of decision-making, will go a long way to ensuring improved water management, local water sustainability and lower environmental impacts.

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Local interventions are key. Yet water management in Yemen, as with many countries around the world, has traditionally been tackled using a top-down approach.

Progressio’s work in Yemen therefore makes a concerted effort to be bottom-up, with an emphasis on participation and consultation at the grassroots level.

Of course there are contradictions. At the heart of donors work on water in Yemen is the aim to expand water use and supply for all sectors. At the same time, this needs to be balanced with the imperative of water conservation. That balance becomes difficult to address when considering the cross-cutting nature of water. Any change in water management will affect numerous sectors and, in turn, these sectors must be reformed to comprehensively address the water issue. Fundamentally, better-integrated water resource management requires the participation of all stakeholders, most of all local communities.

In Yemen, the political crisis has overshadowed sustainable development issues in general and the critical water issue more specifically. It remains a significant challenge to get both sustainable development and water resource management back on the agenda of ‘fragile states’.

But Rio+20 is a chance to share some new ideas for sustainable models. Sustainable development is not just ‘The Future We Want’, it is the future we need.

In short, Rio+20 and the Green Economy must be truly ‘waterproof’. The world’s poorest people depend on it for their food, their livelihoods and their futures

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pic: Anne Roberts

MORE INFO Derek Kim is a Progressio development worker embedded in the National Water Authority in Yemen. Lis Martin is Progressio’s Environment Policy Officer. Progressio is an international development charity working in 11 countries across the world.

Want to talk water with us during Rio+20, or even get Derek Kim to speak at your side event? Email lis@progressio. org.uk. And check out Progressio’s latest publication, Water and Development: An essential guide

WWF’s freshwater goals and priorities for Rio+20 Flavia Loures and Stuart Orr WWF Water is one of the seven listed priority areas at Rio+20 and plays an integral part in the goals and themes of the Conference. The reasons for that are numerous. In the late 20th Century, the Yellow River, the Murray-Darling and countless others have run dry. The Aral Sea has all but disappeared, and Lake Chad could be next. As we exceed the limits of aquatic ecosystems, freshwater biodiversity is declining and, with it, vital ecological functions and services. The resulting socioeconomic and environmental impacts have been profound.

• We urge countries to establish and implement water management and allocation frameworks that prioritise the maintenance of sustainable flow regimes, along with water for basic human needs: Progressive legal instruments form the basis for environmentally sustainable, socially equitable and economically efficient outcomes. It is critical to empower institutions that effectively inform, guide, implement, and enforce such frameworks, and monitor results in a changing climate.

In this context, WWF is urging leaders at Rio+20 to deliver a clear political mandate for the design of the future post2015 development framework, in coordination with the the existing post-MDG review process. WWF considers Rio+20 an appropriate and timely platform to launch an expert-led process for proposing fully-funded and universally applicable Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their respective targets, timelines and indicators. Taking a step further, governments at Rio+20 should agree on key thematic areas for the SDGs, including water, food and energy security. In particular, WWF emphasises the ambitious goal of achieving considerable progress in those areas by 2030, which can most meaningfully occur by taking into account the nexus between water, food and energy.

• As we approach the end of the International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’ 2005-2015, and start preparing for 2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation, we call on countries to ratify and implement the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention (UNWC): In the world’s 276 transboundary watersheds, the water management challenge is compounded, and it is vital that states work together towards the sustainable management of those resources.

WWF’s proposal for a future freshwater SDG stems from the recognition that well-managed, climate-resilient rivers, lakes, wetlands and aquifers – the sources of our water – provide the necessary foundation to meet the challenge of securing water, food and energy for all. In this sense, a freshwater SDG should focus on the maintenance and/ or restoration of environmental flows and the ecological functions and services that rely on them, such as flood control and food provision, to the benefit of nature, people and economies. Such a goal should also call for greater consistency and coherence in decision- and policymaking for water, food and energy, with development and climate change considerations cutting across all those sectors. A third element of the proposed Goal would relate to universal, affordable and equitable access to safe water and improved sanitation, supported by the vital ecosystems that store, transport and purify water.

The fulfillment of WWF’s proposed freshwater SDG would depend on concerted action by all stakeholders, taking into account our top freshwater messages for Rio+20.

• The availability of freshwater lies at the core of food and energy security: Over the next decade, demand for thirsty food crops and energy alternatives directly reliant on freshwater will increase massively. Solving the food-water-energy equation is thus an urgent global priority.

• Properly valuing natural infrastructure is central to sound water management: Freshwater ecosystems provide infrastructure for free. Investment in water storage and hydropower should thus include a blend of properly valued natural infrastructure and wiser dam sites, design and operation, based on the applicable laws, regulations, policies, treaties dealing with transboundary waters and standards of good practice (e.g., the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol).

• Development and poverty alleviation strategies, and relevant government and business decisions must consider coherent information and coordinated policy options across the agricultural, trade, energy, climate, and water sectors: Tradeoffs between water for food, energy, the environment and domestic needs may be inevitable. Yet, energy solutions and climate change mitigation strategies should, at the least, not jeopardise or undermine efforts towards water and food security.

We encourage leaders and all stakeholders to consider our messages at Rio+20 and put them into practice, towards the ultimate goal of achieving universal access to water and sanitation for all by 2030, sustained by healthy and resilient freshwater and related ecosystems

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MORE INFO

Contact: Flavia Loures (flavia.loures@wwfus.org); Stuart Orr (sorr@wwfint.org)

RIO+20

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The ocean system: natural, intangible heritage of mankind Paulo Magalhães Researcher at Cesnova/FCSH. Universidade Nova Lisboa

The climate and ocean systems are natural processes that unite us all. In the context of Rio+20, the Earth Condominium project of Quercus has submitted a proposal for a global juridical support framework that could serve as a structural basis for building confidence and reciprocity, which are requirements for both a green and human oriented economy. The proposal will be presented at a Rio+20 side event on the 21st of June.

The global functioning of the oceans is a reality that directly challenges the concept of state sovereignty. The discoveries that have revealed the global functioning of the natural terrestrial system are still recent and the challenge of uniting natural global systems with sovereign territories requires a restructuring of our reasoning.

Currently, no juridical object exists that has the capacity to capture the reality of oceans as a global ecosystem and can resolve the conflict between global environmental imperatives and national interests.

Changes in the chemical balance of the atmosphere in turn cause significant alterations to the chemical composition of the oceans. From the interaction between these systems emerge changes in the dynamics of distribution and transmission of energy and other complex biogeochemical processes. These components contribute in a differentiated manner to a dynamic equilibrium which we call climate. And it is by virtue of this climate system that we all become global neighbours.

When we analyse the changes in the chemical and biological composition of the oceans, we seek to assess the quality of this natural resource and its capability to undertake the function of biological support for human life. We look at systems that deliver specific functions characterised by constant and simultaneous movement both within and outside state territories.

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The formal juridical approximation of the notion of Common Heritage of Mankind towards the climate system, as proposed by J.M. Sobrino in 2009, can be used to overcome the conflict between the systemic unity of the global ocean and the national jurisdictions of different sovereignties. The configuration of this new concept of natural heritage aims to resolve a series of complex structural and operational problems. These include the dispersion of positive and negative impacts over the entire ocean, the sharing and management of benefits in an equitable and just manner, and the institutionalisation of a global governance system for the oceans. The assimilation of this intangible and indivisible reality of nature, will be a structural tool to overcome the 'black hole' that the global natural ecosystems currently represent for the economy. It will internalise the vital factors for our existence into the common heritage, which are currently considered as externalities.

This approach allows us to de-territorialise its functions from individual states, delimiting environmental services from the physical infrastructures of ecosystems that provide these services. The dematerialisation of nature may open the door for the creation of an accountancy system which monitors the positive and negative contributions made to the maintenance of the oceans and climate. This may help to overcome, in a decisive manner, the problem of governance of the global ocean ecosystem. Furthermore, the accounts outlined by the Earth Condominium project can be considered a viable structural mechanism to overcome the dilemma of global collective action.

This will mean putting in practice the ‘necessity to consider the oceans as a whole’, something which has already been stipulated in the preamble of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This intangible nature, because it unites us all, is the essence and the true common heritage of mankind

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How infrastructure can work for the poor Peter Bosshard and the environment Policy Director, International Rivers

Kikwit is a town of almost one million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Its inhabitants have no access to electricity. Because the water pumps are no longer working, they have no access to clean water either. In the 1990s, the town made the news due to an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, which was encouraged by the poor sanitary conditions.

pic: Oxfam International

Kikwit is not located at the end of the world. It lies underneath the power lines of the Inga dams on the mighty Congo River. Yet the electric current that hums overhead is not meant for poor people. It is exported to the mining companies in the southern Katanga province. Over the past decades, billions of dollars have been invested in the DRC's power sector. They have created a stark energy divide: 85% of the country's electricity is consumed by energy-intensive industries, while 94% of the population has no access to electricity.

There can be no prosperity without infrastructure. But infrastructure has many faces: it supplies water to poor communities and irrigates golf courses, builds local access roads and bridges to nowhere. The example from the Congo Basin demonstrates that infrastructure investment can bypass poor people completely for the benefit of powerful interests. Globally, more than one billion people live without access to clean water, sanitation, and electricity.

They propose the concentration of investment in large private sector projects such as big dams and transport corridors that can transform whole regions. They have identified the Inga hydropower scheme on the Congo River as an exemplary project for their new approach. At a cost of $80 billion, this project would produce electricity for export – and perpetuate the DRC's energy divide in the process.

The strategy of the World Bank and G20 will generate contracts for global corporations, financing deals for big banks, and opportunities for politicians to cut ribbons and bag some kickbacks along the way. Yet by hoping that social and economic development will trickle down to poor people such as the inhabitants of Kikwit, it ignores the lessons of past experience.

A new report by International Rivers demonstrates that a different approach is available. Most rural poor in Africa and South Asia – the epicenters of global poverty – live closer to local sources of renewable energy than to the electric grid. The International Energy Agency proposes that 70% of the investment needed to provide energy for all should go into local mini-grids and off-grid solutions such as micro hydropower, solar, and wind. The cost of these technologies has fallen rapidly in recent years. Highquality solar lanterns light family homes and charge cell phones at less than half the cost that poor consumers pay for dirty kerosene and candles every year. Yet new technologies are often not available in rural areas, even if they are affordable. This is where the World Bank and other donors should come in.

Promoting clean, decentralised energy solutions will not only provide access for people that have been left in the dark for too long, it will also boost local economic sectors such as agriculture, agricultural processing and tourism – all important for broad-based job creation. In addition, it will significantly reduce the social and environmental footprint of energy projects. By diversifying and decentralising supply, the same approach will make energy sectors more resilient to the vagaries of climate change. It will also strengthen the institutions of local governments and civil society, which are often overwhelmed by large, top-down infrastructure projects. This is the kind of sustainable development which the Rio+20 Summit should support

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MORE INFO The new International Rivers report is entitled, Infrastructure for Whom? It can be downloaded from www.internationalrivers.org/infrastructureforwhom.

Infrastructure has once again become a buzzword of the international development debate during the Rio+20 process. The World Bank and the powerful G20 have prepared new strategies for the hardware of development.

RIO+20

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In future, we want less talk and more action at field level Shrikant Daji Limaye Director, Ground Water Institute, India and Project Leader, UNESCO-IUGS-IGCP Project GROWNET In many low-income countries – including India – water resources mismanagement, water shortages for irrigation and drinking water supply, loss of forest cover, degradation of watersheds by soil erosion, high input costs in agriculture, crushing debt, and finally, erratic climate resulting in frequent crop failures, are causing the suicides of thousands of farmers every year. At the same time, meetings are held each year with ministers, policy makers, bureaucrats, international organisations, donors and NGO representatives to deal with the above issues.

If the promises made at these meetings – in the two decades since the first Rio Summit – had been fulfilled to considerable extent, we could have seen happier farmers. But the discussions, interactions, interventions and analyses of the same problems over and over again have unfortunately not resulted in a vast growth in resultoriented actions at field level to reduce the impact of water scarcity and famines. The Rio+20 Conference is focusing on ‘The Future We Want’. Water resources being at the base of the pyramid of food security, environment and energy, this article insists on the urgent need for action on water resources at the field level.

IWRM (Integrated Water Resources Management) is the foundation, especially in low-income Countries, for:

1. Sustainability of water resources; 2. Maintainance and improvement of ecosystem services; 3. Food security; 4. Safe drinking water supply from ground water so as to improve rural health;

5. Improving rural economies by increasing irrigation and creating job-opportunities for landless people;

6. Improving dry-land farming so as to stabilise poor farmers who would otherwise migrate to nearby cities and choke the urban infrastructure; and

7. Mitigating effects of harsh climatic patterns through watershed development and forestation.

A watershed is the meeting point, or interface, between rainfall and surface water and ground water resources.

In order to generate dependable water resources, in spite of the climatic shocks, we need a shock-absorbing, resilient interface. Such an interface is only available if the watershed is well-managed by maintaining a good cover of grasses, bushes and trees, protecting the soil with contour bunding and contour tilling of farms, excavating farm-ponds for temporary storage of rain water, de-silting of small ponds and lakes, and constructing bunds on

pic: Julien Harneis

small streams for water storages to promote recharge to ground water. These are the actions at field level which should start at the watershed of a first order stream and progressively cover larger watersheds.

All the above actions comprise the ‘bottom-up’ contribution to IWRM provided by farmers and villagers at the grass-root level, while ‘top-down’ contributions would be provided by Governments by ensuring availability of funds, creating a suitable infrastructure, providing a legislative framework and promoting the role of NGOs for liaison between the Government schemes and village community. NGOs in turn would encourage active participation of village women, especially in forestation of watersheds and in drinking water supply schemes, so as to improve their quality of life.

The improvements brought about by Watershed Development and IWRM in rural scenarios are multi-fold.

Villagers are employed locally in watershed development works and the farmers produce more food. Through forestation, the total biomass output of the watershed increases, resulting in better environment and increased income. Irrigational development in the watershed provides employment opportunities for landless labourers.

Farmers establish their own cooperative societies for agroinputs and marketing of agro-output. Safe drinking water obtained from bore wells with hand-pumps, improves rural health and reduces the number of days lost in illness.

There is a thus a positive impact on family income.

So, let us move from meetings, lectures and analyses to application and actions at the grassroots level, on the scale of a mini-watershed. If we delay, there is a danger of moving from analysis to paralysis

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MORE INFO

GROWNET project website www.igcp-grownet.org

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Commitment to human rights essential for ensuring true sustainable development Marta Lobo and Isabella Montgomery Freshwater Action Network

Civil society networks have welcomed the Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation’s open letter calling on states to recommit to the human right to water and sanitation at Rio+20 in the run up to the third round of ‘informal informal’ negotiations.

human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights’ (para. 67).

In the first and second rounds of ‘informal-informal’ negotiations on the Zero Draft held in New York in March and April/May, some states suggested alternative language that does not explicitly refer to the human right to water and sanitation, despite the fact that it has been already recognised as a human right under international law, including by the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council in 2010, where UN member states reached consensus.

We have read the statistics again and again, ‘783 million of people do not yet have access to affordable water’, ‘a fifth of the world’s population lives in water stress regions’, ‘2.5 billion people live without having access to safe toilets and basic hygiene facilities’, ‘4,000 children die each day from diseases like diarrhoea and dysentery caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.’ The figures for these fundamental building blocks of human development are appalling and estimated to worsen over the coming years, as a result of the different conflicting uses and overuses of water.

Because human rights prioritise those most in need, Freshwater Action Network – which represents southern civil society networks advocating to increase access to water and sanitation services for poor and marginalised communities – believes that rights should provide a basis for development of equity indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) being discussed as part of the post-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) framework to be proposed at the Rio Summit. We support the Special Rapporteur's recommendation that:

In Catarina de Albuquerque’s open letter on 24th May, the Special Rapporteur called on states to maintain their support for this fundamental human right and its explicit inclusion in the Rio+20 outcome document, adding:

‘A sustainable development target for water and sanitation should aim at achieving access to safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all without discrimination, in sufficient quantities to protect human health and dignity, particularly for the most marginalized.’

‘It is clear that a commitment to water and sanitation without the recognition of the human right to water and sanitation is insufficient to achieve the future we all want. The recognition of the human right to water and sanitation guides us to prioritize the un- and under-served and to ensure non-discrimination.’

The original Zero Draft of the Outcome Document included text that ‘underline[s] the importance of the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a

Civil society organisations and human rights experts the world over agree on the importance of human rights to ensure a future where every single individual enjoys access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Now, on the first day of the third round of ‘informal informals’, we are calling loud and clear with a united voice: “States must recommit to the human right to water and sanitation to achieve true sustainable development.”

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RIO+20

9

Top UN officials stress need for concrete commitments On 22nd May, United Nations top officials stressed the need to achieve concrete commitments ahead of the Sustainable Development Conference (Rio+20) in Brazil, and called on countries to make progress in the last round of negotiations before the Conference starts next month.

“I encourage Member States to end the negotiations in a timely manner, in order that Heads of State and Government will come to Rio prepared and ready to sign up to a forward-looking, actionoriented document,” the President of the General Assembly, Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, said in his remarks to the Assembly’s thematic debate on The Road to Rio+20 and Beyond. “There are still some crucial decisions to be made.”

This week, delegations from all over the world will gather again in New York for an additional five days of deliberations on the outcome document for Rio+20. The extra days were added earlier this month so that countries can bridge the differences that have kept them from making further progress in negotiations.

Mr Al-Nasser praised the collective efforts of delegations that are working towards consensus, but warned that much more still needs to be done. In particular, he noted that the day's debate should help shed light on the creation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and an institutional framework for sustainable development.

“On the issue of the Sustainable Development Goals, many country and stakeholders are looking to Rio for a concrete outcome, including priority areas,” Mr Al-Nasser said, adding that the conference can make a significant contribution to

the development agenda after 2015, without distracting attention from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the anti-poverty and social development targets that have an achievement deadline of 2015.

In his remarks to the Assembly’s debate, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon drew attention to the need for progress in negotiations.

“The world is watching. The media are focused. People – young and old – are demanding action,” Mr Ban said. “Yet the current pace of negotiations is sending all the wrong signals. We cannot let a microscopic examination of text blind us to the big picture, we do not have a moment to waste.”

He noted that UN Member States have the opportunity to forge agreements on many thematic issues, including: decent jobs, food security and sustainable agriculture, efficient and cleaner energy sources, access to safe drinking water and sanitation, conservation of the world’s oceans, strengthened institutions to support sustainable development, and progress in defining SDGs that build on the MDGs. “Leaders should agree in Rio that Sustainable Development Goals with clear and measurable targets and indicators will be a central part of the post-2015 global development framework,” Mr. Ban said. “SDGs would give concrete expression to renewed high-level political commitment for sustainable development.”

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