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2013 World Water Day: water cooperation




The annual World Water Day on March 22 encourages water consciousness with regard to safe drinking water, water resources, and water management.
At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992, an annual water day was declared and commenced in 1993. Each year has a specific theme. The World Water Day theme for 2013 is water cooperation to coincide with the 2013 International Year of Water Cooperation (announced by the United Nations in December 2010).


Water cooperation implies an understanding and tolerance of global cultural, educational, scientific, religious, ethical, social, political, geographical, legal, institutional, and economic aspects to build peace, reduce conflict associated with water and food security, promote fair distribution and sustainable development.
United Nations has the following water facts:

  • 85% of the world’s population live in the driest half of the planet;
  • 780 million people don’t have access to clean water;
  • 6 to 8 million people die every year from the consequences of disasters and water-related diseases;
  • Water for irrigation and food production constitutes one of the greatest pressures of freshwater resources – agriculture accounts for 70% of global freshwater use;
  • Meat and dairy production use more water than starch-based production – for example, to produce 1 kg of rice requires 3,500 litres of water compared with 1 kg of beef which requires 15,000 litres of water.

 Africa has about a third of the world’s major international water basins. Virtually all sub-Saharan African countries, and Egypt, share at least one international water basin. Depending on how they are counted, there are between 63 (UNEP, 2010) and 80 (UNECA, 2000) transboundary river and lake basins on the African continent. But about 66% of Africa is arid or semi-arid, with more than 300 million (out of a population of 800 million) people in sub-Saharan Africa who live in a water-scarce environment.


Water is often a source of conflict – people withholding it, forming boundaries to exclude it from others, and wasting it. However, the United Nations notes that there are numerous examples where transboundary waters are a source of cooperation rather than conflict. Nearly 450 agreements on international waters were signed between 1820 and 2007 (OSU, 2007). Over 90 international water agreements were formulated to help manage shared water basins on the African continent (UNEP, 2010).
www.unwater.org/water-cooperation-2013
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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