“Water, Sanitation, Covid-19, Values and the Future of Water” titled webinar organized and presented by
The Light Millennium on March 21, 2021; and
Co-sponsored by: Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations; Earth Forever (NGO, Bulgaria) and Agualimpia (NGO, Peru)
Observance of the World Water Day (March 22, A/RES/47/193) and in support of the SDG-6 and SDG-3 
#WWD2021 World Water Day (March 22)
• PROGRAM with the short bios of the Keynote Speakers and Panelists
• Watch Video

World Water Day 2021 Webinar, Light Millennium – 21 March 2021

Keynote Speech delivered by
Prof. OLCAY ÜNVER, Arizona State University (U.S.A.); Vice Chair of UN-Water from 2018 to 2020; and Senior Water Advisor to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

“This year’s  conversation about water’s valuation takes place in five perspectives:
valuing water sources (in-situ water resources and ecosystems); valuing water infrastructure, both natural and built infrastructure, for water storage, use, reuse or supply augmentation;
valuing water services (drinking water, sanitation and related human health aspects); valuing water as an input to production and socioeconomic activities (e.g. food and agriculture, energy and industry, business and employment, transport); and socio-cultural values of water (e.g., recreation, spiritual).”

Excellencies, friends,
Ladies and Gentlemen;

It is my great pleasure to be with you today in what has become a new normal: a webinar.

I’d like to express my thanks to Light Millennium and Ms Bircan Unver for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you on the occasion of World Water Day.

We have been observing, often in agony, how COVID-19 has stopped the world in its tracks. We have also seen that our ability to protect ourselves against the virus is far from equal.

We know that good hygiene is  part of our best defense, but three billion people lack even basic handwashing facilities at home. How do you clean your hands and keep your family safe when you don’t have a reliable water supply, a decent toilet or even soap?

“Sustainable water and sanitation do not only build better, healthier and more stable societies, they build hope and allow people and nature to thrive“.

The consequences of the chronic underinvestment in water and sanitation services are abundantly clear.

But there is perhaps light in the tunnel. As we get on top of the pandemic, we also have the opportunity to ‘build back better’. And sustainable water and sanitation do not only build better, healthier and more stable societies, they build hope and allow people and nature to thrive.

We can anticipate that resources will be increasingly scarce as a global recession and economic downturn across the world affect us all, and so critical emergency interventions must be paired with longer-term investments for preparedness and resilience – for example by addressing the relationship between water and public health, water and the food system, water and jobs, water and livelihoods, water and climate change and whatever else may show on the priorities of the governments in devising and implementing their recovery programs.

This year’s World Water Day theme is “valuing water”. Obviously not in any way in anticipation of what was actually lying ahead when we, as UN-Water, agreed to have this theme in our meeting almost two years ago, I think we couldn’t have found a better theme had we known what was to happen.

Remembering the many values of water can and should help us better prepared for our future, that is, the future of our planet and all life on it and will certainly help us prepare for other global threats that may be ahead of us.

This year’s  conversation about water’s valuation takes place in five perspectives: valuing water sources (in-situ water resources and ecosystems); valuing water infrastructure, both natural and built infrastructure, for water storage, use, reuse or supply augmentation; valuing water services (drinking water, sanitation and related human health aspects); valuing water as an input to production and socioeconomic activities (e.g. food and agriculture, energy and industry, business and employment, transport); and socio-cultural values of water (e.g., recreation, spiritual).

A key recognition that relates to the intrinsic value of water is that it is essential, and relevant to, all aspects of life: water is life and as such, the value of water to human survival is infinite. It is indispensable, and it is a basic a human right.

Another key recognition about water’s value is that its presence can lead to a high social and economic cost with negative impacts. One can quickly list floods, droughts, water scarcity, untreated wastewater released into water bodies and onto land, rivers carrying plastic into the oceans, and the ills of water pollution and contamination. Tackling these properly, brings both avoidance benefits, for example through proper flood and drought management, and tangible, direct benefits such as using wastewater as a resource.

The climate change context positions water and sanitation as solutions – and not only threats. Protecting carbon sinks, adopting climate smart agriculture, wastewater in a circular economy context, increased productivity – these are all water solutions to address climate change.

While these are vastly recognized, the recognition has not translated into good governance of our water resources, integrated approaches in the management of water resources and services, and into transformative investments.

Going back to the pandemic context, we have plenty of supporting evidence to re-iterate that emergency interventions on water and sanitation must be planned and implemented with the broader picture and longer-term investments in sustainability, preparedness and resilience in mind.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck:

Global demand for water was on the rise while our water resources were becoming more and more polluted due to environmental degradation, unsustainable agricultural, industrial, and urban practices , compounded by a widespread lack of wastewater treatment.

Agriculture, which accounts for around 70% of freshwater usage, was getting thirstier, as were industry, manufacturing and energy sectors, often leaving poorer communities with insufficient and unsafe water resources and inadequate sanitation.

The effects of climate change were making water more scarce and more unpredictable, with floods, droughts, saline intrusion, desertification and soil erosion wreaking havoc and triggering displacement of millions of people.

While none of the above has changed fundamentally as a result of the pandemic, we have seen glimpses of how and in what ways carefully made interventions can catalyze the much needed, transformative positive change.

The 17 SDGs provide a ready-to-use framework to make this happen.

The members and partners of UN-Water developed the SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework, which, as countries are responding to the pandemic, offers a way to address the many water and sanitation related aspects with increased speed, focus and coherence.

The Framework aims to deliver fast results in countries at an increased scale, by focusing on five key accelerators to unlock country progress on SDG 6: Financing, Data & information, Capacity development, Innovation, and Governance.

We launched the acceleration framework in July last year and now the UN system and its partners are working with countries in implementing it.

Through the “Governance” accelerator, integrated solutions to achieve drinking water and sanitation access targets can be developed within a spatial approach that goes beyond municipal boundaries and considers effective management of infrastructure systems with focus on integrated urban and territorial planning, proper land use management, and legislation.

Leveraging the “innovation” accelerator in wastewater treatment and safe use helps reduce ambient water pollution and improve water and nutrient availability for agriculture.

The “financing” accelerator can help cash-strapped local governments invest first in less expensive, retro-fitting of existing systems while at the same time improving the collection of municipal taxes that in the longer term will generate a viable revenue stream that they can use to refinance loans and debt instruments for future investments in new, more expensive infrastructure.  

And last, but not the least, we hope we can catalyze innovative “financing” models to expand international cooperation and capacity-building in support of developing countries in an era of Covid-19 hit economies.

Bircan Hanim, thank you once again for the opportunity and thanks to the audience for their attention.

_ . _

ABOUT Prof. OLCAY ÜNVER, Arizona State Üniversity; formerly Vice-President of UN-Water

Olcay Ünver is a global leader in water policy. He is currently Professor of Practice at Environmental and Resource Management Program at Arizona State University, and member of Water Policy Group. He served as Vice Chair of UN-Water from 2018 to 2020, and is senior water advisor to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
In his public service career spanning three decades, he led FAO’s water programs and activities, UN-Water’s World Water Assessment Programme, and UNESCO’s Program Office on Global Water Assessment. Prior to joining the United Nations, he was a distinguished professor of water resources at Kent State University, Ohio and President of the Southeastern Anatolia Project in Turkey, where he transformed a large infrastructure project into a sustainable socioeconomic development program. In 1999, he was listed among the 19 “European Visionaries” by Time Magazine and was featured in New York Times for his efforts towards sustainable, human-centered development. He served as Secretary General and Vice President of IWRA, and Governor and Trasurer of World Water Council. He has served on boards and committees involving water, sustainable development, sustainable food and agriculture systems, water cooperation and policy. Olcay holds civil engineering degrees that include a PhD in water resources planning and management, master’s in urban hydrology and bachelor’s with hydraulics focus. His areas of competence include water and food security; bridging across global frameworks; governance of water-land-soil resources, and water cooperation. Olcay is an associate editor for Frontiers’ Water-Smart Food Systems and on the editorial board of Water Security Journal (Elsevier) and Future of Food Journal (Kassel University, Germany). He is a NATO Scholar, IWRA (International Water Resources Association) Fellow, and a TUBITAK (Turkish Scientific & Technical Research Council) Honor Fellow.

WELCOMING REMARK: 2021 WORLD WATER DAY
(Panelists’ presentations are linked in within this page.)

WWD2021: WATER, SANITATION, COVID-19, VALUES AND THE FUTURE OF WATER

WATER, SANITATION, COVID-19, VALUES AND THE FUTURE OF WATER | Save the Date for March 21