Reflections from the UN 2023 Water Conference’s Preparatory Session was hosted by the President of the UN General Assembly in NYC at UN HQ on 10/25/22.

by Bulent DOGRUYOL, Representative, The Light Millennium, Charitable Global Human Advancement Organization (LMGlobal.Org) to the #UN2023WaterConference

Introduction:
“The UN 2023 Water Conference – formally known as the 2023 Conference for the Midterm Comprehensive Review of Implementation of the UN Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation (2018-2028) – will take place at UN Headquarters in New York, 22-24 March 2023, co-hosted by Tajikistan and the Netherlands.
The conference will include an opening and closing session, six plenary sessions, and five interactive dialogues, as well as side events organized by participants. It will result in a summary of proceedings from the UNGA President that will feed into the 2023 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF).”
Source: https://www.unwater.org/news/un-2023-water-conference

[LMGlobal.Org] To lay the groundwork for its 2023 UN Water Conference in March (Mar 22-24, 2023) at the United Nations Head Quarters in New York City, the President of the UN General Assembly held a Preparatory Meeting at its Head Quarters on October 25, 2022.  

The meeting, which was open to member states and registered stakeholders, was well attended.

I had the privilege to represent LMGlobal.Org, a specially-accredited stakeholder organization at the 2023 UN Water Conference at the UN.

This is a summary of my observations.

Water as we all know is the lifeblood of our planet. As such it must be cherished and protected. This conference, for this reason, constitutes the recognition of this fact, albeit belatedly (the last one was in 1977). A point made by many speakers.

Briefly, the conference will be co-hosted by the governments of Tajikistan and the Netherlands. It will center around the following interactive themes:

1.     Water for Health: safe drinking water, sanitation, hygiene

2.     Water for Development: water-energy-food Nexus, economic & urban development

3.     Water for Climate, Resilience & Environment: sea, biodiversity, climate

4.     Water for Cooperation: international cross-boundary water cooperation

5.     Water Action Decade: accelerate the implementation of objectives

These themes will be supported by the following five accelerators:

Financing, Data & Information, Capacity Development, Innovation, Governance

The President of the General Assembly (#UNPGA77), Csaba Körösi (Hungary) opened the proceedings, followed by greetings by department heads and representatives of co-hosts Tajikistan & the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This was followed by statements from participating states and relevant stakeholders on the themes mentioned, above.

Close to 60 nations/stakeholders took the floor: Egypt, Philippines, the EU, Poland, Vietnam, Red Cross/Crescents, Int’l Science Council, Indonesia, Romania, Singapore, Morocco, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Spain, Finland, UNICEF, Pakistan, Russia, Sweden, France, South Africa, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Japan, Slovenia, Syria, Kenya, Türkiye, Switzerland, Colombia, Australia, Iraq, USA, UK, FAO, ECE, Dominican Republic, Namibia, Guatemala, Senegal, Israel, Chile, India, Peru, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Vatican, WMO, WHO, UNCDF, Int’l Committee of Red Cross, UNEP, UNHabitat, UNDP, UNESCO.

A clear demand that emerged from the interventions was a call  to the UN Secretary General to establish a new post: UN Special Envoy for Water.  More than 150 nations are supporting this goal. The U.S. has named Monica Medina U.S.’ special envoy for Biodiversity and Water Resources. Some other countries have also appointed similar diplomats. As an overarching impression the appointment of a “UN Special Envoy for Water” is expected to be one of the outcomes of the #UN2023WaterConference.

Another point stressed by several representatives is that access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene* is a fundamental Human Right and must be a priority in policies.

Support for the five themes and accelerators was widespread and strong thus resulting in their adoption by the General Assembly.

Of special concern to Türkiye is theme 4 concerning international cross-boundary cooperation in water resource usage. The roadmap to be followed by Türkiye is hotly debated by experts in Türkiye.

Going forward the UN is still soliciting presentations from member states as well as stakeholders until Dec 02, 2022.

_ . _

Report by Bulent Dogruyol, LMGlobal.Org

Special Thanks to: Prof. Olcay Ünver for his provided valuable inputs.

[*] “Human right to water and sanitation” was adopted (A/RES/64/292) by the UN General Assembly on 28 July, 2010. 
Five years after, in order to prevent misinterpretation and complications, “Human right to Sanitation” was independently declared.

More information can be found through the following links:

https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/final_water_consultation_report_19_oct.pdf

https://sdgs.un.org/conferences/water2023/about

https://sdgs.un.org/conferences/water2023

International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development, 2018-2028

References:
https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N09/479/35/PDF/N0947935.pdf?OpenElement
https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/human-rights-water-and-sanitation

#UN2023WaterConference, #SDG6, #HumanRightToWater #HumanRightToSanitation #SDGs, #GlobalGoals, #LMGlobalOrg, #lightmillennium #SpecialAccreditedNGO, #PreparatorySession, #UNWithCivilSociety #UNGA77