Abdulla Shahid, President of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Maldives has urged countries of the world to place water related issues in the core of multilateral discussions.
He said this in his message at the High-Level Panel on “Harnessing Global Development Agendas on the Road to 2023” during the World Water Week, held annually to explore ways to manage water and tackle the greatest challenges facing the world from food security and health to agriculture, technology, biodiversity and climate.
In his message, the PGA stressed on the significance of raising awareness on water related issues and put them front and center in multilateral discussions worldwide, adding that momentum needs to be built as preparations are launched for the United Nations 2023 Water Conference.
Access to water is a universal right and ensuring that right is a universal obligation. Acting on this is critical, especially at this time, as clean, and fresh water is necessary to support a sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet even before the pandemic, we were struggling to meet the targets outlined in Sustainable Development Goal 6 on access to clean water and sanitation.”Abdulla Shahid, PGA.
Stressing that 2.2 billion people live without access to safe water at present, PGA Shahid stated that more than 700 million people are at risk of being displaced due to water scarcity by 2030 which is intensified by the “raging” climate crisis and its “drastic” consequences on water-availability.
Further, he noted that longer droughts are becoming more frequent and the weather is growing more unpredictable as temperatures increase. This in turn affects the availability and distribution of rainfall, snowmelt, river flows and groundwater, directly.
PGA Shahid highlighted how the quality of already available water continues to worsen due to a variety of factors, including pollution and stressed on the urgency of accelerating initiatives aimed at addressing the challenges related to water resources.
He also noted that climate adaptation strategies in managing water-resources are required to be implemented to ensure everyone has access to clean water, adding that the need for this grows more pressing with a rising population, that is expected to reach eight billion by November 2022 which will in turn, cause increasing demand for water and stress on existing resources.
With this being said, the Maldivian foreign minister noted that water scarcity is not only a crisis by itself, but it has several spillover effects.
Water scarcity also undermines health and food security alongside having the potential to trigger further displacements, refugee-crises and political instability, he stated.
For these reasons, it is important that we raise awareness on water related issues and put them front and center in our multilateral discussions. Only by giving this issue the serious attention it deserves can we generate effective strategies, identify best-practices, and integrate water management tools. It is not yet too late to enact meaningful change. But we must work collectively and with purpose, if we are to achieve internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, including those contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”Abdulla Shahid, PGA.
PGA Shahid went on to urge global communities to build upon the commitments and initiatives made during COP26 in Glasgow, Stockholm +50, the Dushanbe Water Conference, the UN Ocean Conference as well as the ECOSOC High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
Stressing the urgency to build momentum as preparations are underway for the UN 2023 Water Conference, in March 2023, PGA Shahid urged to recommit to solve water-related issues and water scarcity which have such “profound” consequences environmentally, economically, socially and even on global sustainable development.
The Maldivian foreign minister noted that a more inclusive and effective path can be built through joint efforts, for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in the context of the Water decade of action, running from 2018 to 2028.
He added that the right to clean and fresh water, to all our communities can be guaranteed through joint efforts.
