SIWI encourages everyone to join the Thematic Consultation on Water

The aim of this water consultation is to facilitate voices from a broad range of stakeholders to build consensus around key future challenges in water in the post-2015 development agenda. Starting today (Jan 14th) and proceeding for the next 5 weeks, the three thematic sub-consultations below will be holding in-depth e-discussions. This will be followed by a 2-week consultation exploring the linkages between the themes and will be fed into the intergovernmental process to develop Post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals.

The Thematic Consultation on Water in the post-2015 development agenda is now open, waiting for your inputs on the www.worldwewant2015.org/water website.
The water consultation is part of the UN-system led “global dialogue” comprising of 50-100 Country Consultations and eleven global Thematic Consultations, including one on water. The water consultation is mainly taking place as an online discussion using different social media. The purpose is to bring voices from a broad range of stakeholders to build consensus around key future challenges related to water and the need for a new global water goal in the post-2015 development agenda.

The thematic consultation on water is divided in three sub-consultations:

• Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
• Water resources
• Wastewater management and water quality

On January 14, all sub-consultations started their online activity inviting everyone to share their insights and opinions on different topics. Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) will lead and moderate the first week under the Water Resources Management theme, which opens with a focus on water and energy.

Water for Energy - Energy for Water

Water and energy linkages have rapidly risen to the forefront of attention among urgent themes related to development challenges in the international community. The importance of water as a key pillar to sustain human well-being, secure livelihood opportunities and provide bases for diverse productive uses has long been recognized. In a similar manner, the need for energy to raise people out of poverty and fuel growing economies, whilst sustaining mature ones, is a well-established fact. The notion about how these resources are linked and dependent on each other has for a long time gone unnoticed by the broader global community, but not any more. The fact that energy needs water in its production and that water needs energy in order to be extracted, treated and moved is quickly gathering awareness as the demand for diminishing water resources increases.

Simultaneously the demand for energy is projected to grow massively over the next 20 years. The challenges and opportunities tied to this development are great and have been recognised in different ways by major development institutions. The World Economic Forum ranks water supply challenges at number three on their Global Risk Ranking for the coming years. In the UN report titled “Secretary-General’s Initial Input to the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals” (2012), the entire nexus of water, energy and food security is ranked as separate topics on the top three positions for priority areas among member states.

You can read our full paper about water and energy at www.worldwewant2015.org/water/waterresources where you can contribute to the discussion and post your own comments. You can also participate through social media via Twitter using the hashtag #waterpost2015 or visit the Facebook page WaterPost2015.

SIWI encourages everyone to take the opportunity to participate in the consultation on water and energy during January 14-20, 2013, and be part of creating the world we want.

The outcome from the different discussions will be summarised into policy recommendations in a final report that will be transmitted to the High-level Panel on Post-2015 appointed by the UN Secretary General at the end of March.