(NATCOM) BASSETERRE St. Kitts, March 11, 2014 -- International Water Day, in which UNESCO is the lead agency, is celebrated annually on 22 March. This year, the theme is: “Water and Energy”.
In her annual World Water Day message, the Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, took the time to highlight that, “Water is fundamental to life and it is the common denominator of all sustainable development challenges and that we need water to produce food and also to produce energy”.
We were also reminded that on this World Water Day 2014 that, “We need to better understand the complex interactions between resources that are closely interlinked, such as water, food and energy and we must acknowledge that it is impossible to manage these resources sustainably if we treat them in isolation as each mode of energy production has implications for the quantity and quality of water available”, she continued.
According to Irina Bokova, “It is essential that the choices made in one sector have repercussions on the other, for better and for worse. For example, the World Water Development Report confirms, that people who lack electricity are also those who lack water. This is no coincidence as water is required to produce energy, and energy is required to sanitize and convey water as both are essential to human wellbeing and sustainable development”.
“Sustainability depends on our ability to understand all these connections and to develop more relevant policies that take an integrated approach to interconnected resources however, the challenge is great as the demand for water and energy is soaring, particularly in emerging economies, where agriculture, industry and cities are developing at a tremendous pace. Therefore, we must find ways to ensure access to water and energy in sufficient quantity and quality, in a sustainable way” she surmised.
Additionally, “Sustainability requires better cooperation between all water stakeholders; policymakers, scientists and businesses, both public and private, who all too often ignore each other while in reality they depend on each other”.
Irina Bokova reaffirmed that, “UNESCO will continue to commit its resources to this cause, in particular through our International Hydrological Programme, the Institute for Water Education in Delft, our centres and Chairs specialized in water, and the data from the World Water Assessment Programme, which are all ways of building capacity, carrying out research and sharing good practices. Together, we can better integrate water and sanitation and the link between water and energy as positive levers for sustainable development”.
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