Daily Times

The UN 2023 Water Conference has wrapped after a breakthrough response to the global water crisis, with governments, businesses and civil society making almost 700 commitments to advance the water agenda, a dealmaker for accelerating sustainable development overall.

Pakistan’s four-member delegation, led by Hasan Nasir Jamy, took part in the historic conference’s intense deliberations on water-related challenges over the past three days. The conference drew more than 2,000 participants.

Apart from other issues, Jamy, who is Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, especially highlighted the need for transboundary water cooperation, citing the 1960 Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan — a lower riparian state — as an example of such successful cooperation that provides an effective mechanism to deal with issues related to shared water resources. In this regard, he drew attention to precedents and principles on the rights and obligations of both upper and lower riparians arising from bilateral and multilateral instruments, saying, “These norms must be fully respected by the concerned Parties”.

The conference’s agenda sets out a series of action-oriented game changing commitments, from making smarter food choices to re-evaluating water as a powerful economic driver, and part of the Earth’s cultural heritage.

From protecting the spread of disease to fighting poverty, natural resource also flows through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at a time when the world is grappling with climate change, water scarcity, and pollution.

“The commitments at this Conference will propel humanity towards the water-secure future every person on the planet needs,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres told delegates at the closing ceremony.

The conference forged an “ambitious vision”, the UN chief noted. “Your dedication to action and transformation is propelling us towards a sustainable, equitable and inclusive water-secure future for people and planet alike,” he said. “This conference demonstrated a central truth: as humanity’s most precious global common good, water unites us all, and it flows across a number of global challenges.” Co-hosted by Netherlands and Tajikistan, the Conference brought together world leaders, civil society, business leaders, young people, scientists, academics, the UN System and others from across sectors – agriculture, energy, environment and water – around a common goal: to urgently tackle the water crisis and set the world back on track to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 – On Clean Water and Sanitation by 2030.

To achieve this, the Secretary-General highlighted key game-changers: from reinforcing water’s place as a fundamental human right and reducing the pressures on the hydrological system, to developing new, alternative food systems to reduce the unsustainable use of water in food production and agriculture and designing and implementing a new global water information system to guide plans and priorities by 2030.