17th Session of the UN CSD: WWAP session on ‘Water in a Changing World: Findings of the new World Water Development Report’

The seventeenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-17), located at the United Nations headquarters in New York, was held from the 4th to the 15th of May, 2009. During the activities of the CSD, delegates consider the CSD’s thematic cluster for 2008/2009 - agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification and Africa.

On Wednesday May 13th, the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) hosted a side event on “Water in a Changing World: Findings of the new World Water Development Report”, which addressed the CSD’s current thematic cluster in the context of water, a topic also covered by the CSD in previous years. WWAP described the food and agriculture-related findings and messages of its new report. The President of the World Water Council was invited to convey the messages of the Fifth World Water Forum and the way forward. In addition, WWAP partner DHI/UNEP reported on a WWDR3 case study in Zambia, in particular the successes in terms of IWRM/water governance in national policy as well as the challenges of data and indicators. The session took place from 1:15 – 2:45 pm in Conference Room 6 of the UN headquarters. The panel speeches and the subsequent Q&A session aimed to provide mutually reinforcing messages from the water community to the participants of the CSD-17.

In addition to this event, WWAP contributed to a side event organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey and the World Water Council (WWC) on Thursday, May 7th, titled “5th World Water Forum - Water Management Adaptation Strategies to the global changes”. (1:15-2:45 PM Conference Room 6)  The political products of the 5th World Water Forum and the third edition of the World Water Development Report (WWDR-3) focus on the impact of global changes such as population growth, land use changes, urbanization, economic expansion and climate change on water resources. They also make a call for accelerating coverage and investments for basic human water needs especially safe and clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, food, energy and mitigation of floods and droughts.  During this event, attendees heared presentations from the World Water Council on the political products and results of the 5th World Water Forum; from WWAP on the messages of the WWDR-3 in the context of the CSD’s major themes and on the way forward, regarding scenario development and second generation of indicators; and from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey on possible responses to the global challenges.