Idag hade jag turen att få delta i den franska Stockholm Junior Water Prize-ceremonin i Paris. Den svenske ambassadören Gunnar Lund delade ut priset – att få delta i den internationella tävlingen under Världsvattenveckan - till 4 lyckliga ungdomar från Agen i södra Frankrike som har hittat ett sätt att skörda de alger som skapar stora problem i franska vattendrag och göra ekologiskt gödningsmedel av dem istället. Algerna sprids varje sommar främst runt Bretagne genom övergödning och avger stinkande gaser såsom vätesulfid. Ungdomarna från gymnasiet Lycée Gustave Eiffel de Bordeaux hoppas kunna kommersialisera sin metod att torka algerna  så att de kan användas i jordbuket i större skala.


Pauline Cazeneuve, Nolwenn Gomez, Ollivier Pierre och Téo Laulan vann den franska delen av Stockholm Junior Water Prize och kommer delta i den internationella uttagningen på Världsvattenveckan i augusti

Ann-Mari Karlsson, Programme Officer, Swedish Water House

How do we alleviate poverty and meet the needs of a growing population in a world with finite natural resources?

This crucial question underpinned our dialogue on how to achieve a more sustainable use of water at the United Nations Global Compact's Nordic Network meeting in Stockholm on 24-25 April. The UN Global Compact assembles businesses committed to ten principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. This specific two-day meeting gathered members of the Nordic Network and over a hundred company representatives took part in the intensive dialogue. I was invited as a panelist in a session on water, ecosystems and companies. In addition to SIWI, Skanska and Xylem presented their work on water issues.

Water needs to be integrated as a cross-cutting theme in any sustainable business model. There was consensus in the panel that with today's increasing competition over scarce water resources, we risk depleting a resource that lies at the very core of the green growth.  Due to climate change, more than 3 billion people might be living in water-stressed countries by 2025. If the present trends continue, 2 out of 3 persons on Earth will live under water stressed conditions just 13 years from now.

With improved understanding of the acute need for more sustainable water use comes a responsibility to act. Fortunately, there are many good examples of businesses leading the way by incorporating water in more "water-wise" models. One such initiative is the Sweden Textile Water Initiative (STWI), consisting of SIWI and 32 leading companies in the textile and leather sector that have developed joint guidelines for sustainable water management "from thread and leather to the readymade product". These companies take on an important holistic perspective on water by including its impact throughout the supply chain.

After presenting STWI's work, several companies approached me and said that they would be interested in engaging in similar initiatives. There seemed to be an overall agreement that this is an interesting approach to collaborating on water issues. The future will tell to what extent, and exactly how, the participants of the session will work actively on water issues - but one thing is clear and that is that the "business of business" is no longer just business in the traditional sense of generating shareholder value. Today, businesses are urged to - and to an increasing extent - willing to, take greater responsibility for contributing to a more sustainable use of natural resources to support a more "water wise" world. 

Josephine Gustafsson, SIWI

At a breakfast meeting last Tuesday Mr. Achim Steiner, executive director of UNEP, shared his thoughts on the role of water in the green economy with the Swedish Water House network.

The concept of "green economy" is not always clear to everyone. Mr. Steiner however urged us not to get stuck on a definition, but underlined that the green economy is more a set of principles for how economies should develop in order to sustain a sustainable development. This can be done through many different avenues, fiscal and policy reform to stimulate renewable energy are just a few, as is payment for ecosystem services. It entails a range of delicate challenges, such as how to achieve a policy change in parliaments, or achieving economic development in countries where people don’t even have basics rights in place. The idea that a country must develop first and only then worry about the environment is a fallacy. Mr. Steiner emphasized the importance of moving beyond the North and South opposition, and bringing the green economy discussion to the core of sustainable development.
 
Achim Steiner, executive director of UNEP. Photo: Ann-Mari Karlsson

Water has many roles in the economy. The way that natural resources are used always affects people very differently and so equity issues are central to water management. At the Rio+20 conference in June, Mr. Steiner hopes that sectors will stop looking at how to capture and manage "their" particular resource against the interests of others, and instead start linking different users of water and to look at the entire hydrological flow to discuss how these flows should be managed.

Policymakers now need ripe advice on how to move forward with economies in light of the environmental state of the world. Mr. Steiner pointed out that it is difficult for decision makers to navigate in the cacophony of voices on biodiversity issues today. Rio will, among other things, discuss the Millennium Development Goals and whether they should be followed up with a set of Sustainable Development Goals to be reinstated for every country. But how to formulate these goals, should we define each domain according to water, forests, mountains, e.t.c or should we take a systemic approach based on the interconnected nature of these domains? While Mr. Steiner warned against too much fragmentation, parts of the audience pointed out that water as a prerequisite for the functioning of all other domains should have its own role in the sustainability goals.

by Ann-Mari Karlsson, Swedish Water House

Andreas Lindström, Programme Officer at SIWI and cluster group leader for "Water and Energy" reports back from his visit to the AsiaWater 2012 conference.
 
The 7th edition of the annual water conference AsiaWater was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 26-29 March. The conference, which is co- organized by the Malaysian Water Association (MWA), is considered the major event in Asia regarding water and wastewater industry issues and attracts thousands of visitors both to its exhibition and conference component. Traditionally participants represent water supply authorities, policy makers, water treatment engineers, researchers, environmental specialists and equipment suppliers.  The headline of this edition of the conference was “efficiency and sustainability”- key concerns shared by water and energy developers alike and areas of interest where management of the resources is connected in an obvious way both in the short and long term.

The morning of March 29 was completely devoted to a seminar organized by Prof. Gustaf Olsson, emeritus Lund University. The event focussed on risks and opportunities related to growing water and energy challenges both at the local and regional level. Other invited speakers were Prof. Otto Nowak of Joanneum Research Austria, Prof. Jules B. Van Lier of Delft University, The Netherlands and myself. Gustaf Olsson initiated the session by providing an overview of water and energy related issues explaining the explicit linkages between the resources and pointed to the fact that the energy sector "may be the largest consumer of water among all industrial sectors, but that this relationship is rarely picked up on as long as there is a surplus of both resources". Otto Nowak and Jules Van Lier talked about energy efficiency opportunities in waste water treatment. Otto Nowak provided exciting examples of wastewater treatment plants in Austria that were not only energy self-sufficient but even energy positive in that they on an annual average produced more energy than they consumed through utilization of combined heat and power units. Jules Van Lier talked about opportunities in anaerobic treatment of sewage, a possibly attractive option to commonly energy demanding treatment processes. He posed the question; "why destruction of chemically bound energy at the expense of fossil derived energy still seem to be the universal response in waste water treatment, when feasible options are being developed through present innovation advancements?". In my presentation I touched on some of the issues Gustaf had pointed out, bringing the focus back to the regional perspective of water and energy linkages, further defining the relationship. Examples were also provided from a transboundary perspective on how nations can collaborate on shared water and energy assets in shared river basins, highlighting the possible role of well executed hydropower projects in this regard. The presentation also included how dialogue can be enhanced between energy and water communities providing the examples from how the Swedish cluster group on water and energy linkages work. The presentation ended with an example of how a tailored version of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) can be used in sound water and energy development at the transboundary scale.

It was a very rewarding experience to take part in such an interesting event and to meet people from many different backgrounds with a shared commitment to sustainable development of water and energy resources - all framed by the very warm and hospital Malayan culture.
 

Mitt namn är Melika och jag går i åttonde klass på Europaskolan. I en vecka har jag praoat på Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). Det är ett policyinstitut som söker hållbara lösningar på världens snabbt ökande vattenproblem. SIWI bedriver projekt, forskning för att främja en hållbar utveckling. En av SIWIs avdelningar heter Swedish Water House (SWH). SWH skiljer sig lite från SIWI genom att de jobbar framför allt med svenska aktörer medan SIWI har internationella kontakter. Jag har bistått i arbetet med en av våra klustergrupper som tittar på gränsöverskridande vattenförvaltning, bland annat med att uppdatera information i deras databas. Jag har även varit med på möten och skrivit protokoll. SIWIs kontor ligger vid Sergels torg. Det är en väldigt fin och rund byggnad med en häftig och unik arkitektur. Tanken bakom mitt val av praoplats var främst att jag ville göra något kul som ändå skulle vara en samhällstjänst och att jag skulle lära mig någonting av det. Jag vet att jag har kommit rätt och jag har trivts på SIWI och fått en bild av vad jag vill bli i framtiden. Jag har inte så väldigt mycket erfarenhet än, men jag antar att alla på SIWI känner att de verkligen gör en skillnad, vilket är något positivt.

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The Nile Basin stands at a crossroads. It will not be able to feed its growing population and support a rising urban middle-class by focusing on current water practices only. Instead, a comprehensive basin development approach must be chosen, involving rainfed and irrigated agriculture, the importation of food, and the development of an export-oriented service and industrial sector to pay for the imported food. The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and a future Nile River Basin Commission (NRBC) are in a unique position to help secure a future where more food is grown with less water, where all people have enough to eat and a growing economy contributes to export earnings.

In a study entitled "NBI Core Agricultural Functions Study: Proposed framework, options and functions for a NBI/Nile River Basin Commission Agricultural Agenda" and carried out by a Ramboll Natura  - Stockholm International Water Institute consortium in 2011, the future of NBI/NRBC in promoting agriculture in the basin is presented. The report will be made available at www.nilebasin.org in the near future.

The report initially reviews the global experience of river basin organizations engaged in promoting agriculture. The conclusion is that this hardly ever happens - river basin organizations focus on hydropower, environment and water sharing, not agriculture. Following this is a review of the different roles that NBI/NRBC can take in promoting agriculture; to facilitate basin processes, implement own activities, support other organizations with expertise and information, and act as a lobbyist.     

However, the main thrust of the report is on four categories of "core agricultural functions" that NBI/NRBC can provide. These are:

1. policy formulation and cooperation;
2. knowledge management;
3. basin development; and
4. market development.

Each category consists of some 4-5 sub-functions. To single out one specific function per category: it is proposed that a policy should be developed on "water and agriculture standards", i.e. the standards that unite the basin in terms of e.g. water quality or water use efficiency; to promote "agricultural research and knowledge management"; to "facilitate project preparations", i.e. to assist in reaching agreements and secure funding for new projects; and "marketing/promotion of agricultural trade". The report ends with a review of the drivers that may shape food and water security and agricultural development opportuni¬ties in the Nile basin in the short, medium, and long-term.

The topic of the report is obviously of great interest. All around the world is "basin management" being promoted as the new and beneficial alternative to conventional water management according to political or administrative units. But the key question still remains to be answered - how is food production enhanced by having a transboundary basin organisation engaged in agriculture? This study indicates that a number of such potential "functions" exist - a focus on e.g. increased land and water productivity, a support to ecological functions, and to turn food production increasingly commercial - but we still need to see them successfully implemented. A strong theme throughout the report is the argument that since a basin agreement is today in the making, an opportunity also exists in moving from national food self-sufficiency to basin food security.    

Join our breakfast meeting on April 24:

Towards a green economy? The role of energy and water
A conversation with Achim Steiner

Time: 8 - 9 am, breakfast is served from 7:30 am
Venue: Svenska Läkaresällskapet, Klara Östra Kyrkogata 10
Facilitator: Karin Lexén, Director, Swedish Water House

To sign up for the meeting, please send an e-mail to ann-mari.karlsson@siwi.org.
Seats are limited, first come first serve. The meeting is free of charge.
Read more

Den 27 mars besökte jag gymnasiet Dragonskolan i Umeå för att tala om SIWIs och SWHs arbete, samt om Världsvattendagens och Världsvattenveckans tema ”Water and Food Security”.

Jag landade tidigt i ett snötäckt Umeå och skyndade mig till skolan för att träffa de första eleverna, en blandad grupp från flera olika program och klasser. Det är nyttigt att ibland lämna sitt skrivbord och träffa ungdomar som ställer relevanta, och ibland svåra, frågor om SIWIs arbete. SIWI är ett policyinstitut, men vad innebär det egentligen? Det enkla är ibland det som är svårast att förklara, men klargörandet att SIWI ställer upp riktlinjer och skapar program för att lösa världens vattenproblem, snarare än att bygga brunnar i utvecklingsländer, var ett svar som eleverna accepterade . Vi gick sedan över till ämnet för föreläsningen ”Water and Food Security” eller det något krångliga svenska namnet ”hållbar vattenanvändning för en tryggad matproduktion”. Där det finns brist på vatten finns det nästan alltid brist på mat. 1,1 miljarder människor har enligt FAO inte tillgång till tillräckligt med rent vatten för att klara sina dagliga behov och lika många är hungriga.

Vi diskuterade om det är rimligt att vi i Sverige spolar i våra toaletter med rent dricksvatten medan 8 000 barn världen över dör varje dag på grund av vattenrelaterade sjukdomar. Och hur kommer det sig att så många människor går och lägger sig hungriga när vi producerar tillräckligt med mat för att mätta alla? Att undersökningar visar att var fjärde matkasse i Sverige slängs förbluffade eleverna, som lovade att fundera en extra gång innan de slänger mjölken som enligt datumförpackningen gick ut igår. Om vi istället tittar, luktar och smakar på maten kan vi spara mycket mat, och därmed även mycket vatten.  Innan det var dags att lämna Umeå fick varje grupp information om det svenska juniorvattenpriset. Möjligheten att vinna 30 000 kronor och representera Sverige i den internationella finalen under Världsvattenveckan 26-31 augusti lockade flera elever och vi ser fram emot att ta del av deras spännande projekt. Du kan läsa mer om priset här:  http://www.siwi.org/svenskajuniorvattenpriset 

av Julia Hector, SIWI

The main theme for the 6th World Water Forum was "Time for solutions" and one of the sub-themes dealt with at the thematic sessions was "Respond to climate and global changes in an urbanizing world". The sub-themes under the 6th World Water Forum were, however, not only themes developed and discussed at the Forum as such, but they were prepared during an ongoing process initiated after the 5th WWF in Istanbul 2009 and leading up to the 6th WWF. The process concerned the Water and Climate-theme identified that water management would require holistic and multidisciplinary responses to the increasingly complex challenges, including those linked to responses to climate and global changes. Hence, under the theme seven different targets were identified with different target-and-solution-group coordinators, which would all contribute to the process.

The issue of Water and Climate Change was debated and discussed during high level political round tables, such as the closed session on "Adaptation to Climate Change" convened by the National Water Commission of Mexico, CONAGUA, the Jordan Ministry of Water and Irrigation, and the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture, Sea, Environment and Spatial Planning. This Roundtable resulted in a set of Recommendations on

• Improving water governance horizontally as well as vertically;
• Improving water management financing, including by a mainstreaming of funding strategies; and
• The need to ensure for decision making under uncertainty, in combination with no regrets strategies as key components of the enabling environment to manage water resources.

The three convening countries and other stakeholders “commit to build the consensus and outcomes of this roundtable into ongoing processes, such as the UNFCCC and the Rio+20 Conference”.

One of the high level panels was “Water Debate: Increasing Resilience to Climate Change: What is the Role of Water Storage”, which included panelists Maria Mutagamba, Minister of Water and Environment, Uganda, Gabriel Azavedo, Director of Sustainability, Odebrecht Energy, Brazil, and Rachel Kyte, Vice President for Sustainable Development, World Bank and the former key water person at the World Bank and one of the initiators to the World Commissions on Dams, now professor of Environmental Engineering at Harvard University, John Briscoe. The panel discussed the role of man-made water storage as part of a solution for building resilience to changing water futures. However, the discussions revealed not very much of new suggestions.

There were also side events, such as the one on “Improving Water Resources Management Through the Global Framework for Climate Services /GFCS)” convened by WMO, and regional sessions such as the one convened by the Korea Water Forum on "Water Education Center for Sustainable Future: Meeting Challenges of Climate Change in Northeast Asia", and the session by Inter-American Development Bank and Mexico National Water Commission (CONAGUA): "Top-Down or Bottom-Up Approaches to Water-Based Climate Change Adaptation in the Americas: the 'Chicken and Egg' Syndrome", all discussing suggested solutions to water adaptation to climate change. Also the high level roundtable on the "Future of Water Desalination" suggested more concrete solutions.

Among the key events under the thematic sessions on "Respond to climate and global changes in an urbanizing world" was the one on "Building Blocks for Integrating Water into the Climate Regime - Raising the Profile of Water in the Global Climate Discourse" convened by Water and Climate Coalition/SIWI. This session, with contributions from among others Freshwater Action Network, CONAGUA Mexico, BRAC University Bangladesh, UNFCCC secretariat and the Unit for Adaptation to Climate Change, EC, in a panel discussion convened by Karin Lexén, SIWI, agreed that water expertise needs to be represented where decisions are made. The chairperson to the UNECE Convention on the 'Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes', suggested that as that convention is now open also for partners outside UNECE, its third workshop on "Water and Adaptation to Climate Change in Transboundary Basins: Making adaptation work" to be held in Geneva, 25-26 April 2012 might be a useful opportunity for following-up and intensifying the discussions towards a more pertinent place for water on the UNFCCC agenda.

Inför Stockholm +40 och Rio +20 bjöd Swedish Water House in Lars-Göran Engfeldt, tidigare miljöambassadör och nu ordförande i Transparency International, till ett samtal om uthållig utveckling. Lars-Göran som varit engagerad i det internationella arbetet med miljöfrågorna sedan 1968, brinner fortfarande för frågorna och hade många tankar kring vad som behövs för att flytta fram klimatarbetet. 

Han berättar att under FN:s klimatkonferens i Nairobi 2006 satsade man på små konventioner som var legalt bindande. Man trodde att dessa skulle leda till konkreta åtaganden men endast en av de 300 som slöts har haft effekt. Med så många konventioner är det svårt för länder få en överblick och det är lätt att tappa kontrollen.

Inför Rio har man glömt bort allt vi förband oss till att göra för 10 år sedan. Man återupptar mål utan att blicka tillbaka. Det är ett stort problem att gemensamt fattade beslut inte får effekt på nationell nivå menar Lars-Göran. Inför Rio verkar man ha trollat bort det faktum att inga tidigare beslut implementerats. Det behövs nationella övervakningsmekanismer som ser till att få uppfyller de mål vi åtagit oss.

Trots att det finns en större förståelse idag för det helhetsgrepp som behövs för att uppnå en hållbar utveckling så behandlas miljö- sociala och ekonomiska frågor fortfarande separat. Det finns en stor fragmentering, och sektorisering i det politiska arbetet.

Lars-Göran avslutar med att betona behovet av en ung, aktiv generation som engagerar sig i politiken och media och sätter press på våra politiker. De rika länderna måste ta sitt ansvar och gå före i klimatarbetet. Det är vi som har dragit fördelarna av den ekonomiska tillväxten och ökade välståndet och det är därför naturligt att vi går i bräschen i klimatarbetet.

Läs Göran-Engfeldts bok ”From Stockholm to Johannesburg and beyond”

av Karin Glaumann, SIWI

On March 6th of this year the Joint Monitoring program of UNICEF and the World Health Organization announced that the world has met the MDG target of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water. Yet, the same report highlights that the world is still far from meeting the sanitation target and is unlikely to do so by 2015. According to the report, only 63% of the world has access to improved sanitation, well below the target goal of 75%. Without a significant change in the rate that sanitation in delivered, it will take until 2026 until the sanitation target is met.

So the pressure is on to find solutions and new approaches. In fact, that is the theme of the World Water Forum held in Marseille. The conference organizers have started a webpage where people can post their solutions and even gather votes and feedback (http://www.solutionsforwater.org/. The solutions for sanitation include, increasing the capacity of system operators, backing the human right to sanitation, planted wetlands for biomass production, public education and awareness-raising, empowering young people as change leaders, strengthening women’s roles, decentralized treatment options, and pro-poor financing schemes. Nearly 150 sanitation solutions have been submitted. What is striking about the list is how few of the solutions are technology-based. The majority have to do with providing an “enabling environment” for positive behavior change, pro-active politics and increased affordability. Where there are technical solutions, they tend to focus on the potential for reuse of water and nutrients or gaining energy through biogas or biofuel.

To me the message in this is quite strong - sanitation does not stand alone. The solutions to reaching global sanitation coverage must be integrated into the web of society and its use of resources. Sanitation is not a “thing” that can be packaged and sold like the latest cell phone or pills to cure malaria. It is essentially about hygiene habits and attitudes towards cleanliness. It is a state of being that is created through education and behavior change. Yet, it is also about the management of physical waste streams; waste that is increasingly recognized as a potential resource. The solution to global sanitation thus lies in fostering the values of sanitation and linking it directly to economic gains.

There are of course huge challenges remaining in how to do this on a global scale. But like many changes, it can also start small - with individual changes. It starts with the education of our children; teaching them to appreciate a clean restroom, to pick up trash, to use the toilet properly. It starts with consumers using biogas from wastewater treatment and demanding produce fertilized with recycled nutrients. It starts with citizens pushing their representatives for more closed-loop options that increase resource efficiency in waste management, and supporting the export of these ideas to the areas that need them most. It starts with a global movement and dialogue about the value of sanitation.

Är du intresserad av vatten- och utvecklingsfrågor? Vill du ta del av och bidra till ny forskning och innovativa lösningar på världens vattenutmaningar?
Världsvattenveckan är ett unikt forum där forskare, beslutsfattare samt representanter från företag och civilsamhället utbyter idéer, erfarenheter och strategier som bidrar till ett mer hållbart samhälle.

Vi söker nu dig som vill arbeta som Junior Rapporteur under årets Världsvattenvecka den 26-31 augusti. Årets tema är vatten och livsmedelstrygghet. Som Junior Rapporteur hjälper du ledande experter att sammanfatta och analysera allt som händer under Världsvattenveckan.

Uppdraget är inte betalt med ger mycket bra möjligheter till nätverkande! SWH står för din avgift, luncher och sociala event. Vi vänder oss i första hand till personer baserade i Sverige. Du kan också arbeta som assistent. Vi behöver din ansökan senast den 1 maj. Se mer information om hur du ansöker här.

Av Karin Glaumann, Swedish Water House

Governance is crucial in achieving efficient, sustainable and fair water distribution and delivering adequate sanitation services. However, there is no blueprint, no simple formula for success to can be followed to ensure good governance in the water sector. The complexity of institutional and governmental structures calls for diverse approaches to achieve good governance.

The thematic process of the 6th World Water Forum reflects this understanding of the importance of good governance: The UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI (WGF) and the Water Integrity Network (WIN), with support from Transparency International (TI), joined efforts to place the crucial issue of integrity and transparency on the agenda at the World Water Forum. Two targets related to the topic of good governance were subsequently developed aiming at achieving wider use of corruption risk assessments and diagnostic studies and clear mechanisms for transparent information sharing, including budget transparency.

On the morning of March 15, visitors of the World Water Forum were invited to attend the joint WGF and WIN session on integrity and transparency in the water sector, to listen to various partners and network members sharing their experiences in promoting water integrity and good governance. It was a lively session with a diverse and interesting selection of case studies from Africa, Europe and Asia, which inspired as well as incited water stakeholders to take action to improve integrity and transparency, with a view to reduce corruption, in the water sector. The presenters shed light on what can be done to reach our targets. One of the presenters, Babatope Babalobi from the West Africa WASH Journalists Network reminded the audience of the critical role of journalists as watchdogs for accountable behavior in the WASH sector. Despite the highly sensitive issue and the dangerous working environment, Babatope and his network continue to improve the quality and accessibility of public information in the sector.

A high-level panel of mayors, bilateral donor representatives, public utility and an inter-governmental organisations discussed how political commitment to good governance and integrity in the water sector can be achieved. The audience had the opportunity to learn what concrete steps have already been taken to move forward.

The initiatives taking place at the grassroots level need to be complemented and directed by adequate policies. It is not so much about a lack of tools and methodologies to reduce corruption and improve accountability in the water sector - the challenge is to scale up their implementation.

The activities that took place at the World Water Forum present an important step in a long-term process which will require continuously raising awareness and joining efforts for improved water governance and integrity.
 

Marseille is nice. Another day with nice weather and intersting discussions. SIWI has been very active - today for example a new report on land aqcusitions and transboundary water management was launched that received a lot of attention and interest both from media as well as forum participants. The topic is new interesting and an emerging and important area that requires much more attention. The water aspect in the new land deals have largely been forgotten (or ignored) and there is a need to include water aspects in the land contracts. A land investment is a water investment.

Listen to Anders Jägerskog's radio interview here, "Leasing Land, Leasing Water".

SIWI booth at the 6th World Water Forum

 
SIWI deltar i över 20 seminarier under det 6e World Water Forumet i Marseille, 12-17 mars. Om du vill veta vilka, se vår flyer. Under konferensen i Marseille passar SIWI på att sända några viktiga budskap inför toppmötet om hållbarhet i Rio de Janeiro, Rio+20. Budskapen handlar om att framtida energibehov kräver en bättre vattenresurshantering, vatteneffektiviteten i jordbruket måste öka, kunskap om vattenresurser måste användas i klimatanpassningsarbetet, stödet till samarbete kring vatten mellan länder måste stärkas, och slutligen, att beslutsfattande kring vatten måste bli mer rättvist och byggas på starkare deltagande av intressenter. Läs budskapen i sin helhet här.

Many natural disasters that involve calamities such as droughts, floods and earth quakes result in internationally supported recovery assistance. This is particularily true when the national efforts are unable to cope with the situation. Recovery activities that focus on food security, such as those currently found in Ethiopia, are mostly oriented and limited towards seed and tool distribution, potentially also topped up with some food assistance (The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies). While such support may be appropriate and can serve to support immidiate needs and short term recovery, it rarely addresses the root causes to the crisis. It is often only a matter of time until the same population face another crisis of similar nature.

It is imperative to understand the root causes to a crisis in order to provide appropriate support. And with the modern age of access to more and better information, emergency response operations have never been better equipped to target the real, identified root causes to a crisis and thus contribute to long-term, resilience building (World Disasters Report 2010). It is also vital for post-disaster responses to strengthen and support the survivors' own organizations.
However, reality looks different. The big donor’s funding is rarely sufficient in neither amount nor flexibility. Humanitarian emergency operations are often limited to immediate needs - they rarely stretch beyond a year - and they are unable to address the many drivers that are behind a particular crisis. As an example, in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, after the 2004 tsunami, with international aid under pressure to spend and to build, many buildings were put up, but when construction was finished and aid agencies withdrew, communities were left with no source of income, no social cohesion and little support for the future.  

If adequate time is spent to analyse and understand the root causes to e.g. a lack of food, in particular when it is related to droughts and climate change, improved land, water and nutrient management can be addressed. Water availability is key for a stable production and in turn also a prerequisite to encourage further investments in the production. But that requires farming systems that are water efficient, productive and resilient. To reduce the risk in farming is key to sucess.

Looking into the future, the funding time-frames to humanitarian emergencies must be extended. That will allow for a proper analysis of the root causes of a crisis and to take a broader, long-term problem solving approach to the crisis, as opposed to today’s short-term, sectorial and segmented response (Department of Cooperative Governance, RSA; UNICEF). There is also a need to coordinate inbetween the different donor organisations – there were at lest some 45 different organisations providing emergency assitance to the Horn of Africa crisis last year, many focusing on water-related support (The Nightly News, 26 September 2011). It is highly questionable if this is the most appropriate approach to address a complex, partly drought-driven crisis.

by Dr Patrick Fox

References:

• IFRC
• World Disasters Report 2010
• The Nightly News
• Department of Cooperative Governance, Republic of South Africa
• UNICEF