Water

By Isabelle Fauconnier, Water Policy and Sustainability Adviser, IUCN Global Water Programme.

As I reflect on the rich sessions of the recent 7th World Water Forum, I feel buoyed by the stimulating challenges that water management offers us but also curious as to how we – the global water community of practice and beyond – will actually tackle these in the coming years. For example, there is now a consensus that water-food-energy ‘Nexus’ thinking and transboundary water cooperation are each good ideas. These are two complex propositions that share a common obstacle: they are not easy to implement. Yet in many shared basins, as we move from policy talk to action on the ground, we must often overlay and take on these two very challenges.

We at IUCN, along with others, have made the case that nature is a solution for water, and not just a competing use for water. Ecosystems, as natural infrastructure, perform vital functions like water storage by forest soils and wetlands, soil nutrient cycling for food production, water purification, and more. In turn, it is healthy ecosystems that provide a key input, water, for the production of food and energy, and for human consumption. So if ecosystem functions are depleted, energy and food production and basic human water needs will suffer considerable losses.

Healthy river basins – healthy water supplies © Shutterstock SJ Travel

The tricky thing is that because ecosystems don’t follow political boundaries, they are often a shared resource between neighbouring countries. And in both transboundary and national river basins, they are a shared resource among user groups across food, energy and other economic sectors. So what will propel stakeholders – be they countries, basin institutions, user groups,

IUCN representatives are currently taking part in the 7th World Water Forum in the Republic of Korea. Marcello Rocca, Communications Officer for the Water and Wetlands Programme within IUCN’s Central and West Africa office, reports back on his experience of this important event so far.

“What are IUCN’s interventions in the water sector?” This simple question came from a Cambodian forty-year-old man who came to talk to me at the IUCN stand. The World Water Forum is an opportunity to present our activities in water governance and wetlands conservation. During the discussion my interlocutor had the opportunity to learn that I work in IUCN’s Central and West Africa office, and he seemed very interested in the partnership approach we adopt to implement integrated, cross-border water management, and in the results we have achieved. In turn, I was surprised to find that the problems he encounters in his work are similar to those I have experienced, and I asked him many questions in order to try to understand what solutions he adopts to achieve satisfactory long-term results. We parted ways after exchanging business cards and promising to keep in touch.

The 7th World Water Forum officially started on Sunday with the opening ceremony. Experts from numerous countries passed by the stands. Voices from Niger, the Mekong, the Rhine and the Mississippi all mixed; groups of people from various backgrounds shared their experiences and discussed possible future collaboration.

Fishing in the Mekong

“It is not the pearls that make the necklace but the wire.”

Everyone is aware of the importance of this forum and the need to act together to ensure participatory and sustainable water management.

We are using our participation