UNESCO Regional Office  in Cairo celebrates the World Water Day 2023, 22 March, 2023

Observed on March 22 of every year, United Nations World Water Day serves to raise awareness about water challenges and the global water crisis.

World Water Day is also when UNESCO launches the annual World Water Assessment Report (WWDR), published by UNESCO’s World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) on behalf of UN-Water, which is the United Nations platform that coordinates the working of UN Agencies and partners on water.

The 2023 world water day is most significant as it marks the start of the UN 2023 Water Conference (22-24 March 2023), held with the main theme of “Accelerating Change”. Starting today, the conference, which is the second UN Conference on water since 1977, will review progress on achieving the sixth goal of the sustainable development agenda 2030 (SDG6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all. Water and Sanitation) as we mark the mid-point of the International Decade for Action on “Water for Sustainable Development” (2018-2028). Water-sector leaders from around the world will review and reaffirm commitments to SDG6 and other internationally agreed water-related goals.

It is paramount to accelerate, at national, regional, and global scales actions on SDG6. With only 7 years remaining to achieve the Sustainable Development Agenda, the world water development report, launched today by the Director-General of UNESCO, estimates that achieving universal coverage by 2030 (as required by SDG6) will require a quadrupling the current rates of progress in WASH (Water Sanitation and Hygiene) services. According to the report, to date, 2 billion people worldwide (26% of the population) still do not have safe drinking water and 4.6 billion (46%) lack access to safely managed sanitation. In addition, many people live at least one month every year under severe water stress in both rural and urban areas. Water quality and water ecosystem continue to be threatened by population growth and rapid urbanization and the future food security of many countries, especially in the Arid Arab Region, remains uncertain. In 2020, the World Bank estimated that Africa alone will need 30 Billion US Dollars investment in water sector annually to achieve SDG6 targets by 2030. However, in 2020, the total Official Development Assistance (ODA) targeting WASH was only 8.7 Billion US Dollars globally, very different from what is actually needed. Clearly, accelerating actions towards achieving SDG6 is a global challenge requiring global efforts and cooperation. It is not surprising that the WWDR 2023 focusses on “Partnerships and cooperation for water”.

With more than 95% of Egypt’s renewable freshwater resources originating outside the country, the most significant water resources challenge facing Egypt is water scarcity. Per capita share of renewable water resources has been steadily declining from 650 m3/y in 2015 to 570 m3 / year in 2019, and is expected to reach 500 m3 / year by 2025. This share is well below the 1000 m3 /year threshold for water poverty.   Egypt has an ambitious social, economic, and human development plan that addresses water scarcity and strives to provide universal access to clean water and sanitation. The environmental pillar of the country’s Sustainable Development strategy (2016) lists as its first objective the “Rational and sustainable management of the assets of natural resources to support the economy, increase competitiveness, and provide new job opportunities”.  UNESCO Cairo Office, has been working with Egypt’s water sector since the mid 1960s.

Cooperation for water is a founding principle of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (UNESCO-IHP). Founded in 1975 following the International Hydrological Decade (1965-1974), which marked the first international cooperation on water issues including water sciences, the program is currently in its ninth phase (2023-2029) titled Science for a Water Secure World in a Changing Environment. Throughout its existence, UNESCO-IHP fostered international corporation at multiple levels including capacity building, policy advice, joint scientific research towards the creation, sharing, and dissemination of knowledge and best practices. In Cairo, we at the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Sciences in the Arab States, are responsible for the implementation of UNESCO-IHP in the Arab Region. We promote cooperation between the National Committees of IHP in the Arab Region, UNESCO water-related chairs and centres in the region and globally, to support Arab Member States in achieving their sustainable water resources development goals. In the past 5 years, the office supported the capacity of nearly 3000 Arab Water Experts on issues including integrated water resources management, groundwater governance, optimal water resources management under condition of scarcity, groundwater recharge for sustainable development of groundwater, water/energy/food nexus, and the assessment of climate change impacts on water resources and adaptation to these impacts. This is consistent with the UN Secretary General call on UNESCO to lead the capacity development component of the framework for accelerating actions on SDG6.

The 27th UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP27), hosted by the Arab Republic of Egypt in in the City of Sharm El-Sheikh, November of 2022 was a milestone conference for water. The outcome document of the conference, for the first time, included the protection of water systems and water-ecosystems as a key target for climate actions. Egypt, the president and host of COP27 also launched a major water related initiative titled Action for Water Adaptation and Resilience (AWARe). AWARe aims to catalyze inclusive cooperation to address water as a key to climate change adaptation and resilience including partnerships for early warning. H.E. Mr. Hani Swailam (Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation of Egypt) launched the initiative on Water Day at the Water Pavilion during COP27. The initiative will be presented during the UN Water Conference on the 24 of March at HN Headquarters.

Both UNESCO and Egypt are proactively cooperating in the UN Conference on Water. UNESCO is co-organizing jointly with member states including Egypt, other UN Agencies, and NGOs, 26 side events during the conference. UNESCO-IHP and Egypt are joining the Republic of Korea to co-organize a side event on “Science Based Global Water Assessment”, which will take place on March 24th at 5:00 PM New York time 24th March, 2023, 11:00 – 12:15

As indicated by Ms. Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General  On this World Day, UNESCO would like to recall the extent to which water, whose cycle is global, is permanently at odds with human boundaries. It is up to us to draw the necessary conclusions and to see it as what it is: a vital and common good of humanity, which must therefore be considered on the scale of humanity.

Relevant Links

To join live broadcasting of UNESCO Side Event during the UN Water Confernce (11:00 AM EDT, 5:00 PM Cairo Time) https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1i/k1ik2vecus

UNSG Action Plan for the Water Action Decade: http://www.wateractiondecade.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/UN-SG-Action-Plan_Water-Action-Decade-web.pdf

UN 2023 Water Conference https://sdgs.un.org/conferences/water2023

UNESCO IHP: https://www.unesco.org/en/ihp

UNESCO Cairo Office: https://en.unesco.org/fieldoffice/cairo

Regional Training on Watering the NDC: https://en.unesco.org/node/358669

Previous UN WDDR  https://www.unwater.org/publications/un-world-water-development-report

UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme https://www.unesco.org/en/wwap

UNESCO’s contribution to the United Nations 2023 Water Conference: https://www.unesco.org/en/water/un2023conference

UNESCO’s Contributions to COP27: https://www.unesco.org/en/climate-change/cop27