Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Nov - Dec Vol. 9 No.6 | Page 16

Water in the Post 2015 Development Agenda

Water: A Defining Issue for Post-2015
By Amantha Perera

Edited by Kanya D’Almeida

A Sri Lankan boy bathes in a polluted river. South Asia, home to 1.7 billion people of which 75 percent live in rural areas, is one of the most vulnerable
regions to water shocks. Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS

I

s water a gift of nature, or a valuable commodity? A
human right, or a luxury for the privileged few? Will
the agricultural sector or industrial sector be the main
consumer of this precious resource? Whatever the answers
to these and many more questions, one thing is clear: that
water will be one of the defining issues of the coming
decade.
Some estimates say that 768 million people still have no
access to fresh water. Other research puts the number
higher, suggesting that up to 3.5 billion people are denied
the right to an improved source of this basic necessity.
As United Nations agencies and member states inch
closer to agreeing on a new set of development targets
to replace the soon-to-expire Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs), the need to include water in post-2015
development planning is more urgent than ever.
“In the next 30 years water usage will rise by 30 percent,
water scarcity is going to increase; there are huge challenges
ahead of us.” -- Torgny Holmgren, executive director of the
Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
The latest World Water Development Report (WWDR)
suggests, “Global water demand (in terms of water
withdrawals) is projected to increase by some 55
percent by 2050, mainly because of growing demands
from manufacturing (400 percent), thermal electricity
generation (140 percent) and domestic use (130 percent).”
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Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • November - December 2014

In addition, a steady rise in urbanization is likely to result
in a ‘planet of cities’ where 40 percent of the world’s
population will reside in areas of severe water stress
through 2050.
Groundwater supplies are diminishing; some 20 percent
of the world’s aquifers are facing over-exploitation,
and degradation of wetlands is affecting the capacity of
ecosystems to purify water supplies.
WWDR findings also indicate that climbing global energy
demand – slated to rise by one-third by 2030 – will further
exhaust limited water sources; electricity demand alone is
poised to shoot up by 70 percent by 2035, with China and
India accounting for over 50 percent of that growth.
Against this backdrop, water experts around the world
told IPS that management of this invaluable resource will
occupy a prominent place among the yet-to-be finalized
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in the hopes of
fending off crises provoked by severe shortages.
“We are discussing the goals, and most member
[states] agree that water needs better coordination
and management,” Amina Mohammed, the United
Nations secretary-general’s special advisor on post-2015
development planning told IPS on the sidelines of the
annual Stockholm World Water Week early September this
year.