Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Nov - Dec Vol. 9 No.6 | Page 17

Water in the Post 2015 Development Agenda

What is needed now, Mohammed added, is greater clarity
on goals that can be mutually agreed upon by member
states.
Other water experts allege that in the past, water
management has been excluded from high-level decisionmaking processes, despite it being an integral part of any
development process.
“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), told IPS.
He added that the way the world uses water is drastically
changing. Traditionally agriculture has been the largest
guzzler of fresh water, but in the near future the
manufacturing sector is tipped to take over. “Over 25
percent of [the world’s] water use will be by the energy
sector,” Holmgren said.
For many nations, especially in the developing world, the
water-energy debate represents the classic catch-22: as
more people move out of poverty and into the middle class
with spending capacity, their energy demands increase,
which in turn puts tremendous pressure on limited water
supplies.
The statistics of this demographic shift are astonishing,
said Kandeh Yumkella, special representative of the
secretary-general who heads Ban Ki-moon’s pet project, the
Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative.
Yumkella told IPS that by 2050, three billion persons
will move out of poverty and 60 percent of the world’s
population will be living in cities.
“Everyone is demanding more of everything, more houses,
more cars and more water. And we are talking of a world
where temperatures are forecasted to rise by two to three
degrees Celsius, maybe more,” he asserted.
South Asia in need of proper planning
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 and represents an urgent mandate
to government officials and all stakeholders to formulate
coordinated and comprehensive plans.
The island of Sri Lanka, for instance, is a prime example of
why water management needs to be a top priority among
policy makers. With climate patterns shifting, the island
has been losing chunks of its growth potential to misused
water.
In the last decade, floods affected nine million people,
representing almost half of Sri Lanka’s population of just
over 20 million. Excessive rain also caused damages to
the tune of one billion dollars, according to the latest
data from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Ironically, the island also constantly suffers from a lack
of water. Currently, a 10-month drought is affecting 15
of its 25 districts, home to 1.5 million people. It is also
expected to drive down the crucial rice harvest by 17
percent, reducing yields to the lowest levels in six years. All
this while the country is trying to maintain an economic
growth rate of seven percent, experts say.
In trying to meet the challenges of wildly fluctuating rain
patterns, the government has adopted measures that may
actually be more harmful than helpful in the long term.
In the last three years it has switched to coal to offset
drops in hydropower generation. Currently coal, which
is considered a “dirty” energy source, is the largest energy
source for the island, making up 46 percent of all energy
produced, according to government data.
Top government officials like Finance Secretary Punchi
Banda Jayasundera and Secretary to the President Lalith
Weeratunga have told IPS that they are working on water
management.
But for those who favour fast-track moves, like
Mohammed and Yumkella, verbal promises need to
translate into firm goals and action.
“If you don’t take water into account, either you are going
to fail in your development goals, or you are going to put
a lot of pressure on you water resources,” Richard Connor,
lead author of the 2014 WWDR, told IPS.
The situation is equally dire for India and China.
According to a report entitled ‘A Clash of Competing
Necessities’ by CNA Analysis and Solutions, a
Washington-based research organization, 53 percent of
India’s population lives in water-scarce areas, while 73
percent of the country’s electricity capacity is also located.
India’s power needs have galloped and according to
research conducted in 2012, the gap between power
demand and supply was 10.2 percent and was expected to
rise further. The last time India faced a severe power crisis,
in July 2012, 600 million people were left without power.
According to China Water Risk, a non-profit organization,
China’s energy needs will grow by 100 percent by 2050,
but already around 60 percent of the nation’s groundwater
resources are polluted.
China is heavily reliant on coal power but the rising
demand for energy will put considerable stress on water
resources in a nation where already at least 50 percent of
the population may be facing water shortages, according to
Debra Tan, the NGO’s director.
Source: IPS

Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • November - December 2014

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