“Let’s work for water, so that water can work for us”: UN Water Conference 2023

By Laurel Mire

Laurel Mire at the UN Water Conference

From March 22 to 24, thousands of UN officials, delegates from across the world, and interested parties flooded the UN headquarters in New York City for the first UN Water Conference in 46 years. I fit into the last category of participants–a curious UEP student offered a temporary UN pass and the opportunity to take a front row seat to the international conversation on water action.

With dozens of events to choose from & topics from science diplomacy and youth water action to the role of the private sector in the blue economy, it was easy to get swept up in high-level dialogues between national representatives swapping commitments to sustainable water management. Given a seat at the table, I strove to find a common thread or a concrete lesson that, when the hustle and bustle of the conference calmed, I could carry with me into my academic and professional life. Listening to so many incredible stories and accomplishments from nations and organizations across the globe, the common thread became clear-–no one can do this alone.

The UN Water Conference is primarily a place for nations and other stakeholders to share progress on meeting Sustainable Development Goal 6— ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. However, it is also a place to bring together decision makers & discuss what can be done better. Over the three day event, I began to piece together three lessons that I believe can help nations design more collaborative and sustainable water action to meet SDG 6.

First and perhaps most fundamentally, climate action needs water action and vice versa. Climate change intensifies the water cycle, and water, either too much or too little, connects 90% of climate-related disasters worldwide. As shared by delegates from impacted nations across the world, these disasters are already prevalent —water scarcity in Egypt, flooding in the Philippines, & glacial melt threatening drinking water in Peru—and have far-reaching impacts—a refugee crisis in Uganda, endangerment of females responsible for water collection in Burkina Faso, and biodiversity loss in Slovenia. The impacts of climate change will only challenge water resources further, and siloed action will fall short of climate and humanitarian goals.

Second, successful water action must engage with multiple scales of geography–from entire watersheds to individual cities. Rivers flow through multiple countries on their way from source to sea, and droughts and floods don’t contain themselves to geographic boundaries. Nations need regional transboundary cooperation to effectively manage water resources on the catchment level. Moreover, cities offer a unique opportunity for innovative and truly sustainable water action. For example, municipal work focusing on nature-based solutions and a just energy transition is helping make Rio de Janeiro a “Blue Metropolis” and the city of Christchurch, New Zealand is building wetland absorption zones to help manage stormwater.

Lastly, those traditionally holding decision-making power need to listen to and elevate the voices of others, namely women, youth, and indigenous peoples. In the side event “Indigenous Knowledge and Practices: Key Drivers of Water for Sustainable Development,” panelists underscored the need for inclusion and co-creation between indigenous people, public, and private actors, calling indigenous people “water experts” and “rights holders” rather than stakeholders in local water action. In what turned out to be one of my favorite events, “Global Water Partnership—Building and Scaling Youth Involvement,” high schoolers from Japan shared their own experiences and research on water quality and water resources in their hometown of Kumamoto City.

By letting these lessons guide water resources planning, nations, private companies, and cities can develop more equitable, sustainable, and effective action on water management while creating co-benefits like climate adaptation & public health improvements. Looking forward, I hope to see the ideas and excitement for water action extend far beyond the conference rooms of the UN. I plan to let these lessons guide my time at UEP and my future career and am thankful for the opportunity to hear the amazing work being done across the world to work for water in hopes that water can again work for us.

Laurel Mire is a Masters student in Urban and Environmental Planning at Tufts University