This year, the new UN Water report 2020 focuses on “Water and Climate Change”. The institution aims to connect the water and climate change communities about the opportunities in the water sector to tackle the challenges of the climate change regarding water quality and quantity, mitigation of extreme events, infrastructure and governance.
The report released for the World Water Day (22/03) supports a cross-cutting and holistic approach stressing out several connections with other sectors such as industry, research & innovation, health, human settlement, food. It also encourages Europe’s approach within the framework of the European Green Deal and clearly shows that Water Europe is on the right track, fostering a holistic approach of the sector by gathering the full value-chain in its activities to achieve a Water Smart Society.
We welcome this validation of our approach by the UNESCO, supporting this transparent, multi-stakeholder approach to water governance in the context of climate change. The challenges for the R&I in the water sector must be tackled collectively with the local communities and businesses, hence demonstrating the importance of the Living Labs as a powerful tool to run research and innovation, raise awareness and educate people to stimulate the uptake of validated, new and existing technologies.
Stressing the KPIs for each region in the world, UNESCO encourages Europe to focus on:
Enhancing water efficiency and water saving strategies, particularly through reuse of water;
Monitoring and data sharing on water quantity and quality with a digital water;
Improving coherence of climate change adaptation and water-related disaster risk reduction;
Attracting funding from multiple sources (e.g. international, national and private).
Increasing cooperation in transboundary basins for technical and financial assistance and open up new opportunities
To read the whole UN World Water Report, please click here.
