Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN
By Brenda Sorensen
STOCKHOLM (IDN) – The lack of safe drinking water and basic sanitation is killing year in and year out 1.8 million children under the age of five. They die from diarrheal diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and dysentery. In fact, a new report warns that if the international community fails to take action to improve freshwater supplies for drinking, sanitation, and hygiene purposes, as many as 135 million preventable deaths could occur by 2020.
According to the report, launched on September 7 at World Water Week in Stockholm by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the unsustainable use of freshwater is a major contributor to biodiversity loss — and the effects are being felt in rivers, lakes and wetlands across the world.
In North America, for example, around 27 percent of continental freshwater fauna populations are now threatened with extinction as a result of depleted and contaminated freshwater resources. In Croatia in Europe over a third of all freshwater fish species are currently under threat.
Competition is increasing between the rapidly growing human population — which needs water for drinking, sanitation, food production and economic development — and species and ecosystems, which rely on water to sustain their existence.
The key challenge now facing governments across the world is how to meet the growing water needs of human society, while maintaining freshwater ecosystems and supporting environmental sustainability.
In order to face the challenge, governments and law-makers need to integrate environmental concerns into water-use legislation to avert an impending global water crisis, says the UNEP report titled ‘The Greening of Water Law: Managing Freshwater Resources for People and the Environment’.
But with more communities than ever before facing both human and environmental water crises, how can changes to the law help to tackle the problem?
"Simply put, it’s the law that provides the structure through which new policies can be implemented", says Professor Gabriel Eckstein, lead author of the report. "Achieving a better balance between human and environmental water needs will require significant changes in legislation — and you need legal tools to achieve this."
The report cites several examples of green water laws that have already been introduced across the world. In New South Wales in Australia, the State’s Water Management Act dictates that in the event of a severe water shortage, freshwater will be allocated first to meet basic domestic and municipal needs, then in response to the needs of the environment, and thereafter for all other purposes.
Similarly, in Paraguay, the Water Resources Act ranks the water needs of aquatic ecosystems as second only to humans and ahead of agriculture, power generation and industry.
"These laws recognise the immense value of freshwater resources", says Eckstein. "Take wetlands for example — for humans to recreate their natural benefits, we would have to build massive water treatment plants at huge cost. Protecting these resources makes economic sense."
ECONOMIC GAINS
Defending freshwater resources in national and internal law can bring economic gains. For example, the world’s wetlands have been calculated to provide as much as US$15 trillion in ecosystem services. This includes benefits such as water purification and detoxification through their ability to extract and absorb pollutants from contaminated waters.
Freshwater resources are also among the 11 sectors being addressed under UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative. The initiative is designed to assist governments in ‘greening’ their economies by refocusing policies and spending towards clean technologies, renewable energies, water services, waste management and other sustainable strategies.
Managing freshwater resources also forms a central pillar of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) project, hosted by UNEP. TEEB aims to develop guidance for policy makers at international, regional and local levels in order to promote sustainable development and better conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity.
Although over two thirds of the Earth is covered in water, only 2.5 percent of this is fresh water. Most is stored deep underground or in glaciers, meaning that only 1 percent of the world’s fresh water is available for human use.
The UNEP report warns that this limited natural resource is under greater strain than ever before. Regional and national governments must therefore be encouraged to seek a more balanced approach to water use — with regard to both environmental and human needs.
"The benefits of incorporating environmental considerations into greening water law at the national level can be manifold and range from economic advantages and social and health benefits, to the more obvious environmental benefits," says the report.
Moreover, the ability to green water laws is an indispensable tool in realizing the objectives and in meeting the obligations of international agreements and overarching policy agendas such as those expressed in the Millennium Development Goals and in multilateral environmental agreements.
The report points out that freshwater ecosystems and their services have been experiencing rapid and tremendous degradation and loss in the past 50 years, destroyed by overuse, pollution and other human activities.
"This being said, there is mounting evidence that a clean and healthy aquatic environment is advantageous for people and nations in all facets of life, including in economic terms."
Water pollution also affects the capacity of wetlands to provide significant aesthetic, educational, cultural, and spiritual benefits, as well as a vast array of opportunities for recreation and tourism.
There are many examples of the economic value of intact wetlands exceeding that of converted or otherwise altered wetlands. "It is therefore evident that a clean and healthy environment is essential for ensuring not only the integrity of species, habitats, and other aspects of the natural environment, but also for the sustainability and continued progress of people and human communities," notes the report.
UNEP points out that international water law has evolved beyond its people-focused and commerce-based origins and has expanded to address environmental protection issues. It is internationally recognized that cooperation between nations is not only essential for the environmentally sound management of freshwater resources traversing political boundaries, but also an extremely valuable tool for dispute prevention and resolution for riparian States engaged in disagreement over shared waters.
There are many examples of internationally accepted legal principles and norms that combine this twofold purpose of environmental protection and peaceful management and allocation of freshwater resources. These include the principle of equitable and reasonable utilization, as well as the general obligation not to cause significant harm across international watercourses and its corollary duty to conduct transboundary environmental impact assessments. (IDN-InDepthNews/07.09.2010)
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