By; MATTHEW UKACHUNWA, Lagos
United Nations’ (UN) agencies reports which are tracking progress on freshwater, have discovered that in half of the world’s countries, one or more types of freshwater ecosystems are degraded, including rivers, lakes and aquifers.
The reports found that river flow has significantly decreased, surface water bodies are shrinking or being lost, ambient water is growing more polluted, and water management is off-track.
These were some of the findings of three reports tracking progress on freshwater which was published on 28th August 2024 by UN-Water and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
The triennial series of reports is focused on progress towards achieving the goal of “clean water and sanitation for all” (Sustainable Development Goals – SDG 6) through protecting and restoring freshwater sources.
Based on greater data sets than ever before, the reports reiterated the call to scale up support for Member States in tackling challenges through the UN System-wide strategy for water and sanitation and the accompanying upcoming Collaborative Implementation Plan, a statement by the reports publishers narrated.
“Our blue planet is being rapidly deprived of healthy freshwater bodies and resources, with dire prospects for food security, climate change and biodiversity,” Dianna Kopansky, Head of the Freshwater and Wetlands Unit, Ecosystems Division at UNEP said. “At this critical point, global political commitments for sustainable water management have never been higher, including through the passing of a water resolution at the last UN Environment Assembly in February, but they are not being matched by required finance or action.
“Protection and restoration policies, tailored for different regions, are halting further loss and show that reversing degradation is within reach. We absolutely need more of them.”
On widespread degradation, the statement made available by the reports’ writers pointed out that a
reported 90 countries, most in Africa, Central- and Southeast Asia, are experiencing the degradation of one or more freshwater ecosystems.
“Other regions, such as Oceania, mark improvements. Pollution, dams, land conversion, over-abstraction and climate change contribute to degradation of freshwater ecosystems, the reporters said in the statement titled, “Half the World’s Countries Have Degraded Freshwater Systems, UN Finds”. The statement was released on 28th August this year.
Influenced by climate change and land use, river flow has decreased in 402 basins worldwide – a fivefold increase since year 2000. A much smaller number is gaining in river flow, the UN-Water and UNEP clarified.
They stressed that loss of mangroves due to human activities (e.g., aquaculture and agriculture) poses a risk to coastal communities, freshwater resources, biodiversity, and climate due to their water filtration and carbon sequestering properties.
The UN bodies highlighted that significant decreases of mangroves were reported in Southeast Asia, though the overall net rate of deforestation has leveled off in the last decade.
It added that lakes and other surface water bodies are shrinking or being lost entirely in 364 basins worldwide and emphasized that a continued high level of particles and nutrients in many large lakes can lead to algal blooms and low-oxygen waters, primarily caused by land clearance and urbanization, and certain weather events.
The reports’ publishers decared: “Nevertheles suction of reservoirs contributes to a global net-gain in permanent water, mainly in regions like North America, Europe, and Asia.”
On low levels of water quality monitoring, they asserted that the
poorest half of the world contributes under three per cent of global water quality data points, including only 4,500 lake quality measurements out of almost 250,000. “This reveals an urgent need to improve monitoring capacity,” the UN agencies said.
The authors of the reports showed concern that lack of data on this scale means that by 2030 over half of humanity will live in countries that have inadequate water quality data to inform management decisions related to address drought, floods, impacts from wastewater effluents and agricultural runoff.
They elaborated by stating that where good data are available, it shows that freshwater quality has been degrading since 2017. “Where data are lacking, the signs are not promising,” the publishers said in the statement.
The report authors recommended the expansion and development of routine government-funded monitoring programmes, as well as incorporating citizen science into such national programmes, and exploring the potential of satellite-based Earth observation and modelled data products to help fill the data gap.
While commenting on inadequate progress on water resources management in over 100 countries, the authors said that balancing competing needs for sustainable water use from society and the economy requires the implementation of integrated water resources management (IWRM) across sectors, at all levels and across borders by year 2030.
They disclosed that 47 countries have fully reached or almost reached IWRM, and that 63 countries need to accelerate implementation, while 73 countries have only limited capacity for IWRM.
“At the current rate of reported progress, the world will only achieve sustainable water management by 2049. This means that by 2030 at least 3.3 billion people in over 100 countries are likely to have ineffective governance frameworks to balance competing water demands,” the authors stated.
The solutions they recommended include unlocking finance through revenue raising and cost recovery arrangements, investments in infrastructure and management, as well as coordinated action, greater institutional capacity and better monitoring networks.
UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global voice on the environment. It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
UN-Water coordinates the UN’s work on water and sanitation. It comprises UN Member States and international organizations working on water and sanitation issues. UN-Water’s role is to ensure that members and partners ‘deliver as one’ in response to water-related challenges.
