According to the United Nation’s (UN) World Health Organisation, in excess of 50% of world’s population now lives in cities and this figure is expected to grow as urban communities move to the cities in search of economic opportunities, especially in developing nations.
This exodus to the city necessitates ensuring the sustainability of human, economic and environmental prosperity by making the delivery of safe water and sanitation in those areas a priority.
Managing Delivery of Potable Water in Cities
In order to do this, six organisations joined forces in October 2014 and signed a Partnership Agreement to address the vital role played by local and regional authorities and operators in managing and providing water and sanitation for their populations. The agreement includes safeguarding all water resources and supporting cities in rising to this challenge.
UN-Habitat’s Global Water Operators’ Partnership Alliance; ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability; United Cities and Local Governments; Daegu Gyeongbuk Development Institute; National Committee for the 7th World Water Forum; and World Water Council have all agreed to collaborate in this bid to manage water resources and address water sanitation on a global basis.
This Partnership Agreement could go a long way in assisting poorer, developing countries to meet the deadlines set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the provision of potable water and good sanitation to the most vulnerable in order to improve their health and avoid the millions of death every year, mainly in children, and due to diarrhoea cause by bad sanitation and a lack of potable water.
This Partnership Agreement was a stepping-stone in the preparation for the Local and Regional Authorities Conference of the 7th World Water Forum, which happened on 12-17 April, 2015 in Daegu-Gyeongbuk, in the Republic of Korea. It will allow for greater mobilisation of local and regional authorities and will help make their voices heard in the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Partnership Agreement is intended to aid all local and regional authorities to reach quantitative and qualitative objectives for water and sanitation with the Istanbul Water Consensus; to promote the definition and the implementation of local water policies, and to support cities globally in their commitments to facilitate access to basic services. It will also serve as preparation for the Habitat III conference on housing and sustainable urban development that will take place in 2016.
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