CURRENTS - newsletter from the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)

Issue n°36, January 2008

News

Table of Contents for the World Water Development Report to be open for public comment

The WWAP Secretariat is happy to announce that the draft Table of Contents for the Third World Water Development Report will be made available for informed public comment, for the first time in its history. The draft Table of Contents will be posted on the WWAP website in January of 2008.

The draft document has been developed through the discussion and contributions of UN agencies (UN Water), WWDR writers, coordinators, facilitators and other contributors in attendance at the November Inception Meeting in the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. After comments have been received, the WWAP Secretariat and report authors will compile the comments for consideration in the finalization of the Table of Contents and the drafting of the report.

We look forward to reading your comments on the draft Table of Contents in the New Year.

L to R: Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, Mr. Pecoraro Scanio are cutting the ribbon © WWAP

UNESCO Director General inaugural visit of WWAP’s office in Perugia, Italy

November 20^th marked the inaugural visit of Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO, and Mr. Pecoraro Scanio, the Italian Minister of the Environment, to the new UNESCO Programme Office for Global Water Assessment in Perugia, Italy. The Programme Office in Perugia, located at the Villa la Colombella, will be the new premises of the World Water Assessment Programme Secretariat.

The Region of Umbria, Italy, has generously provided UNESCO with this beautiful site for the WWAP Secretariat. The Villa Colombella, which belongs to the Università per Stranieri di Perugia, currently houses University offices for water resources research. During the ceremony for the inaugural visit, the Director-General expressed his appreciation of Italy’s generous support to the WWAP Secretariat and noted that the Office in Perugia had “the potential of becoming an international hub for water-related activities where a wide range of capacity development can be provided, especially for developing countries.”

A number of individuals who have been instrumental in moving the process of establishing the WWAP Secretariat in Perugia forward were in attendance at the ceremony, including the Italy’s Minister of the Environment, Mr. Pecoraro Scanio; the Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development of the Umbria Region, Assessore Lamberto Bottini; the Permanent Delegate of Italy to UNESCO, Ambassador Giuseppe Moscato; UNESCO’s Deputy Assistant Director General Mr. András Szöllösi-Nagy; Professor Stefania Giannini, Rector of the Universitá per Stranieri di Perugia; and, the Chair of the Italian International Hydrological Programme’s National Committee, Professor Umbertini. The WWAP Coordinator and the Director for the UNESCO Global Water Assessment Unit, Mr. Olcay Ünver, also attended the ceremony. After the ceremony, the group later travelled to the Region’s headquarters where the President of the Region of Umbria, Maria Rita Lorenzetti and other local dignitaries welcomed the Director-General.

The transfer of WWAP Secretariat to Villa la Colombella is expected to be completed in early Spring 2008.

Signing Ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding between UNESCO and Italian Ministries

A signing ceremony was held on November 21st in Rome for the Memorandum of Understanding between UNESCO and the Government of Italy, which establishes the legal basis and continued support of the work of the World Water Assessment Programme. This Memorandum provides for the creation of the World Water Development Report, which will be launched at the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey, in March 2009, and for Italy’s continued support of WWAP beyond this date. During the ceremony, the Memorandum was signed by Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, the Director General of UNESCO, Mr. Massimo D’Alema, Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Mr. Pecoraro Scanio, Italy’s Minister of the Environment.

WWAP hosts inception meeting © WWAP

WWAP hosts inception meeting for the third edition of U.N. World Water Development Report

From the 7^th– 11^th of November 2007, the World Water Assessment Programme hosted the “Inception Meeting for the World Water Development Report-3,” held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. The purpose of the meeting was to finalize the content and organization of the Third Edition of the World Water Development Report (WWDR-3) and its accompanying publications. Approximately 70 experts and organization representatives came from around the world to attend the five-day workshop. Their inputs will constitute the fundamental premises to outline the first draft of the WWDR-3.

The Paris meeting is part of a process aimed at producing a more compact, holistic and integrated report which follows guidelines endorsed unanimously by UN Water in its August meeting in Stockholm, Sweden. The WWDR-3 will present various substantial changes compared to the earlier two World Water Development Reports. Some of the new features include: a thematic focus (proposed and endorsed as “Climate Change and Water”); the formation of a Technical Advisory Committee (WWAP TAC) and expert groups on selected topics; and a 40% reduction in size of the report with case-studies presented as a separate volume. Another new feature that WWAP is introducing is a series of side publications that will accompany the WWDR-3.

During the Inception Meeting’s five-day workshop, participants worked in plenary and small groups to draft the Table of Content for the WWDR-3. Discussion was based largely on input gathered during a consultative process initiated by WWAP following the UN Water Meeting during the World Water Week in August 2007. Participants also worked to prepare a production schedule for the first draft of the report, propose additional publications and suggest direction for addressing emerging and evolving issues and debates.

WWAP is currently working with the UN agencies and other contributors to produce the annotated table of contents on chapter basis along with the main messages and story lines. In the next stage in the consultative process around the WWDR-3, WWAP will invite feedback and input from key stakeholders and the public at large. The draft Table of Contents for the WWDR-3 will be published later in December for this purpose. The next meeting on the WWDR-3 is scheduled to take place in April of 2008, in Perugia, Italy, where final chapter drafts will be discussed.

WWAP Case Studies

UNECE to contribute research to the WWDR-3

The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has contributed research on transboundary aquifers to the World Water Assessment Programme and related publications. A recent publication addressing this theme Our Waters: Joining Hands Across Borders, the First Assessment of Transboundary Rivers, Lakes and Groundwaters, has just been published on the UNECE website.

New Partners to contribute Case Studies to the WWDR-3

Over the past six months, WWAP has received over 50 contributions from case study partners toward work on the Third World Water Development Report (WWDR-3). These contributions have been distributed to UN partners for consideration and potential publication in the WWDR-3.

Support from Basque Country for WWDR

The governing body of the Basque Country has sent WWAP a formal letter confirming their intention to provide support for the Spanish and Basque translation of the Executive Summary of the Third World Water Development Report. In previous years, the WWDR has benefitted from the support of the Basque Country in ensuring that the report is translated into these two languages. This support has been much appreciated by the WWAP Secretariat.

UNESCO Center of Catalonia creates educational material based on WWDR

In 2006, the UNESCO Center of Catalonia, or Unescocat, created a number of educational materials for elementary and secondary schools in Catalonia adapted from the contents of the First United Nations World Water Development Report: Water for People, Water for Life. These materials, consisting of both posters and teaching guides, can be found on their website in both Catalan and Spanish (Castellano). The Unescocat office has recently been working on an updated set of materials based on the Second World Water Development Report: Water, A Shared Responsibility, which will be available soon.

WWAP Participates

2008

January, 2008

162^nd Anniversary of Agricultural Education in Turkey. Mr. Olcay Ünver, Coordinator of WWAP has been invited to the Agriculture Faculty of Ankara University as a guest of honour on the occasion of the 162nd Anniversary of Agricultural Education in Turkey. Mr. Ünver will attend the ceremony to give a speech on behalf of WWAP. On the same trip, he will meet with the Fifth World Water Forum Secretariat (5WWF) to discuss how the WWAP Secretariat may contribute to the preparations for the World Water Forum and how the two secretariats can synergize towards furthering their respective causes. Mr. Unver will also have meetings with the Foreign Ministry of Turkey and State Hydraulic Works (DSI) to discuss cooperation.

2007

3-4 December 2007

First Asia-Pacific Water Summit in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, Japan. The Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, WWAP Coordinator, spoke at the Summit, describing WWAP as the first of four main pillars of UNESCO’s freshwater action.
UNESCO’s Deputy Assistant Director General Mr. András Szöllösi-Nagy was present and made a number of speeches as well. WWAP Coordinator, Mr. Olcay Ünver, attended the summit as a speaker and a panelist and represented WWAP in a number of meetings. He also took the opportunity to work with a number of partner organizations also in attendance.
More information from UNESCO Office of the Director General’s Spokeswoman.

4-5 December 2007

WWAP Programme Officer Mr. Engin Koncagül went to Bonn, Germany, to attend a meeting with the representatives of Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, Federal Institute of Hydrology, University of Technology, IHP/HWRP-Secretariat and German commission for UNESCO to brief them concerning the progress towards the 3^rd edition of WWDR. In this meeting, the Director of IHP/HWRP German National Committee Mr. Johannes Cullman proposed the potential of the establishment of a center on Hydrological Data for Integrated Water Resources Management by bringing the Global Runoff Data Center (GRDC) and IHP/HWRP together under one roof as a better equipped center.

19-20 September 2007

The Global Runoff Data Center (GRDC), based in Koblenz, Germany, invited WWAP to present on the Third World Water Development Report during its Steering Committee Meeting. GRDC operates under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization within the Federal Institute of Hydrology, and is supported by the Federal Republic of Germany.

August 2007

UN Water Meeting, World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden. The WWAP Secretariat attended the UN Water meeting that was held prior to the World Water Week in Stockholm. During this meeting, the coordinator of the World Water Assessment Programme Mr. Olcay Ünver, presented a workplan and draft table of contents for the WWDR-3 for discussion. Ultimately, UN Water endorsed both the workplan and a new draft table of contents for the report.

26 July 2007

UNESCO and the Region of Umbria signed an agreement, through which the Region of Umbria generously provided the Villa la Colombella to host the WWAP Secretariat.
Other updates on the status of these agreements at the WWAP News.

Events

International Year of Sanitation, 2008

On November 21^st, the United Nations officially announced that 2008 will be the International Year of Sanitation. An estimated 2.6 billion people around the world do not have access to basic sanitation facilities. As a result, millions of people suffer from a wide range of preventable diseases closely linked to water use, such as diarrhea, which claim thousands of lives each day. The theme for this coming year was set by the UN General Assembly in December of 2006 to help put this global crisis at the forefront of the international agenda.

More information

Did you know...? Facts and figures on Water and Sanitation

• Water-related diseases, including diarrhea, are a leading cause of death in children of developing countries. However, they can be prevented and controlled by improving access to safe drinking water and sanitation, as well as domestic and personal hygiene.
• Infectious diseases, especially diarrhea followed by malaria, continue to dominate the global burden of water-related disease. While there has been substantial progress has been made in reducing the mortality associated with diarrheal disease, there is still much that needs to be done to address the health impacts of poor sanitation, including access to safe drinking water.
• Globally, the drinking water target set by the Millennium Development Goal is on schedule, but the sanitation target will not be met by 2015 without extra inputs and efforts. In sub-Saharan Africa, the trends observed since 1990 indicate that neither of the targets will be met by 2015.
• The region that has made the greatest progress towards sustained access to safe drinking water is South Asia, where coverage increased from 71% to 84% between 1900 and 2002. This jump was fuelled primarily by increased access to improved water sources in India, home to over 1 billion people.
• Coverage in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 49% to 58% between 1990 and 2002.
• Global sanitation coverage rose from 49% in 1990 to 58% in 2002. Yet this falls short of the progress needed to achieve the Millenium Development Goal target of 75% coverage by 2015. Some 2.6 billion people – half of the developing world and 2 billion of whom live in rural areas – live without improved sanitation. Sanitation coverage in developing countries (40%) is only half that of the developed world (98%). The proportion of the world’s population with improved sanitation has increased by just 9% since 1990, a rate far slower than that required to meet global targets.

Facts and figures are taken from the 2^nd United Nations World Water Development Report, 'Water, a shared responsibility', WWDR2, 2006, pages 204, 221.

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