UAE calls for sustainable management of quality and quantity of water resources

HANOI, 2nd April, 2015 (WAM) -- Parliamentarians have a weighty responsibility to develop national legal frameworks in order to implement a water-secure world for all and for present and future generations, a UAE MP told the Standing Committee on Sustainable Development, Finance and Trade as part of the works of the 132nd IPU Assembly in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, stressing the urgent and absolute need to conserve and sustainably manage the quality and quantity of water resources. Speaking at a session on ''Shaping a new system of water governance: Promoting parliamentary action on water,'' Rashid Al Shuraiqi, member of the Federal National Council, said that freshwater resources are essential to basic human needs, health, food production and the preservation of ecosystems, and highlighted the need to improve water management in order to prevent and mitigate high disaster risks, strengthen resilience and ultimately contribute to sustainable development, respectively. He added that the UAE Parliamentary Division had raised many issues about the impact of sound management of water resources on the climate change and was deeply concerned by the increased pressure being exerted on water resources by factors such as population growth, climate change, rapid urbanisation, growing energy demand and lack of effective governance. It was equally concerned by the fact that water scarcity is already affecting one in three people on every continent and that by 2025 two thirds of the world's population will be under water stress and 1.8 billion people will face absolute water scarcity, and deeply concerned at the fact that 748 million people lack access to an improved drinking water source, that 2.5 billion people still lack access to improved sanitation and that 1 billion people still practice open defecation. He encouraged national parliaments to urge their governments to honour the commitments their countries have made in regard to the protection of freshwater sources, calling on states sharing water resources to cooperate on matters relating to international watercourses and seriously to consider joining international legal frameworks for transboundary water cooperation. He noted that water can be a key element in the balance of power between States and that good governance can promote cooperation and avoid water-related conflicts, and that states should increasingly pursue integrated water resources management by taking into account the water-energy-ecosystem-food security nexus, improving wastewater treatment and preventing and reducing surface and groundwater pollution. He also called on national parliaments to advocate a dedicated comprehensive water and sanitation goal in the post-2015 development agenda, so as to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, said goal to include concrete actions and in particular the development of an efficient monitoring system with global indicators. National parliaments, he continued, were demanded to enact legislation for the appropriate implementation of international treaties, customary law and resolutions related to water management and to the human right to water and sanitation, and to organise appropriate human resources training and further education so as to enhance understanding of these instruments. A draft resolution on water governance requested the IPU to draft a compilation of best legal and policy practices related to human rights-based water management, in order to support the work of parliamentarians involved in water-related issues and urged national parliaments to set aside adequate budget allocations for multilevel and efficient governance, and to establish legislative and regulatory frameworks encouraging public and private investment in the water sector. – Emirates News Agency, WAM – http://www.wam.ae/en/news/emirates/1395278782902.html