2023 Global Water Security Assessment - Press Conference (23 March 2023)

Press Conference by Terry Duguid, MP and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Canada; Prof. Kaveh Madani, Director of United Nations University Institute for Water Environment and Health; Dr. Charlotte MacAlister, Senior Researcher, United Nations University Institute for Water Environment and Health on Canada and the United Nations University Institute for Water Environment and Health on the outcomes of the 2023 Global Water Security Assessment.

Briefing on the outcomes of the 2023 Global Water Security Assessment, the Director of United Nations University Institute for Water Environment and Health, Kaveh Madani today (23 Mar) said, “unless we make meaningful progress on SDG 6, we cannot deliver and fulfil the goals that we have by 2030.”

SDG 6, part of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, states that access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is the most basic human need and is essential for human health and well-being, energy and food production, healthy ecosystems, climate adaptation, poverty reduction, and more.
Talking to reporters in New York, on the margins of the 2023 UN Eater Conference, Madani said, “whatever we want to do and deliver would have a relationship and interdependence on water.”

Presenting the data contained in the report, the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health Senior Researcher, Charlotte MacAlister, said, “if we really want to reflect the situation that people feel on the ground and help the most vulnerable and marginalized, we have to think about how they experience water insecurity, whether that's physical and mental health, or their inability to have a stable household income, and for water to be affordable to them.”

Affordability, MacAlister, said, “is not assessed, not well assessed within the SDG six, and it was not assessed at all,” and stressed that “in the future, if we really do want to meet our development goals that needs to be addressed seriously.”

Madani said, “as scientists, we are supposed to say the things that many policymakers are not talking about. So, that that gap between science and policy would remain there forever. And it's a constructive gap. You know, it's a positive thing to have.”

He said, “we think that talking and speaking to people can change the game. The fact that we're showing that the progress has not been made, the fact that we are indicating this through valid data, reliable data, reliable measurements, can hopefully change the game.”

The Global Water Security Assessment revealed that despite all efforts undertaken to date, the state of globally relevant water-related data on almost all water issues remains poor.

The report – undertaken by the United Nations University Institute for Water Environment and Health (UNU INWEH), the UN’s only think tank on water – provides a preliminary quantitative global assessment that evaluates the state of water security for 7.78 billion people living in 186 countries.

The 10 components of water security assessed are: drinking water, sanitation, good health, water quality, water availability, water value, water governance, human safety, economic safety, water resource stability.