Water Declaration

Table of Contents

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GS 3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has recently endorsed a water declaration to accelerate implementation of SDG 6.

Along with water declaration, WMO has also endorsed a Water and Climate Coalition to accelerate implementation of SDG 6.
WMO has also approved a new vision and strategy for hydrology and an associated plan of action.

By 2030, early warnings for early action related to floods and droughts will be available for people everywhere on the planet to access;
Policies for water and climate action developed within the sustainable development agenda be integrated to yield maximum benefit for the people;
Goals will be pursued through partnerships for capacity development, knowledge exchange and information sharing, formulating policies, institutional and legal/regulatory frameworks.

WMO has also endorsed a Water and Climate Coalition to promote the sharing and access to integrated hydrological, cryosphere, meteorological and climate information.
The objective is to plan and operate resilient and sustainable water resources systems at local, national, regional and river basin scales.
It aims to accelerate progress to the goals of the water-related Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG6 and boost resilient water adaptation to climate change as well as demographic and socioeconomic development for the future.
The Water and Climate Coalition will officially be presented at the United Nations Climate Change negotiations, COP26.

There should be impact-based end-to-end Early Warning Systems (EWS) for flood forecasting in the context of a broader integrated flood management strategy.
Public, communities and businesses should have enhanced access to and better capacity to react to official national flood forecasts and warnings locally and globally.

Members should reduce adverse impacts of drought at all levels by implementing integrated drought management systems.

Food security should be enhanced by informed end-users’ decisions at all levels from regional to local.
The concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) including water use and allocations for supporting food production should be widely followed.

The value of data accessibility, usability and reliability has been proved to be a strong driver for science development.
There should be increased discoverability, availability, and use of high-quality hydrological and hydrometeorological data for scientific analysis.

There should be a reduced gap between research and operational hydrology applications; operational hydrology uses improved understanding of Earth system science.

Despite the advances in technology and policy, we are far from having comprehensive information on the state of water management across the world.
Members should implement reliable water resource assessment systems and use these to complete and share information on the availability of water resources.

Water lies at the heart of the UN Sustainable Development Agenda.
Hydrological information of adequate resolution, quality and timeliness should be available and used to make informed decisions on sustainable development at all scales.

Water quality is an integral part of the water cycle.
There should be increased cooperation at the national, regional and global level on water quality monitoring and water quality data exchange.