Chapter 1 - Preamble

Section 1 - Social & Economic Dimensions

Section 2 - Conservation and Management of Resources
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22

Section 3 - Strengthening the Role of Major Groups

Section 4 - Means of Implementation

Complete text of Agenda 21: Chapter 18
Chapter 18: Protecting and Managing Fresh Water

Fresh water is vital for drinking, sanitation, agriculture, industry, urban development, hydro-power generation, inland fisheries, transportation, recreation and many other human activities. It is also critical for the healthy functioning of nature.

In many parts of the world, there is widespread scarcity, gradual destruction and increased pollution of fresh-water resources. The causes include inadequately treated sewage and industrial waste, loss of natural water catchment areas, deforestation and poor agricultural practices, which release pesticides and other chemicals into the water. Dams, river diversions and irrigation schemes also affect water quality and quantity. All these practices harm aquatic ecosystems, and threaten living fresh-water resources.

Food supplies for the world’s growing population are highly dependent upon water, but irrigation systems have suffered from waterlogging and salt build-up, which reduce the land’s ability to grow food.

Many of these problems are the result of a development model that is environmentally destructive, and a lack of public awareness and education about the need and the ways to protect water resources. There is widespread failure to understand the linkages between various forms of development and their impact on water resources.

In the developing world, one person in three lacks safe drinking water and sanitation: basic requirements for health and dignity. In these nations, an estimated 80 per cent of all diseases and over one-third of deaths are caused by consumption of contaminated water.

Although there are uncertainties about global climate change, a temperature increase and a decrease in rain and snowfall would further strain the already fragile balance between water supplies and demand in some parts of the world. In other areas, increased precipitation might lead to floods. If the warming causes sea levels to rise, this could cause salt-water intrusion in estuaries and coastal aquifers, and flood low-lying, particularily low islands. The Ministerial Declaration of the Second World Climate Conference states that "the potential impact of such climate change could pose an environmental threat of an up to now unknown magnitude… and could even threaten survival in some small island nations, and in low-lying coastal, arid and semi-arid areas."

Faced with such an array of problems, ways must be found of supplying everyone on the planet with an adequate supply of good quality water. To do this, human activities must be adapted to fit within the limits of nature, so that the healthy functioning of ecosystems can be preserved. The way to provide all people with basic water and sanitation is to adopt the approach, "some for all, rather than more for some." A realistic strategy to meet present and future water needs is to develop low-cost but adequate services that can be installed and maintained at the community level.

Better water management will require innovative technologies, including the improvement of indigenous technologies, to make full use of limited water resources, and to safeguard the water from pollution. It will require that water management be integrated into national economic and social policies, including utilization planning of landuse, utilization of forest resource, and the protection of mountain slopes and riverbanks.

Management of the water resources should be delegated to the lowest appropriate level. It should include full public participation, including that of women, youth, indigenous people and local communities in water management and decision-making.

A realistic target date for universal water supplies is 2025. This can be achieved by developing low-cost services that can be built and maintained at the community level.

An interim set of goals for the year 2000 is:

• To provide all urban residents with at least 40 litres of safe drinking water per person per day.
• To provide 75 per cent of urban dwellers with sanitation.
• To have in force standards for the discharge wastes.
• To have three-quarters of solid urban waste collected and recycled, or disposed of in an environmentally safe way.
• To rural ensure that rural people everywhere have access to safe water and sanitation for healthy lives, while maintaining essential local environments.
• To control water-associated diseases generally, and to set targets such as the eradication of dracunculiasis (guinea worm disease) and onchocerciasis (river blindness) by the year 2000.

Various approaches are needed to provide adequate water supplies and sanitation:

• There is a need for more research into the amount and quality of water that will be available for growing populations and economic needs. This need comes at a time when water research lacks adequate funding and qualified experts.
• Water management must recognize the need to protect the integrity of aquatic ecosystems, and to prevent their degradation on a drainage- basin basis. Water protection should include the precautionary approach, with the aim of minimizing and preventing pollution.
• Nations need to identify and protect water resources and see that water is used on a sustainable basis. They need effective water pollution prevention and control programmes. There is a particular need for appropriate sanitation and waste-disposal technologies for low-income, high-density cities.
• There should be mandatory assessment of the environmental impact assessment of all major water resource development projects that have the potential to impair water quality and aquatic ecosystems.
• Alternative sources of fresh water must be developed. These include de-salting sea water, catching rainwater - particularly on small islands, re-using waste-water and recycling water. Such projects must use low-cost water technologies, that are available and affordable to developing countries.
• In developing and using water resources, priority has to be given to satisfying basic human needs and to safeguarding ecosystems. Beyond these requirements, water users should be charged appropriately.
• A prerequisite for the sustainable management of water as a scarce and vulnerable resource is the obligation to acknowledge its full costs during the planning and development of all projects.
• Nations need to protect the forest cover of watersheds, and minimize the impacts of agricultural pollutants on water.
• Fresh-water fisheries need to be managed to yield the greatest amount of food in an environmentally sound manner. Care must be taken that fishing and fish-farming do not damage the aquatic ecosystem.
• Livestock need adequate water supplies, and water quality has to be protected from contamination by animal wastes.
• New irrigation schemes that may have significant negative environmental impacts should undergo environmental assessment while in the planning stage.

The world needs more well-trained people to assess and develop fresh water supplies and to manage water projects for sustainable use. Poor countries, in particular, need access to technologies that will allow them to assess and efficiently use their own water resources.

Next Chapter