Water Issues: Contributing to the Success of the eighteenth and nineteenth sessions of the Commission on Sustainable Development

An input from UN-Water and UNSGAB to the forth implementation cycle of the Commission on Sustainable Development

Since water is essential for all social, environmental and economic activities, sectoral approaches will not be sufficient to manage water properly. As such water is a resource that demands a sustainable development lens; and this being the case the participation of users, planners and policy makers at all levels is crucial. This approach described in the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development as Integrated Water resources Management (IWRM).

In the Summary of the discussions held at the sixteenth session of the CSD, it was recognised that IWRM was the framework for the entire water sector and essential tool for effectively managing water resources and water-related issues. While IWRM approaches have provided good policy tools and advanced our understanding of water’s relevance to all other sectors, there is still room for making clearer and more explicit connections between water and the thematic areas within the CSD process such as those currently under consideration: sustainable consumption and production, mining, chemicals, waste management and transport.

In an effort to support the work of the representatives participating in the sessions of the CSD, UN-Water and the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation have prepared the present document, which highlights the connection of water issues currently being discussed in the CSD and the important of considering water issues during these discussions.