The United Nations General Assembly declared 2013 as the United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation (Resolution A/RES/65/154)

http://www.unwater.org/

International Annual UN-Water Zaragoza Conference 2012/2013
Preparing for the 2013 International Year.

Water Cooperation: Making it Happen! 8-10 January 2013

In December 2010, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2013 as the United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation (Resolution A/RES/65/154). In reflection of this declaration, the 2013 World Water Day, which will take place on 22 March 2013, also will be dedicated to water cooperation. Therefore, UN-Water has called upon UNESCO to lead the 2013 United Nations International Year on Water Cooperation, in particular because of the Organization’s unique multidisciplinary approach which blends the natural and social sciences, education, culture and communication. Given the intrinsic nature of water as a transversal and universal element, the United Nations International Year on Water Cooperation naturally would embrace and touch upon all these aspects. The objective of this International Year is to raise awareness, both on the potential for increased cooperation, and on the challenges facing water management in light of the increase in demand for water access, allocation and services. The Year will highlight the history of successful water cooperation initiatives, as well as identify burning issues on water education, water diplomacy, transboundary water management, financing cooperation, national/international legal frameworks, and the linkages with the Millennium Development Goals. It also will provide an opportunity to capitalize on the momentum created at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), and to support the formulation of new objectives that will contribute towards developing water resources that are truly sustainable.

International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day. Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. Coming soon in this section of the website, we will present a brief overview of the different themes that have been the focus of World Water Day celebrations.

 

 

Water is a key foundation, whose importance can hardly be overestimated. It is a common denominator of the leading global challenges of our time - energy, food, health, peace and security. Water management can reduce the risk of disasters, such as droughts and floods. With transboundary river basins and aquifer systems representing almost half the earth's surface, water cooperation is vital for peace.Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General.
Keynote address to the High-level panel discussion organized by the Government of Finland at the Rio+20 Conference.

On 11 February 2011, the UN General Assembly, in its resolution 65/154, decided to proclaim 2013 International Year of Water Cooperation. Resolution 65/154 calls on the United Nations system and all other actors to take advantage of the Year to promote actions at all levels, including through international cooperation, as appropriate, aimed at the achievement of the internationally agreed on water-related goals contained in Agenda 21, the Programme for the further Implementation of Agenda 21, the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, as well as to increase awareness of their importance.

To ensure that water security and sustainability is achieved concerted efforts must be made to promote water cooperation at river basin and local scale, including in transboundary river basins, irrigation districts and cities. Cooperation is necessary to deal with some of major issues such as water allocation decisions, upstream and downstream impacts of water pollution and water abstraction, construction and management of new infrastructures, dealing with illegal abstractions and overexploitation of surface and groundwater, deciding on financing management of water resources and water services, among others. In this regard, negotiation, mediation and other dispute resolution mechanisms including the role of water diplomacy as well as participatory tools or procedures will be the main themes of discussion in the conference. The conference will introduce the key skills required, with particular attention to their important role in the process of negotiation and mediation, with examples of their application in national and international water settings.

The International Annual UN-Water Zaragoza Conference 2012/2013'Preparing for the 2013 International Year. Water Cooperation: Making it Happen!' that will take place in Zaragoza, Spain, from 8 to 10 January 2013, focuses on how to make cooperation happen. It does so by:

• Identifying the best approaches to promote effective cooperation at different scales. What are the lessons from recent implementation experiences and how they have been contributing to improved water management?
• Identifying how can we do 'better' in water cooperation through sharing lessons from experiences, and inspiring participants to do 'better'. Cases will illustrate experiences on how effective cooperation can be facilitated aiming to inspire others and highlight some of the crucial ingredients for success. They will also identify the general and locally specific difficulties, challenges, barriers and failures that we cannot ignore and can learn from (failure being a key ingredient for innovation).