A secure and equitable water future underpins prosperity and peace for all, while poverty and inequality, social tensions, and conflict can amplify water insecurity. This is the main message of the 2024 edition of the UN World Water Development Report, which highlights “the complex and interlinked relationships” between water, prosperity, and peace, outlining how progress in one can have positive impacts on the other dimensions.

Themed, ‘Water for Prosperity and Peace,’ the report warns that none of the targets of SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) are on track to be achieved by 2030, with 2.2 billion people still living without access to safely managed drinking water and 3.5 billion people lacking access to safely managed sanitation.

It notes that between 2002 and 2021, droughts affected more than 1.4 billion people. As of 2022, a quarter of the world’s population experienced ‘extremely high’ levels of water stress, while half of the world’s population faced severe water scarcity for at least part of the year.

Water scarcity can increase the risk of and exacerbate existing conflicts, according to the report. Around 40% of the world’s population lives in transboundary river and lake basins, yet only a fifth of countries are covered by cross-border agreements to jointly manage shared water resources. In Africa, for example, interstate cooperation has only been formalized in seven of the 106 mapped transboundary aquifers.

“As water stress increases, so do the risks of local or regional conflict,” said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), at the report’s launch. “If we want to preserve peace, we must act swiftly not only to safeguard water resources but also to enhance regional and global cooperation in this area,” she underscored.

The report identifies international cooperation on transboundary water management as “a powerful lever for maintaining peace.” It cites the 2002 Framework Agreement on the Sava River Basin between Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia and the expanded mandate of the Lake Chad Basin Commission to address socioeconomic development and security issues, as examples of best practice for other regions.

Response options described in the report span the areas of water governance, science and technology, education and capacity development, and finance. The report explains how sustainable water management generates multiple benefits to individuals and communities, including health, food and energy security, resilience to natural disasters, education, improved living standards and employment, economic development, and a wealth of ecosystem services. “It is through these benefits that water leads to prosperity,” it highlights, and “equitable sharing of these benefits promotes peace.”

Published by UNESCO on behalf of UN-Water, the 2024 UN World Water Development Report was launched on World Water Day on 22 March. The Day’s 2024 theme is ‘Water for Peace.’ [Publication: United Nations World Water Development Report 2024: Water for Prosperity and Peace] [Executive Summary] [Publication Landing Page] [UN-Water Announcement] [UN Press Release] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on UN World Water Development Report 2023]