At an event entitled “Managing our Future Water Needs,” held on 29 January 2009, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, UN Secretary-General stressed the inter-relation among the economic, food and energy crises, climate change, and the water crisis.

He noted that the global public is increasingly aware of the impact of climate change on water scarcity, but underlined that technology can mitigate water stress through sea-water desalinization, rainfall harvesting, the deployment of new and simple methods of irrigation, and crop diversification. He underscored the lack of a coordinated global management authority in the UN system or globally to address the related problems of climate change, agricultural stress and water technology. He therefore emphasized the importance of the development by members of the Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate of a water security Global Agenda Council, and recommended making water security one of the key topics for climate change adaptation in 2009.
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