Two United Nations agencies announced several potentially game-changing commitments that could enable countries to quickly gather data on the state of their water resources, and boost efficiency of water use for more sustainable agriculture practices.
A worldwide network of water analysis laboratories and a tool to foster collective national level action to improve coordination on water management, were among the commitments announced Thursday by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on the margins of the UN 2023 Water Conference, which if expected to windup Friday night after three days of intense debates. The commitments, in line with the Water Action Agenda and the push to see all countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, were announced at the SDG Media Zone, which has been the stage for vital discussion and the announcement of other major commitments, while the main plenary and high-level panels have been underway in other parts of the UN Headquarters campus.
Announcing the IAEA’s global water analysis laboratory network, known as GloWAL, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said that this interconnected network can through the application of nuclear techniques, help countries to identify the nature and characteristics of water (isotope hydrology). “This technology can help us read many things,” he said, citing, among others, a water sources’ content, degradation, and renewability. “By establishing this network of labs, we are giving countries the ability to identify from a scientific point of view, the nature of the water issues they are facing” and then developed or adapt policy solutions that address them.
Further, beyond issues related to the global water crisis, GloWAL will also help address another key challenge facing the international community: the technology gap and lagging access to data collection that has long plagued developing countries. “When developing countries do not have the ability to know what the problem is and how to solve it, they are in a much worse situation.” “So GloWAL is about this: it’s about giving countries the ability to collect their own data. We are going to train them and give them the necessary equipment to do that,” Grossi explained, adding that: as far as commitments go, this was a very concrete initiative that would help countries be better prepared to face the myriad effects of the water crisis.
