In order to ensure global water security, now and for the future, Associate Professor Roland Uwadae of the University of Lagos has advocated an obligatory need for political action.
Uwadae who was the keynote speaker on the occasion of the World Water Day celebration conference by the CWAY Group, delivered a keynote address which he titled, Celebrating the Earth’s Most Important Treasure of Inestimable Value: Accelerating Change through Awareness and Action.
During the course of his speech, he revealed that global water security has now become an integral part of every country’s national security and foreign policy. Hence, to improve on efficiency, he noted the need to go beyond the concept of integrated water resource management, which is a vertical approach to the short water cycle.
“It needs to be combined with a horizontal approach, based on the fundamental links between water, energy, food, health and education, by applying the Five Fingers Alliance concept.
“The right to water, so easily proclaimed yet so difficult to enforce, will be the common thread running through collective actions and policies on water security.”
Water, Uwadae stated, is not just one SDG among the 17 others, but the most precious element that enables the future of the planet.
He outlined the four recommendations of the 2023 World Water Day as follow: Universal right to water and access to water for all should be given a higher political priority; Financing water, better knowledge and shared governance are keys to implementing water priority; Urban and rural planning should include water security solutions as a prerequisite for any type of project and that Electricity and water resources should both be approached as renewable resources.
He also recommended that water recycling and re-use should enter our legal portfolio.
