ECLAC urges to promote investments in water services to improve well-being, quality of life and reactivate the economy of the region

The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, today urged countries to promote investment in water services to improve the well-being and quality of life of the population and reactivate the economy of the region, during the inauguration of the third edition of the Regional Water Dialogues that will be held until Friday, February 3 at the headquarters of the United Nations organization in Santiago, Chile.

The highest representative of the regional commission stressed that, according to ECLAC estimates, to promote the just and sustainable water transition, universalizing the coverage of safely managed water and sanitation, a public and private investment impulse equivalent to 1.3 is required % of regional GDP for 10 years.

“This would generate 3.6 million green jobs and the corresponding new family income, thus constituting an axis of transformative recovery of the countries’ economies, reducing pollutants and increasing resilience to climate change and health threats such as the pandemic. It is an important effort, but not impossible”, he asserted.

The high-level ministerial event, which is held in a hybrid format (face-to-face and virtual) and is preparatory to the United Nations Water Conference 2023 -which will take place in March in New York-, has the purpose of evaluating the progress related to the Sustainable Development Goal SDG 6 (guarantee the availability of water and its sustainable management and sanitation for all) within the framework of the “Comprehensive Review of half-term of the activities of the International Decade for Action ‘Water for Sustainable Development’ (2018-2028)”.

During the regional meeting, the countries will prepare, for the first time in history, a Regional Agenda for Action for Water, which will allow Latin America and the Caribbean to arrive with a single voice at the March meeting at the UN headquarters .

The meeting was opened by Maisa Rojas, Minister of the Environment of Chile; Mariana Mazzucato, Economist and Professor at University College London (UCL) (by video); Manuel Otero, Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA); Mario Lubetkin, Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); and José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC. After the inauguration, interventions were made by Henk Ovink, Special Envoy of the Netherlands to the United Nations; and Pedro Arrojo, Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Water.

During his speech, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC warned that, although water has been recognized as a human right since 2010, in Latin America and the Caribbean a large part of the population still lacks safely managed water and sanitation services .

He specified that 25% of people do not have access to drinking water (161 million people), while 66% of the region’s population (431 million people) do not have access to properly managed sanitation services. safe.

“The most vulnerable quintile suffers the most from this situation, with 25% less access to these services. In addition, and due to the regressiveness of the water tariff systems, this quintile with the greatest needs can pay up to double, proportionally, than the richest quintile”, he warned.

José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs specified that, in the last three decades, disasters associated with water represented 88% of the total events that occurred in the region, with a very high impact: they reached 77% of the reported economic cost and 89% of the total number of people affected by all disasters.

He stressed that human life depends on the natural cycle of water, its flows in sufficient quantity and quality, as well as the dynamics and ecosystem integrity that feed a large part of the fundamental economic activities for sustainable development.

For this reason, “it is necessary to recognize that water is key and transversal for practically all economic activities, agriculture, industry and mining, and in a very special way for the main sectors identified by ECLAC as drivers and transformers, among which that highlight the bioeconomy, renewable energies, biodiversity, the circular economy and sustainable tourism”, he said.

Finally, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC stressed that the meeting inaugurated today constitutes a great opportunity to advance a common vision and a collective commitment in terms of universal access and integrated water management, leaving no one behind, highlighting the central and indispensable use of this resource for life, health and sustainable development.

The Minister of the Environment of Chile, Maisa Rojas, meanwhile, recalled the megadrought that has affected the country for more than a decade and stressed the urgency of strengthening water governance through the establishment of a policy for water security, the creation of a national water authority and the institutionalization of governance bodies at the basin level.

Through a video message, Mariana Mazzucato, Economist and Professor at University College London (UCL), stated that to truly govern water challenges, new ways of thinking about the governance process itself and value creation are needed. She added that innovation and industrial strategy must be thought of as the center of the capacity to face water challenges.

Manuel Otero, Director General of IICA, for his part, warned that we are facing a really serious problem that highlights the relevance of the issue of water for agriculture and agri-food systems and raises the need to develop and implement innovative systems for more efficient use. and effective, and underscored the urgency of establishing joint action at the continental level to ensure greater effectiveness in the use of water.

Mario Lubetkin, Regional Representative of the FAO, specified that, according to estimates by the organization, by 2050 world food production will have an increase of 50% compared to 2012 in order to satisfy the growing demand for food. If current conditions hold, this will require at least 35% more fresh water, he warned and urged sustainably managing the earth’s scarce water resources.

The sessions of the 2023 Regional Water Dialogues will be oriented according to the thematic lines of the UN Water Conference 2023: i) Water and climate; ii) Water and sustainable development; iii) Water, financing and health iv) Water and regional and territorial cooperation; v) Water, energy and food. High-level national authorities will participate in each of them. Likewise, there will be technical sessions to discuss water solutions at various scales that will accelerate the achievement of SDG 6 hand in hand with the water valuation initiative. In addition, during the Dialogues, the ECLAC project for the construction of national capacities in Latin America and the Caribbean, ROSA: Red y Observatorio de Sostenibilidad del Agua, will be launched.