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2002 STOCKHOLM STATEMENT
Urgent action needed
for water security
Recommendations from the Stockholm Water
Symposia, 1998-2002
Water on our planet
The
Development Target set by the UN Millennium
Assembly is to halve by 2015 the proportion
of people living in extreme poverty, suffering
from hunger or unable to reach or afford
safe drinking water. It will not be possible
to achieve these goals unless governments
realize that water is fundamental for almost
any kind of development and human activity.
Something must be fundamentally wrong when
enormous interests and financial resources
are engaged in finding water on other planets
while we pay insufficient attention to water
on our planet on which humanity's survival
and quality of life genuinely depend. While
part of the explanation may be the commonplace
character of water in most industrialized
countries, it should be stressed that the
majority of the low income countries with
large undernutrition are located in the
dry climate tropics where daily access to
water is everyone's number one priority.
The present understanding that water has
to be managed is misleading. The challenge
is rather to manage the people that depend
on and make decisions about freshwater.
Contrary to the common-held belief, the
water issue is by no means an issue only
for experts. It constitutes nothing less
than a central question of human survival:
water is everybody's business.
Water is not a robust resource
Water is closely related to both eradication
of poverty, socio-economic development,
food security and environmental security.
In a situation where water quality degradation
is already threatening socio-economic development
and livelihood security, it is criminal
to continue to treat water as if it is an
ubiquitous and robust resource. Water, through
its mobility, interlinks many societal sectors
with land use and ecosystem productivity.
Therefore, mitigation of water problems
requires of us the ability to address the
role of water for social and economic development
and to take an integrated approach to water,
society and ecosystems.
Deep concern
Past Stockholm Water Symposia have resulted
in a world-wide network linking scientists,
engineers and policy makers. During five
consecutive Symposia, participants from
inter-governmental and non-governmental
organizations and concerned scientists in
over 100 countries, have expressed deep
concern over the lasting difficulties encountered
around the world as nations attempt to manage
this valuable resource. On the one hand,
there is increasing competition for water,
expanding water pollution, and growing water
needs for cities, industries and for crop
production. On the other hand, it is important
to secure ecosystem health in the life support
system on which humanity ultimately depends.
Principles for action
There is an urgent need for all governments,
inter-governmental and non-governmental
organizations, other policy and decision
making bodies and actual water users to
take immediate action to ensure that water
security, in its broadest sense, becomes
a reality during the next generation. Such
action should be based on the following
four principles:
Principle 1. Water users must be involved
in the governance of water resources
Coherent policies, across sectors and administrative/spatial
units, are fundamental for systematic and
pro-active resource management. The ultimate
test of policy and planning documents is
their social acceptance and compliance in
the field. But the relationship between
policy, social acceptance and compliance
can never be static, since reality is complex
and dynamic in terms of environment, knowledge,
demography, human aspirations and value
systems.
In reality, therefore, the users are the
ultimate governors of water. They must make
use of the best possible knowledge, and
continuously help to develop it. Therefore,
education and training is a prerequisite
for success. An ongoing dialogue between
policy and decision makers and the users
is of utmost importance, and the outcomes
of this two-way process must be integrated
in policy. Governments should employ the
most effective means to ensure that this
happens and rule, not only through legislation,
but also through dialogue and consent in
order to secure social acceptance. It is
vital that policies and plans are translated
into effective incentives, sanctions, actions
etc., which turn human actions into desired
directions and steer away from hazardous
avenues, on which so many are travelling
today. Water issues are initially linked
to political and social processes. Enhancing
what is politically feasible is a crucial
task to reach the Millennium goals.
Principle 2. The link between economic
growth and water degradation must be urgently
broken
A fundamental dilemma is that processes
to generate wealth in fast-growing economies
also generate huge amounts of pollution
that increase much more quickly than the
population and the GNP. Pollution abatement
is a prerequisite for securing usable water
sources. Although water quality management
has been on the agenda for more than three
decades, the worldwide inability to halt
water pollution remains a serious failure.
Large-scale eutrophication of lakes and
enclosed coastal seas reflects both poor
sanitation and the leaching of nutrients
from agriculture and forestry all over the
world. Pollution from industry is a major
problem for both developing countries and
countries in transition. Widespread evidence
demonstrates that groundwater - considered
to be a clean and safe raw water source
- is also increasingly polluted in all regions.
Water pollution abatement must be much more
proactive. Hazardous chemicals need to be
banned worldwide and resource efficient
and clean technologies should be standard.
Developed countries have a particular responsibility
towards developing countries in this regard.
A more adequate attention to water pollution
is imperative in order to avoid water pollution-driven
convulsions that will otherwise threaten
communities in the coming decades.
Principle 3. Urban water services are
crucial for urban stability and security
An engineered and secure water supply and
sanitation for a city is a necessary condition
for the survival of its inhabitants but
also for the functioning of industries,
hospitals and other urban activities, thus
to ensure sustainable urban development.
The problem of finding bulk water for the
city as a whole has to be co-ordinated with
other catchment water planning. Adequate
policies are essential to distribute household
water to the inhabitants and to secure water
provision for the poor population in non-regulated
urban areas.
The sheer scale of the task to provide safe
water for an additional 50 million people
every year makes the water-based, large-scale
solutions practiced in water rich countries
unrealistic in most places. A downstream
city should see the catchment as an asset
for development and invest in the life-support
system upstream that delivers its life blood.
In critical situations, a sustainable city
may be based on rainwater harvesting, storm
water retention and recycling of water.
Such solutions radically replace the need
for conventional large-scale systems.
As safe sanitation is essential for a healthy
city population, a clear sanitation target
must be set at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development as a complement to the Millennium
Declaration goals.
A leading idea is to view human waste as
a resource to be returned to food production.
To close the enormous sanitation gap where
billions lack safe sanitation, water-borne
sanitation has to give way to ecologically
safe dry sanitation as a tested and valid
alternative. Although the principle of ecological
sanitation is increasingly accepted in many
developing countries, conventional water-borne
systems are still advocated by consultants
and lending institutions as the only large-scale
solutions. Rather than solving the sanitation
problem, such advice may in fact aggravate
it.
Principle 4. Policy, planning and implementation
must be based on integrated solutions
Water's movement from the water divide to
the river mouth makes the basin the optimal
unit for taking an integrated land/water/ecosystem
approach. Yet, since most scientists and
managers see only parts of the overall problems,
it is a major challenge to co-ordinate and
integrate sectorized approaches to water
management that still dominate all over
the world. Institutional arrangements have
to allow and facilitate a crosscutting dialogue.
Since with time the complexity of water
resources management will be continuously
increasing, the expectations on the next
generation of professionals and managers
are rapidly growing. For a successful dialogue,
an easily understandable common language
will have to be developed. Education and
competence development are more important
than ever. To achieve innovative approaches
it is necessary to re-educate consultants
and loan and aid officers.
There is need for a radically improved governance,
based on a new paradigm of social mobilization.
In a situation of rapid change, societal
stability requires adaptation and ability
to cope with water cycle-related constraints
in the rivers, aquifers and soils. Reconciliation
of conflicting stakeholder interests in
a basin depends on arenas for negotiation
and compromise building, supported by adequate
regulatory mechanisms. Stakeholder involvement
is critical to achieve societal acceptance
of the outcome. Stakeholders need to understand
the necessity and value of giving up obsolete
compartmental approaches of the past. Mutual
respect between different basin stakeholders
is essential. In this process, polluting
and water intensive industry and agriculture
must contribute.
