The World Economic Forum recently named water crisis the world’s number one risk for the next 10 years for its potential impact on people and industry. Indeed, as the global community grapples with climate change – and environmental change of all kinds – understanding the fundamental nature if water to human society is crucial. The input report for this year’s World Water Week, released yesterday by the Stockholm International Water Institute, in fact argues that getting water management right is a prerequisite for sustainable development.

The report, Water for Development: Charting a Water Wise Path, provides perspectives from key organizations and researchers involved in water and development such as the UN Development Program, UN-Habitat, WaterAid, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, Stockholm Resilience Center, London School of Economics, and the International Water Association. It also includes a private sector perspective from H&M outlining efforts to increase sustainability in the textile industry.

A Prerequisite

World Water Week this year will focus on taking stock of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as they conclude and the role of water in the MDG’s successors, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to be adopted by the UN General Assembly in September. Implementation of the post-2015 development agenda and anticipated new climate change agreement must be carried out in a coherent manner and water may just provide a bridge for that coherence.

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