InterAction Council: World Water Crisis Should Be a UN Security Council Priority

The InterAction Council, which includes 40 former government leaders, along with the United Nations University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health, and the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, have recently released a report wherein the InterAction Council makes a number of interesting recommendations to the “policy community,” including that the United Nations Security Council should “focus on water security.”

Below is a pared-down, yet complete list of the InterAction Council recommendations:

1. Continue the Global Dialogue on the Water Crisis

2. Endorse the Human Right to Water

3. Support Ratification of the UN Watercourses Convention

4. Encourage the UN Security Council to Focus on Water Security

5. Support Increased Universal Sanitation Coverage and

6. Facilitate Links between National and Global Water, Agricultural and Energy Policies

7. Support Necessary Hydro-climatic Monitoring

8. Support the Protection of Ecological Sustainability

9. Encourage Cooperation and Act as a Mediator in Water Conflicts

10. Call on National Governments to Strengthen Water Education Programmes

11. Involve the Private Sector

12. Create a White Paper Supporting the Above Recommendations

The report also includes a section titled “Water, Climate Change and Human Security: Conflict and Migration,” which thoroughly surveys the current literature on this important nexus.