 | UNESCO at Mauritius | |
| BARBADOS +10 | |
| UNESCO & SIDS | |
| LOOKING FORWARD | |
| UNESCO.ORG is also: | |
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| | Water for People, Water for Life (2003)The World Water Development Report is part of an ongoing assessment project to measure progress towards achieving the goal of sustainable development formulated at Rio in 1992, and the targets set down in the UN Millennium Declaration of 2000. |
Within the broader international community, and as part of a collective system-wide assessment process involving 23 United Nations bodies and programmes, UNESCO is centrally involved in developing the tools and skills needed to achieve a better understanding of the basic processes, management practices and policies that will help improve the supply and quality of global freshwater resources. As part of this World Water Assessment Programme, a wide-ranging assessment of freshwater resources has been undertaken, culminating in the publication of the first World Water Development Report entitled Water for People, Water for Life.* The 576-page assessment was released on World Water Day (22 March 2003) during the Third World Water Forum in Japan.
Individual SIDS figure in many of the international and regional tabulations summarizing national progress towards water-related targets in such fields as health, food, ecosystems, cities, industry, energy, risk management, economic evaluation, resource-sharing and governance. Also in terms of implementing parts of Chapter 18 (‘Freshwater resources’) of Agenda 21 and progress towards attainment of relevant Millennium Development Goals.
The 23-chapters of the report also incorporate a number of experiences from individual SIDS in the use of freshwater resources. An example (page 168) is that of Singapore to improve efficiency and reduce waste in the supply of water, especially in the area of Unaccounted for Water (UfW), the difference between the water delivered to the distribution system and the water sold. UfW has two basic components: physical losses, such as water lost from pipes and overflows from tanks; and commercial losses, which include water used but not paid for. Through a consistent monitoring programme, Singapore has achieved an impressively low UfW rate of 6%, through a combination of metering, audits of commercial water use and leak detection.
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