Water for Vulnerable People important topic during Dushanbe Conference

The Dushanbe High-Level Conference on the Water Action Decade included an Action Panel on Water for Vulnerable People, which I had the pleasure to moderate. This session addressed the interlinkages between water scarcity, food insecurity, poverty and migration. A key message was that migration governance needs a comprehensive approach including other perspectives such as water management, rural development and poverty reduction. It requires the cooperation of different stakeholders such as governments, international organizations, research, civil society, and private sector.

The water agenda is traditionally a development agenda. Next to the importance of water for development, water security is increasingly becoming a global concern because of its implications for social instability and migration. A recent book on global security matters includes a chapter on water security, which I had the pleasure to co-author with former UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to water and sanitation, Catharina de Albuquerque and Josefina Maestu, water adviser of Spain. The chapter is available under ‘Research and Publications’ on this site.