Dear colleagues It is with great pleasure that we present edition 43 of the SDC Water News, focusing on water related projects
and programmes at the global level. With this, our “Grand Tour around
the globe" completes a cycle, after having published issues focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the MENA region and the rest of Asia.
As usual, the newsletter provides you with short glimpses on selected
projects and programmes, along with contacts and links for further
reading. We now also included a section on resources, which is only a
highlight of recently published documents. For the full range of
resources, please refer to the respective site on ShareWeb, and keep up with sector news through our news site. The
past few months have been extraordinary, in many regards. As we have
been witnessing across the world, weak water and sanitation systems
aggravate the COVID-19 crisis, which in turn imposes extraordinary
pressures on already stretched
water and sanitation systems. COVID-19 has exposed existing
vulnerabilities and inequalities in our world. In a time of global
health pandemic, it is even more urgent that resilient water and
sanitation systems are accessible and affordable to everyone. The COVID-19 pandemic adds to existing inequalities. It is with this in mind that Switzerland endorsed the recent call to action for water and sanitation.
In addition, conflicts over the use of natural resources are on the increase. Cities and municipalities play a key role in overcoming these challenges. There is continuous rise in demand of water globally whereas the amount of water available
remains limited and pollution levels are increasing. This situation is
being exacerbated by climate change. Equitable access to water,
sanitation and
hygiene is also a key factor in public health and an important element
in the prevention and control of all infectious diseases including
COVID-19. Switzerland is aware of this global issue. On 29 May 2020 at
the United Nations Headquarters in New York, Switzerland has therefore
called for joint efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and the global water crisis, as they all are transboundary, global and have implications on nearly every aspect of the 2030 Agenda. In this newsletter,
you can learn about tangible examples of how SDC addresses these
challenges – from the landmark initiative on Blue Peace to cooperate
water stewardship in Latin America (SuizAgua) and the support to the
World Bank's Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership or to global networks like SWA and RWSN, just to name a few examples. We would like to thank everybody who contributed to this edition of the SDC Water News and wish you a happy reading.
Daniel Maselli, RésEAU Focal Point
Matthias Saladin, Editor RésEAU newsletter |
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