Summary:
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At the high-level symposium on “Integrated Water Cycle Management in the Post-COVID-19 Era,” Csaba Krosi gave the keynote speech.
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In it, he called for science-based solutions and cooperation.
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He called for solutions based on resilience, sustainability, and inclusiveness.
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He urged Japanese leadership in these areas and said the General Assembly would hold the historic UN Water Conference in five weeks.
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Japan will co-chair the summit’s interactive dialogue on climate, resilience, and the environment.
At the high-level symposium on “Integrated Water Cycle Management in the Post-COVID-19 Era,” Csaba Krosi gave the keynote speech. In it, he called for science-based solutions and cooperation. He remarked, “This is a problem we can master with innovation and drive.”
According to him, when the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were developed, the full extent of climate change’s effects on droughts and floods had not yet become clear enough to allow explicit flood- and drought-related indicators to be included in SDG 6, the Goal related to water and sanitation.
He compared the situation to the sad Apollo 13 mission to the moon, which still made it back to Earth despite a terrible mechanical problem.
He stressed that dealing with flood dangers will take the same sort of will because “in 1970, creativity and resolute action brought the astronauts back to earth alive.”
In addition to the risks brought on by climate change, he noted inadequate flood management and protection and careless land use.
At the Water Conference, more pledges are anticipated
He said it was essential to strengthen international alliances like the 1992 UN Water Convention, run by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). He called again for a global water information system. He called for solutions based on resilience, sustainability, and inclusiveness.
He urged Japanese leadership in these areas and said the General Assembly would hold the historic UN Water Conference in five weeks. Japan will co-chair the summit’s interactive dialogue on climate, resilience, and the environment.
To “catalyse the global water information system, the early warnings for everyone initiative, and the enhanced science collaborations we all need to face what is ahead,” he expressed hope that the Water Conference will result in agreements.
In his video message, Li Junhua, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said that one of the most important things that came out of the Water Conference was the Water Action Agenda, which is a place where people can make action-oriented promises on their own.
He remarked, “I am counting on you, my colleagues, to deliver your most inventive and forward-thinking commitments to the conference in March if we are serious about revising the water and flood management rules.