Call To Action for survival & resilient WASH

The expected results of this call to action are as follows: • That governments primarily focus their efforts towards those living in FCV settings. They are the most impacted by the multiple burdens of conflict, climate change, poverty, and hunger. A special focus should be given to countries with no evolution on the achievement of SDG6, and populations without even access to basic WASH services. • That governments further support humanitarian WASH response and coordination to deliver predictable, effective (timely) and sufficient survival WASH responses and to ultimately safeguard the lives and health of those living in FCV contexts. • That governments build sustainable and resilient WASH services that can withstand crises. Building back better and adapting existing systems, from infrastructures to communities, should be systematic especially in countries most exposed to multiple risks (climate crises, conflicts, natural disasters). In these contexts, collaboration between development and humanitarian actors at all levels from local to global will ensure continuity of services and better value for money. Together, let’s build services that last. • That all governments actively promote the effective implementation of International Humanitarian Law obligations relevant to the protection of WASH personnel and UN Security Council Resolution 2573 (2021), including by promoting the identification and exchange of good practices in the protection of WASH infrastructure during armed conflict, supporting data collection on attacks on or impacting WASH infrastructures and their reverberating effects, and facilitating access to equipment, spare parts and consumables required to restore and maintain WASH services. • That governments support the request to the UN General Secretary to nominate as soon as possible a UN Special Envoy for Water to establish a recurrent intergovernmental, UN-hosted, mechanism to discuss global water issues and to ensure the achievement of SDG 6 and all water- related SDGs These requests will directly impact the acceleration of the SDG-6: It is only by including the most vulnerable that we can hope to reach the SDGs. Through these five demands, the Call to Action tackles the lack of international attention, mediatization, political means, resources, and capacities invested in FCV contexts and in the WASH sector. It is only by strengthening the latter, the main provider of water and sanitation services in crisis situations, that we will be able to claim to have done everything possible to achieve the universal goals of SDG6. Furthermore, water affects all aspects of development, and the WASH sector is intrinsically linked to other SDG-sectors such as health, food security, gender equality, education, reducing inequality, peace etc. As a vital element, water feeds economic development and contributes to the health of human beings. History has shown that investing in safe water and sanitation averts preventable deaths and transforms lives. This explains why CTA actors are inviting actors from other sectors and contexts to participate to this inter-sectorial/multi-sectorial effort by signing the document and by appropriating themselves the information and content of the CTA to side-events around the UN 2023 Water Conference and other conferences, events, seminars etc.