Water, Peace, and Security (WPS) for Sustainable Development

Attention to water-related security has been growing in recent years due to increasing water risks. Water demand has increased sharply in many regions of the world as a result of population growth and economic expansion. Water supply is becoming more unreliable in many regions of the world because of climate change, which is also altering the timing of water availability and increasing the severity of drought and flood events. The discharge of untreated municipal, industrial, and agricultural wastewater into rivers and lakes is rendering much of our surface water and groundwater unusable. These increasing pressures on water resources are undermining water security, and contributing to conflicts over water, in many parts of the developing world.

At the UN 2023 Water Conference, the Water, Peace, and Security (WPS) Partnership’s implementing partners commit to work with governments, NGOs, donors and investors to significantly increase the scope and scale of our initiative (2020 to 2024), for reversing the vicious cycle of water conflicts, into a virtuous cycle of water cooperation and mutual benefits:

- Target: Governments, NGOs, private sector, donors and investors in participating countries must commit to the goals of SDG 6 – ensuring the accessibility and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
- Prioritize: Governments, NGOs, private sector, donors, and investors must use advanced approaches and methods to assess water-related conflict risks and identify and prioritize interventions to foster cooperation and peace.
- Incentivize: Governments – with inclusive stakeholder participation – need to develop policies, plans, and incentives to transform water conflicts into cooperative opportunities, paving the way for sustainable development of societies.

The WPS partnership and implementing partners commit to:

- Build: Our coalition will build the capacity of government entities, investors, NGOs, and local communities to assess water-related security risks and implement measures to change vicious cycles of water and conflict into virtuous cycles of water and peace.
- Monitor: Our coalition will help governments and other stakeholders develop monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems to track the implementation of agreed-upon interventions and the health of freshwater systems they are designed to support.

The WPS uses global tools (data and models) to predict likelihood of water related conflicts, before zooming into specific regions. Presently, WPS with the support of the Netherlands Government, and GIZ, is successfully implementing its innovative approach (Understand, Mobilize, Learn, Dialogue), in four regions: Mali, Iraq, Kenya, Ethiopia.