4th World Water Development Report

The 4th edition of the World Water Development Report, «Managing Water under Uncertainty and Risk», has been launched on 12 March 2012 at the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille (F). The report has 3 volumes: (1) Managing Water under Uncertainty and Risk, (2) Knowledge Base and (3) Facing the Challenges. Key messages, stakeholder briefing notes and scenario publications support the report.

Key Messages from the UN World Water Development Report (WWDR4) «Managing Water under Uncertainty and Risk»:

Water underpins all aspects of development: it is the only medium that links sectors and through which major crises can be jointly addressed.
A coordinated approach to managing and allocating water across competing sectors to meet multiple goals also helps ensure that progress made in one sector is not offset by declines in others.
Strong institutions and political will are needed to facilitate discussion and decisions between sectors and help balance risks. Institutional arrangements and regulatory frameworks must also have the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances affecting water management.
Global interdependencies will increasingly be woven through water: if no immediate action is taken, regions and sectors without enough water to meet their own needs will need to rely more heavily on others’ resources to meet them.
Under global conditions of increasing uncertainty and risk, concerted action must now be taken by water managers, leaders in government, civil society and business at local, basin, national and global levels. It is critical that national governments assume leadership and integrate water as a priority in all key policy areastrade and the economy, food and energy security, financing, public health and security – within their own countries as well as through global policy tracks, including the MDGs, CSD, and UN Conventions.

4th World Water Development Report:

Volume 1: Managing Water under Uncertainty and Risk