Special Session on Transversality / IWRM

During his speech to present the new report of the World Wtaer Council, Loic Fauchon underlined the need for a new vision for water management.

 

For several decades, we have gotten used to organizing water management vertically, in a series of silos, which we called “Integrated Water Resources Management”.

This is still necessary to talk about water security, innovation, financing, governance. However, it is not enough. 

Because access to water and to energy is the same battle. 

Because neither water nor energy alone suffice without the ability to produce sustenance.

Because there is no purpose in feeding populations if they are left to die from water related diseases. 

Because when the earth is thirsty, men are hungry. 

Because education unlocks people’s ability to become stewards for natural resources and actors of their own development. 

These lessons together provide the basis for what I have called the Five Fingers Alliance, a horizontal and multisectoral approach, which is truly the societal fuel for resilience.

Furthermore, this horizontal approach also shows us the importance of rural areas!