Two billion people do not have access to drinking water, or one in four people on Earth. And the question of the global management of this resource has not made great progress for decades. This is the observation of the French specialists gathered this Monday in Paris in colloquium to prepare the next UN water summit to be held from March 22 to 25 in New York (United States). “This is only the second summit of all time”, insists Nathalie Olijslager, the Dutch president of the event. The last one took place… in 1977.
“Progress is very slow,” regretfully admits Gérard Payen, vice-president of the French Water Partnership. Between 2015 and 2020, the share of people who do not have access to quality water only fell by 8 to 9%. However, the question is becoming more sensitive, above all because there are more and more of us on Earth, and that the reserves are more and more sensitive, because of global warming.
It is estimated that the atmosphere can carry 7% more humidity per additional degree and precipitation becomes more erratic. And again, the slight improvement at the global level hides more terrible realities: “In sub-Saharan Africa, among the urban population, the situation is getting worse”, points out Gérard Payen.
France is not spared
Our country, rather well watered, seems spared? “Wrong, 200,000 to 300,000 people are not connected to the drinking water network! says Maximilien Pellegrini, president of the professional water federation, and CEO of Suez. This is particularly the case in overseas territories, where rainwater is often not lacking. In Mayotte, 30% of the population cannot drink good quality tap water. This is the case for 20% of the population in Guyana. Saint-Martin is dependent on a single desalination plant.
“These territories are facing difficulties, and sometimes combine demographic pressure and exposure to climatic hazards”, explains Najib Mahfoudhi, interministerial coordinator of the water-DOM plan who, for several years, has been working on these particular situations. With funding, training but sometimes also basic technical solutions such as “safe water cubes” – small boxes to allow drinking the waves of the Maroni River in very remote villages.
A special envoy to the UN?
After 46 years during which the UN has not concerned itself with fresh water, will the summit in March be the right one? “We want to wake up the next day with concrete and quantified objectives”, pleads the Dutch Nathalie Olijslager.
Less optimistic, Gilles Kleitz, of the French Development Agency (AFD), prefers to rely on coalitions of champions, “voluntary states, city or business networks”, to unlock solutions. “As much on plastics, there has been an accelerated awareness, as much on water, I don’t feel the breath rising,” sighs Sylvie Lemmet, French ambassador for the environment.
Partly led by France, 150 countries, including Egypt, Germany, Mexico, Namibia, etc., have called for a special envoy to the UN to embody this issue. 150, the figure seems important, but “there are therefore 45 who are not for it, we breathe on the side of French diplomacy. For some, having to share water governance is indeed a red line”.