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GEMS Water CDC at the United Nations Environment Assembly 2016 (UNEA 2)
GLOBAL WATER CHALLENGES: PATHWAYS TOWARDS ACHIEVING AGENDA 2030
The outcome document of the United Nations “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” highlights the critical inter-linkages of the environmental and social dimensions of the water challenge ranging from human health to disaster prevention and affecting also coastal zones.
Supported by governments and UN-Water UNEP is striving to assess the current state of surface and sub-surface waters, to foster monitoring and to establish water quality guidance for ecosystems. Initial findings indicate that while some parts of water bodies are deteriorating, considerable parts are still in good condition, thus, the need to restore and maintain those parts.
The variety of actions taken and how they interlink will be presented. Starting by emphasizing how the multi-agency initiative GEMI, Monitoring Water and Sanitation in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, will contribute to the Agenda 2030 the side event will also provide a follow up on UNEA Resolution1/9 and highlight the further development of UNEP’s global WQ monitoring (GEMS/Water), including the critical role of capacity development. It will introduce the ecosystem health based classification of water bodies aiming towards policy instruments (IWQGES) and present findings, outlook and country perspectives of data and model driven assessments of current water quality, pressures and impacts in southern continents (WWQA).
The event will be aimed to establish the collective contribution of these elements in supporting countries to meet the Sustainable Development Goal targets and to highlight the critical role of data, access and communication through open platforms (UNEP Live) in delivering on Agenda 2030. It will look at monitoring innovation and accessing new data sources.
For more on this subject follow this link: https://web.archive.org/web/20160616073529/http://web.unep.org/unea/side-events/global-water-challenges-pathways-towards-achieving-agenda-2030