International Hydrological Programme

    Achievements: from 1996 to 2001

    • 1996, beginning of the Water and Civilization project, to tackle issues on water-related conflict resolution and prevention by properly considering the cultural aspects of water management


    • January 1997, publication of ‘Comprehensive Assessment of the Freshwater Resources of the World’ in the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) publication, CSD Update


    • April 1997, International Symposium on Water, the City and Urban Planning, held at UNESCO Headquarters and issued the Paris Statement


    • 1999, establishment of the Regional Humid Tropics Hydrology and Water Resources Centre for Southeast Asia and the Pacific (HTC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia


    • February 1999, endorsement of the Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy (HELP) initiative project, at the 5th joint UNESCO/World Meteorological Organization (WMO) International Conference on Hydrology in Geneva.


    • 2000, establishment of the UN World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)


    • 2000, creation of the Internationally Shared Aquifers Resources Management Programme (ISARM), in collaboration the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)


    • 2001, implementation of From Potential Conflict to Cooperation Potential (PC-CP) with Green Cross International (GCI), to identify and integrate cooperative solutions for the sustainable management of 263 river catchments shared by two or more countries


    • 2001, establishment of the Regional Centre for Training and Water Studies of Arid and Semi-arid Zones (RCTWS) in Cairo, Egypt


    MILESTONES
    March 20002nd World Water Forum

    The Forum called upon the Secretary General of the United Nations to further strengthen the co-ordination and coherence of activities on water issues within the UN system.

    September 2000United Nations Millennium Summit


    At the Summit, world leaders agreed to a set of time-bound and measurable goals and targets for combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. Placed at the heart of the global agenda, they are now called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). One of these MDGs aims to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.

    December 2001Bonn International Conference on Freshwater
    The conference placed water as the central element to sustainable development and identified the water crisis as essentially a crisis of governance.