Water governance in the twentieth-first century

The challenges facing water management have become increasingly global in scope since the 1970s. This reflects the rising awareness about the uncertainties posed by the worsening situation of the hydrosphere, and particularly freshwater, and the unsustainability of water management practices in many areas. It is also a reflection of the conflicts flaring up from the protracted social inequalities affecting the access to water for essential human uses and from the inefficiency, ineffectiveness, and inefficacy characterizing water management in many regions, not just in the poorer countries. In this regard, since the 1970s the international community has launched significant and far-reaching policy initiatives in response to the challenges. These include tackling desertification, controlling water pollution, developing conflict prevention measures in the light of ongoing and potential water conflicts, monitoring and preventing water-related threats and hazards (ranging from the impact of floods and other disastrous climatic events to the persistence, revival and emergence of water-related diseases), to overcoming the deficiencies and inequalities in the allocation and distribution of water for essential human use in developing countries (for a synthesis of the main international initiatives since the 1970s, see " MILESTONES 1972-2003: from Stockholm to Kyoto " at UNESCO's Water Portal, However, despite the important efforts made in recent decades, there is a growing awareness that the struggle for reducing ecological unsustainability and limiting the negative impact of water-related hazards and deficiencies in water management is being lost in many countries. As an example, let us consider the goal of guaranteeing universal access to essential water and sanitation services, which continues to be a main target of the international community. The goal of universalizing these services was restated in the late 1970s, when the aspiration to provide essential volumes of safe water to every human being on