From time to time on the internet a video clip from a TV programme made in 2005 about food is posted in which I am talking about whether water is a human right.  It seems it has surfaced again, and people are using it to misrepresent my views on this important issue.

Let me be very clear about this again here on the blog, because I think the video clip, which took my views out of context, isn’t clear about the point I was trying to make.  The water you need for survival is a human right, and must be made available to everyone, wherever they are, even if they cannot afford to pay for it.

Over the past few months, the 2030 Water Resources Group (WRG) has been frequently mentioned in the media, usually by third parties with little knowledge of its goals and activities. In Switzerland, some journalists have picked up on some critics’ interpretation that the WRG is essentially a way for private companies to gain a foothold in the area of municipal water distribution. On German TV, a journalist developed, at great length, a complaint lodged by a wealthy South African that the WRG is not getting involved in improving municipal water supply.

I believe that we need to sharpen the profile of the 2030 Water Resources Group, better communicate its great potential and correct some of the misperceptions and politically biased conclusions reached by some media personalities.

The global water challenge has moved up the priority list of international leaders and government bodies over the past few years, as I have highlighted elsewhere. World Water Day is a reminder that water cooperation, particularly addressing the rapidly increasing water shortage as a challenge to societies, is more important than ever.

Many of you may know that in 2010, the United Nations General Assembly declared that 2013 was to become the UN International Year of Water Cooperation. The UN’s aim was to raise awareness of the importance of partnerships and of water management challenges, considering the increasing demand for water access, allocation and services.

The discussion on the post-2015 water-related Development Goals also includes sanitation. Basic sanitation is very important in its own right, plus it is both a matter of health and dignity. At the same time, it is necessary for the safety of our water resources – access to basic sanitation must go hand-in-hand with steps to ensure the safe collection and treatment of excretion and domestic wastewater. As I just mentioned, these issues are important, but it is not an area I am sufficiently well informed about. I therefore asked my friend Bekele Geleta, Secretary General of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, to write a guest commentary on the issue together with possible solutions.

The recent Davos session in Switzerland on ‘Pathways to a Sustainable Future’ was a great opportunity to meet Minister Edna Molewa from South Africa again, our strongest governmental ally in the Water Resources Group.

The discussion focused on several areas of sustainability besides water, including health (vaccination) and access to energy. When talking about water we came to a clear conclusion – when tackling challenges as great as those faced by the world today, collaboration within the strategies set by governments is essential. The crucial first step of course, is to agree on what urgent challenges require most collaboration. Encouragingly, there is growing consensus.