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.

This week I chaired the second meeting of the University of Alberta’s Water Initiative External Advisory Board. This is a truly international and multi-stakeholder group set up by the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University, Indira Samarasekera. I first met Indira in Davos at the World Economic Forum some years ago, a truly visionary leader of the academic world with a strong entrepreneurial spirit.

At the meeting, we focused our discussion on the following key areas: water and resource extraction – an issue key to Alberta and beyond; future water demand and supply, with the perspective to create effective solutions; and water quality beyond cities. The first area, water and resource extraction seems to have particularly high potential, in view of research on fracking and water in tailings already ongoing in the University.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos at the end of last month, I chaired the constitutional meeting of the Governing Council of the 2030 Water Resources Group . On this occasion, the Council also approved the group’s 2012 Annual Report.

It has taken decades to realise that water security is a global issue. Today’s water security threat is unlike previous extremes against which we evolved and adapted. Because it is more gradual than hurricanes or volcanic eruptions, fires or floods, yet harder to escape than local drought and hunger, the risk posed by water scarcity is complex, silent, invisible and global.

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.

5. What would you want governments to do?

Water needs to move up governments’ priority lists. They should strengthen leadership, identify actionable goals and set priorities at different levels – nationally, in individual watersheds/river basins, and locally. And instead of a multiplicity of different agencies acting in silos, governments should aim to build comprehensive water resource management strategies that also take into account the water-food-energy nexus.

Furthermore, governments should aim to bring together stakeholders in watersheds, both at a community and national level to discuss goals and their implementation. Experience with the MDGs shows that political mobilisation for development goals at a global level is not enough.