Outcomes from the WSSD

The official outcomes of WSSD are:

• Plan of Implementation, the main outcome document negotiated by all States Read more
• Political Declaration, a short 'window dressing' document signed by Heads of State. Read more
• New Partnership initiatives [Type II agreements] designed to implement the Plan of Action. The water sector did achieve some successful outcomes in the Plan of Implementation.
• Sanitation: All governments agreed to a new target to halve the proportion of people without access to basic adequate sanitation by 2015, which includes actions to:
  (a) Develop and implement efficient household sanitation systems
  (b) Improve sanitation in public institutions, especially schools
  (c) Promote safe hygiene practices
  (d) Promote education and outreach focused on children
  (e) Promote affordable and socially and culturally acceptable technologies and practices
  (f) Develop innovative financing and partnership mechanisms
  (g) Integrate sanitation into water resources management strategies.
• Safe Drinking Water: States agreed to 'Launch programme of actions, with financial and technical assistance, to achieve the millennium development goal on safe drinking water' (Halve the proportion of people unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water by 2015)
• Prioritize water and sanitation in national sustainable development strategies and poverty reduction strategies where they exist.
• IWRM: All governments confirmed they would develop plans for integrated water resource management and water efficiency by 2005 with support to developing countries.
• Agriculture:
  (a) Develop integrated land management and water-use plans based on sustainable use of renewable resources and on integrated assessments of socio-economic and environmental potentials.
  (b) Strengthen the capacity of Governments, local authorities and communities to monitor and manage the quantity and quality of land and water resources.
  (c) Support the efforts of developing countries to protect oases from silt, land degradation and increasing salinity with technical and financial assistance.
  (d) Adopt policies and implement laws that guarantee well defined and enforceable land and water use rights.
• UN: Promote effective coordination among the various international and intergovernmental bodies and processes working on water-related issues, both within the United Nations system and between the United Nations and international financial institutions.

Plan of Implementation Failures

The Plan of Implementation has many shortfalls, below is a list of issues that FAN members were campaigning on, but which governments failed to commit to:

• No agreement on management of transboundary rivers (they were dropped from the text completely)
• No mention of polluter-pays principle
• No mention or support for the World Commission on Dams recommendations
• No agreed indicators for monitoring the use and pollution of water resources
• No prioritisation for expenditure targeted at the poor.
• No recognition that water is a common resource
• No recognition that water is a basic human right

Regional Outcomes on Water

The EU Water Initiative was launched by the signing of a declaration between the European Union and the African Ministers Council on Water. Read more

Incomaputo Regional Water Sharing Agreement

Three African countries - Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland signed an historic water sharing agreement governing the use of two rivers along their borders. The initiative, known as the Incomaputo Agreement, will provide 10 000 jobs and poverty relief in an area of limited economic potential. Read more