Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Our greatest task needs to be avoiding and solving conflicts over water. The livelihood and health of billions of people depends on their access to water but we know that climate change is going to make matters worse – demand for fresh water will exceed supply by 40 per cent in 2030 if current practices continue. This means that conflicts over water will be inevitable.
In those conditions it is essential that we have a legal framework that allows cooperation of countries in transboundary basins, sharing water resources and adapting to climate change. 60 per cent of the world's surface water resources are shared by two or more countries.
The Water Convention, currently chaired by Estonia, is such platform. The convention has recently aided agreements in the Senegalese-Mauritanian Aquifer Basin, in Chu-Talas basin between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and in the Dniester basin shared by Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
The Water Convention also hosts the “Global network of basins working on climate change adaptation”. The network provides a mechanism to share experience and replicate success stories in climate change adaptation in shared basins. As a country sharing the largest border lake in Europe, the Lake Peipsi, we have witnessed the inevitability of cross-border cooperation in response to climate change.
Estonia calls upon all United Nations Member States sharing transboundary waters to join the Water Convention and benefit from its legal framework, instruments and institutional platform.
Thank you!
