Investments into science research
has been found worthy of reducing water risks, says the latest study by the
Global Environment Facility (GEF) in partnership with the United Nations
University (UNU) and United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).
The report of a recent study on
water-related project has reiterated that investment in science could help in
reducing risks that are in connection with water resources.
The study was conducted by the
largest public funder of projects to improve the global environment and promote
sustainable development, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with the
partnership of the UNU and UNEP.
About 200 major international
water-related projects over the past two decades were studied which give room
for the identification of existing as well as emerging challenges and how
science can offer solutions.
A press statement made available to
NaijaAgroNet revealed that the study extracted lessons from a portfolio of
major trans-boundary water projects involving investments of more than US$7
billion, about N1.1 billion.
It is also revealed that river
basins in particular are set to experience growing pressures as a result of
urbanization, rising water scarcity and poor water quality.
GEF warns that the linkage between
science and policymaking needs strengthening, and that the consequences of poor
decision-making are dire leading to water-bankruptcy in some regions in the
world with their adverse effects on food and energy security.
The report of the study affirmed a
significant drop in the level of dissolved oxygen levels in marine areas which
is a critical ecological indicator. A major increase of stored heat in oceans
was also highlighted in the report.
Director, United Nations University
International Network on Water, Environment and Health, Zafar Adeel said the
study underscores how often early ‘alarm bells’ with respect to emerging issues
could be heard and must be heeded.
“The report offers helpful
recommendations to the GEF to foster this process,” Adeel said.
Some other findings highlighted in
the reports include a significant drop in the levels of dissolved oxygen in
marine areas over a relatively short period of time which is an indication of
critical ecology.
The report also stated that there
is a major increase in stored heat in oceans with its negative impact on
ecosystem, sea levels as well as human existence.
For GEF’s International Waters
Focal Area Coordinator, Ivan Zavadsky affirmed that for over 20 years, GEF had
catalyzed the largest investment of its kind in human history. “GEF’s $1.3
billion catalyzed a total of $7 billion of investment in managing shared waters
- fresh and marine - in almost every part of the planet, above and below its
surface.”
The UN Under-Secretary-General and
UNEP, Executive Director, Achim Steiner, pointed out that world leaders agreed
at the Rio+20 summit in June to strengthen the science-policy interface and to
foster international research collaboration on sustainable development.
“This is especially important in
respect to water resources at a point in time of unprecedented pressures from
climate change and urbanization to pollution and over extraction,” Steiner
said.
Yinka Awosanya
... Linking agrobiz, people & technology
