UN Officials: Tackling Water, Sanitation, Energy Nexus Key to Future Sustainable Development

Senior UN officials on Tuesday called on member states to adopt coherent integrated policies and innovative strategies to tackle the water, sanitation and sustainable energy crises that they warned are among the world 's prominent development challenges.

"Lack of access to water, sanitation and sustainable energy services is a compound magnifier of poverty, ill-health and mortality, and gender inequality," John W. Ashe, president of the UN General Assembly, said when he opened the 193-member body's thematic debate on the issue.

Tuesday's gathering is the first in the series of such debates and high-level events he will host this year to provide a platform for member states and other stakeholders to set the stage for the post-2015 development agenda.

Ashe has made the effort to achieve a new post-2015 agenda to succeed the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) the hallmark of his year-long General Assembly presidency, which ends in September.

The MDGs, agreed by world leaders at a UN summit in 2000, aim to slash extreme hunger and poverty, cut maternal and infant mortality, combat disease and provide access to universal education and health care, all by the end of 2015. But these targets will likely not be reached in many countries and areas, and they will be incorporated in an even more ambitious post-2015 agenda.

"Addressing this nexus of water, sanitation and sustainable energy is not just a matter of grave concern, it is a matter of moral imperative for the entire international community," said Ashe, noting that the magnitude of the problem is great: 783 million people live without clean water; 2.5 billion have no adequate sanitation; and 1.4 billion people are without access to electricity.

He said the international community is already in agreement that energy, water and sanitation are essential to the achievement of many development goals.

"They are inextricably linked to climate change, agriculture, food security, health, gender and education, among others," Ashe said. "So, today, I ask you to consider how we can develop a more integrated approach to problem-solving so that we can best address this development nexus."

Tackling such "complex and self-reinforcing problems" will require member states to "dig deep, to express your creativity, to share your experiences and to provide your guidance and inputs in collaborating to achieve these goals, and in creating a post-2015 world that allows every member of the global family to live in dignity," he said.

The call for diligent and creative action was echoed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene must feature prominently in the post- 2015 development agenda.

"We must improve water quality and the management of water resources and wastewater. This is a matter of justice and opportunity," Ban said.

"Affordable and reliable modern energy services are essential for alleviating poverty, improving health and raising living standards," Ban said, citing the Sustainable Energy for All initiative he launched in 2011. The initiative has three goals: universal access by 2030; improve efficiency of energy and cut waste; and to increase the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.

"We need clean efficient energy to combat climate change," the UN chief said, noting that with the global population now at 7 billion and rising, "by 2030 we will need 35 percent more food, 40 percent more water and 50 percent more energy."

Climate change will also exacerbate water stress and scarcity in many regions. If the current global warming trend is allowed to continue, all the international community's efforts to provide universal and equitable access to water and energy will be undermined.

As such, Ban plans to convene a climate summit on Sept. 23 for global leaders from government, business, finance, and civil society. "I want to catalyze ambitious action on the ground and mobilize greater political will for a meaningful legal climate agreement in 2015," he said.