The United Nations World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) is hosted and led by UNESCO. WWAP brings together the work of 31 UN-Water Members as well as 37 Partners to publish the United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) series. Under the theme Water for Sustainable Development, the WWDR 2015 has been prepared as a contribution from UN-Water to the discussions surrounding the post-2015 framework for global sustainable development. Highlighting water's unique and often complex role in achieving various sustainable development objectives, the WWDR 2015 is addressed to policy- and decision-makers inside and outside the water community, as well as to anyone with an interest in freshwater and its many life-giving benefits. The report sets an aspirational yet achievable vision for the future of water towards 2050 by describing how water supports healthy and prosperous human communities, maintains well functioning ecosystems and ecological services, and provides a cornerstone for short and long-term economic development. It provides an overview of the challenges, issues and trends in terms of water resources, their use and water-related services like water supply and sanitation. The report also offers, in a rigorous yet accessible manner, guidance about how to address these challenges and to seize the opportunities that sound water management provides in order to achieve and maintain economic, social and environmental sustainability.

The 2020 edition of the WWDR, titled Water and Climate Change illustrates the critical linkages between water and climate change in the context of the broader sustainable development agenda. Supported by examples from across the world, it describes both the challenges and opportunities created by climate change, and provides potential responses – in terms of adaptation, mitigation and improved resilience – that can be undertaken by enhancing water resources management, attenuating water-related risks, and improving access to water supply and sanitation services for all in a sustainable manner. It addresses the interrelations between water, people, environment and economics in a changing climate, demonstrating how climate change can be a positive catalyst for improved water management, governance and financing to achieve a sustainable and prosperous world for all. The report provides a fact-based, water-focused contribution to the knowledge base on climate change. It is complementary to existing scientific assessments and designed to support international political frameworks, with the goals of helping the water community tackle the challenges of climate change, and informing the climate change community about the opportunities that improved water management offers in terms of adaptation and mitigation.

Access to water and sanitation is internationally recognized human right. Yet more than t wo billion people lack even the most basic of services. The latest United Nations World Water Development Report, Leaving No One Behind, explores the symptoms of exclusion and investigates ways to overcome inequalities.

This book offers a close examination of water scarcity as a developmental challenge facing member nations of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the interventions that have been implemented to combat the situation and the challenges still outstanding. The first chapter paints the backdrop of the water scarcity problem, reviewing historical approaches from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro to the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002) to the United Nations Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development (2012), and recapping principles and agreements reached during and after these conferences. Chapter two examines the Southern Africa region’s efforts to combat water scarcity including principles, policies and strategies and the responsibility of each member to implement them. Written by the editor, J.P. Msangi, the chapter describes Namibia’s efforts to ensure management of scarce water. Beyond enacting management and pollution control regulations and raising public awareness, Namibia encourages research to ensure attainment of the requirements of both the SADC Protocol and its own water scarcity management laws. The next three chapters offer Namibia-based case studies on impacts of pollution on water treatment; on the effects of anthropogenic activities on water quality and on the effects of water transfers from dams upstream of Von Bach dam. The final chapter provides detailed summaries of the issues discussed in the book, highlighting conclusions and offering recommendations. Combating Water Scarcity in Southern Africa synthesizes issues pertinent to the SADC countries as well as to other regions, and offers research that up to now has not been conducted in Namibia.