World Water Development Report 2021: Valuing Water
2021
This report, published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on behalf of UN-Water, examines the need for improved water resources management. Improved water resources management requires recognizing, measuring, and expressing water's value so that it can inform decision-making around this essential resource. Power and equity are also central to this conversation: Those who control how water is valued also shape how it used. The 2021 World Water Development Report highlights the current landscape of water valuation and opportunities to reconcile multiple values of water to achieve the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The report—which is published annually—discusses how differences in defining water's worth occur both between stakeholder groups and within them. Because of these different perspectives, it is almost impossible to quantitatively compare the value of water for domestic use, the human right to water, customary or religious beliefs, and the value of maintaining flows to preserve biodiversity. To reconcile some of the challenges in valuation, the report organizes current approaches into five thematic groups and contextualizes with experiences from diverse global regions. The report is accompanied by an executive summary, a fact sheet, and a narrated audiobook of the report.
World Water Development Report 2021: Valuing Water
Source:
United Nations World Water Development Report 2021: Valuing Water. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, UN-Water 2021. https://www.unwater.org/publications/un-world-water-development-report-2021.