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By Christohe Uwizeyimana
Dr. Emmanuel Rukundo, Director of the Rwanda Water Resources Board (RWB), focused on Rwanda’s water stress experience at the UN Water Conference event ‘Disaggregation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator 6.4.2 – level of water stress by river basin.’
The event was organized by the Rwanda Water Resources Board (RWB), in collaboration with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), held in New York on 24th March, 2023.
It also featured different water partners including Agência Nacional de Águase Saneamento Básico (ANA) – BRAZIL, Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA)– Italy and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI).
“I thank FAO for supporting the implementation of pilot projects on the disaggregation of the SDG Indicator 6.4.2 utilizing the river basin method in our respective countries,”
“The latest global data show that governments must work on average four times faster to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG6) on time. Rwanda is glad to be utilizing this innovative method to support strategic water resource management plans and achieve this,”
“The river basin method provides an innovative contribution to the sustainable use of water at the catchment level by providing a finer view of both the causes and effects of water stress. It also allows policy and decision-makers to target interventions at catchments with high water stress,” Dr. Rukundo remarked.
He delivered remarks at this side event along with FAO Land and Water’s Deputy Director Sasha Koo Oshima.
The side event’s objectives were to illustrate the proposed methods for the disaggregation of water stress; present the success case study of Rwanda; and discuss the methods and their implications for water management and policy with the other country partners.
Furthermore, a panel discussion on a keynote titled ‘The disaggregation of the level of water stress at river basin level in Rwanda: strengths and weaknesses of the applied method and usefulness for decision making’ was held as part of this side event.
Among the panel speakers were Dr. Emmanuel Rukundo, Director General of Rwanda Water Resources Board (RWB), Alsaad Ndayizeye, River Flood Control Specialist of Rwanda Water Resources Board (RWB) as well SDG 6.4.2 Focal Point, Felipe De Sa Tavares, Superintendent of Water and Socioeconomic Studies of Agência Nacional de Águas e Saneamento Básico (ANA) in Brazil, Martina Bussettini, Head – Area for Hydrology, Hydromorphology, Hydrodynamics and Freshwater Ecosystem Dynamics, Environmental Monitoring and Biodiversity in Conservation Department at Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA) in Italy and Annette Huber-lee, Senior Scientist of Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in USA.
Today’s UN Water Conference event ‘Disaggregation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator 6.4.2 – level of water stress by river basin’ showcased the innovative methods to disaggregate water stress (SDG 6.4.2) and its components at catchment and river basin level, through the presentation of a few case studies prepared in various countries following different methodologies.
