G20 Development Ministers Meeting - Session I: WASH

Your excellencies, ministers Mauro Vieira, Jader Filho, and Simone Tebet – muito obrigada pela calurosa recepcao. E um grande prazer estar de volta ao Rio.

Honorable ministers, dear colleagues, dear friends:

Let me start by a recognition to Brazil for including this very important issue in the G20 discussions, building on previous initiatives and producing a very good and detailed Call to Action. 

The subject of today is inextricably linked to the subject of tomorrow The global water and sanitation crisis is a crisis etched in inequality. 

The rivers may run dry for all, but it is the poor who must walk miles to fetch water, sacrificing precious hours that could be spent on education, work, or simply caring for their families. We also know that the poor pay much more for water access than high income families.

Sanitation, the foundation of public health, is still a luxury for billions. Open defecation, contaminated water sources, and inadequate hygiene practices are a breeding ground for disease, malnutrition, and premature death. They rob children of their potential, women of their dignity, and communities of their resilience.

A lot has been already said so let me add two dimensions from UNCTAD’s research

1. Water is becoming increasingly scarce and the competition for different uses more intense. In our Digital Economic Report, for example, we show that digital economy, though potentially an important instrument for better water planning, is at the same time increasing competition for water resources in communities where climate change was already depleting them. The race for AI will further stress this fact. 
   
   For example, total water consumption at Google data centres in 2022 amounted to 5.6 billion gallons, or enough to provide the minimum water requirement of the entire country of Botswana for a year. The digital economy is not intangible . It is material. And its materiality has real impacts on real communities around the world.
    
2. My second point is that we see a very worrying trend in terms of  investment. Our recent World Investment Report showed that new investments into water and sanitation projects fell by 17% last year, with less projects announced than in 2015, when the SDGs were approved.  The commitments we have heard here today are reasons for hope in reversing this tendency.
    

As has been said in this session by G20 members, water governance, coordination and cooperation including south south and trilateral cooperation are essential to change course. We must invest massively in water and sanitation infrastructure mobilizing financing from all sources, we must invest in research and innovation, in education and awareness. We must empower communities to manage their own water resources, to adopt sustainable practices, and to demand their right to clean water and sanitation.

This is not just a matter of charity; it is a matter of justice. It is a matter of fulfilling our moral obligation to ensure that every human being has access to the basic necessities of life. 

Thank you.