Participating in high-level events on the margins of the high level week of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly, Deputy Secretary of State for International Cooperation Ádám Zoltán Kovács highlighted the essential role of water management in achieving sustainable development and poverty eradication, calling for a multilevel, inclusive approach for water cooperation and a regular global monitoring and reporting mechanism.
At the high-level event organized by Tajikistan in collaboration with the other members of the Steering Committee of the Group of the Friends of Water - Finland, Hungary, Switzerland, and Thailand - and the United Nations Development Programme, Deputy Secretary of State for International Cooperation Ádám Zoltán Kovács underlined that for the realization of SDG 6 a multilevel, inclusive approach for water cooperation, and a robust intergovernmental process to regularly monitor, review and assess progress of the implementation of the water goal are needed. Therefore, he reiterated Hungary’s call for the establishment of an Intergovernmental Panel on Water and Sanitation as already proposed by the Budapest Water Summit in 2013.
Participating in a side event organized by the governments of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of South Africa, Hungary and the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Deputy Secretary of State Kovács highlighted that the significance of the water-SDG lies in its novel comprehensive approach, having included the issue of water management regarding the whole water-cycle and sustainable water usage taking into account every – urban, industrial and agricultural – type of needs. He emphasized that meeting the water challenge requires new, innovative policy approaches, both within the water sector and in concert with other social and economic sectors, especially, health, food and energy.
To read the two statements at these events, please click here and here.
