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2 A River Basin Approach for the Coordinated Implementation of Water Related Targets in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Binaya Raj Shivakoti1,*
1Natural Resources and Ecosystem Services Unit, Institute for Global Environmental Strategy, Hayama, Japan
*Corresponding Author: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Adoption of sustainable development goals (SDGs) offers a targeted and time‐bound approach for sustainable development. Water, along with its dedicated goal (SDG6), is at the core of SDGs due to its interdependency and synergistic relationship with all SDGs. Implementation of SDG6, as well as other SDGs, remains a challenge for many countries due to the enormity of the scope, complexities of interlinkages among the goals and their targets, and less clarity on entry points. Pursuing an integrated approach for implementing SDGs is indispensable. In this context, integrated water resources management (IWRM), as the central concept, and integrated river basin management (IRBM) approach as a spatial unit for applying the concept has been proposed as a pragmatic solution for implementing water related targets of SDGs. For that, the Lower Mekong Basin has been shown as a case for examining the pertinent issues and challenges for adopting IRBM for implementing SDGs.
2.1. INTRODUCTION
The United Nations’ (UN) 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda agreed by the member countries marks the beginning of a new era and a true beacon of hope for the sustainable development. An important feature of this agreement was the launching of 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), spread across 169 targets and over 230 indicators, encompassing the major sustainable development agenda of modern times. SDGs – also known as “Global Goals “ signifying their global scope – provide a visionary roadmap or a guide for all countries, governments, and stakeholders to strive for sustainable development in every aspect of decision‐making while addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity (ICSU 2017). SDGs are transformative provided their effective implementation takes place at all levels, that is local, sub‐national, national, and international levels.
Water has a dedicated goal (Goal #6) to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” in SDGs. Water is at the core of SDGs and acts as an enabler for realizing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Water security underpins sustainable development as it shares a close interdependency with multiple sustainability challenges such as in terms of food security, economic development, energy generation, environmental sustainability, and climate change.
Implementation of SDG 6 along with other targets of 16 SDGs is an overwhelming task for many developing countries, where the means of implementation (MOI) and capacity to mobilize resources are limited. Equally important are cross‐linkages between SDG6 and other SDGs such as water related disaster (Goal 11), zero hunger (Goal 2), good health and well‐being (Goal 3), climate action (Goal 13), etc. Because of these inter‐linkages, implementation of each SDG could complement or contradict the outcomes of other SDGs. There are calls for pursuing an integrated approach for implementing SDGs so that synergies could be maximized