RESOLUTION ON DRINKING WATER: FOSTERING CO-OPERATION TO PROTECT A SCARCE RESOURCE ADVERSELY AFFECTED BY CLIMATE CHANGE 1. Recognizing that only 2.5 per cent of the world’s water can be used for drinking as the remaining 97.5 per cent is salt water from oceans and seas, 2. Stressing that water is an essential life-sustaining world heritage resource which is indispensable for our survival and well-being, and as such, its protection and management is a shared responsibility between all States, 3. Reaffirming that whilst every State has, and shall freely exercise, full permanent sovereignty over its natural resources, each State must also recognize that transborder co-operation is a must to protect a scarce resource adversely affected by climate change, 4. Envisaging that by 2050 the world’s population will increase to 9.6 billion people and that this will result in both a higher demand for and consumption of water, 5. Noting that trans-boundary water includes rivers and lakes, groundwater and atmospheric water which cross States’ borders, thus requiring co-operation between States to protect and manage it; 6. Noting that there are 276 trans-boundary river basins across the globe and that 200 transboundary aquifers have been identified, 7. Stressing that trans-boundary water co-operation has the potential to generate many significant benefits for co-operating countries, including accelerated economic growth, increased human well-being, enhanced environmental sustainability, and increased political stability, 8. Noting that there are both developed and developing countries and regions worldwide which experience absolute water scarcity, 9. Accepting that water quality and quantity are adversely affected by urbanization and persistent economic inequalities worldwide, both in cities and between urban and rural areas, where people with low incomes have less access to good quality water, leaving them vulnerable to poor sanitation, which is linked to the transmission of diseases, 10. Recognizing that water is a global nexus between sustainable environment and sustainable development and that a nation’s economic prosperity also depends on the availability and affordability of safe drinking water, 11. Accepting that water has hugely important multiple uses in the domestic, agricultural, fisheries and industrial sectors, as well as being indispensable for both macro- and microecosystems, 44