The Geneva Water Hub is a water research and policy institute headquartered in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. Established by the

Swiss Confederation Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerlan ...

and the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

it focuses on hydro-diplomacy to prevent and resolve water-related conflicts, conducts water related research, runs education courses and is a think-tank on global

water governance Environmental governance are the processes of decision-making involved in the control and management of the environment and natural resources. These processes includes government, business and civil society. Environmental governance may also refe ...

and its challenges.

History and Key Work

Founded in 2014, the Geneva Water Hub, with offices at the

and the

World Meteorological Organization The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology an ...

, works to bridge the gap between water research, policy and practice on the ground - often at cross boundary and

river basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, th ...

scale. From 2015 until 2017 it acted as the Secretariat to the Global High Level Panel on Water and Peace and now acts as the secretariat for the Group of Friends for Water and Peace, about forty countries represented by their Permanent Missions to the United Nations in Geneva. It also coordinates the Universities Partnership for Water Cooperation and Diplomacy, launched at the 2018

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

Davos, Switzerland Davos (, ; or ; ; Old ) is an Alpine resort town and municipality in the Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of (). Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian Al ...

with IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, the German-Kazakh University in Almaty, and Oregon State University. This university consortium was established to encourage dialogue and capacity-building between countries and among different professional sectors.

Water and Peace

In 2015, the World Economic Forum ranked

water scarcity Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity. One is ''physical.'' The other is ''economic water scarcity''. Physic ...

as the largest global risk over the next decade. Already, 40% of the world's population is affected by water scarcity on a planet where more than 260 international rivers cross many man-made boundaries. In addition, more than half the planet's

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s have disappeared and

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

is impacting weather and water patterns around the world. Yet, as the dialogue of ‘water wars’ increases, research shows that water is far more a tool for cooperation and peace than conflict. During the 20th century there were only seven minor confrontations over water, with 145 treaties signed in the same 100 years. Through academic research, policy and hydro-diplomacy the Geneva Water Hub works to shift the global dialogue from ‘ water and conflict’ to ‘water for peace and cooperation’, to deliver better water governance and the long-term protection of critical water resources and infrastructure.

Global High-Level Panel on Water and Peace

In 2015, the Geneva Water Hub began working as Secretariat to the Global High Level Panel on Water and Peace – a 15 country co-convened initiative focused on strengthening the global framework to prevent and resolve water-related conflicts and to facilitate the use of water as an instrument of peace and cooperation. In its 2017 report “A Matter of Survival” the Global High-Level Panel on Water and Peace outlined its recommendations for a fundamental rethinking of international water cooperation from the

UN Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

to other multilateral institutions and down to grass-roots level organisations.

Water Governance Education

At the University of Geneva, the Geneva Water Hub runs an annual Summer School in Water Governance and a distance learning course on International Water Law and the Law of Transboundary Aquifers. It also offers several open access Massive Online Open Courses for water technicians and the water policy community on topics such as water resources policy and management, international water law and

ecosystem services Ecosystem services are the various benefits that humans derive from Ecosystem, ecosystems. The interconnected Biotic_material, living and Abiotic, non-living components of the natural environment offer benefits such as pollination of crops, clean ...

References

External links