Upcoming event: Source-to-sea opportunities to be explored at Asia Pacific Water Summit (Dec 12, 2017)
macao city view The Asia Pacific region hosts a large variety of source-to-sea contexts, from widespread, transboundary river basins, to small island developing states, and rich marine life in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Join this event to learn about experiences from the region on how to reduce land-based impacts on coastal and marine environments.
The Asia Pacific region hosts a large variety of source-to-sea contexts, from widespread, transboundary river basins, large countries composed of many islands, to small island developing states, and rich marine life in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. At the same time, millions of tons of plastic enter the ocean from land-based sources every year. Nutrient loads from agricultural runoff and inadequate wastewater treatment continue to cause eutrophication and spread of dead zones in our coastal and marine waters. Flows of some rivers are so highly diverted that little water actually reaches the sea, robbing coastal ecosystems of the water, sediment and nutrients they need. Coasts and oceans represent enormous assets and opportunities for local and regional economies that are jeopardized by the pressures posed from activities upstream. To better realize blue economic opportunities, green investments in basins can help ensure that healthy coastal and marine systems can continue to catalyse economic development.
The importance of improving fresh- and marine water quality and reducing marine litter is recognized by several goals in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Efforts to achieve SDGs 6 and 14 have to be undertaken in collaboration with stakeholders from a wide range of sectors, many of which are operating far upstream from coasts and oceans. The freshwater community has an important role to play in designing efforts to achieve SDG 6 targets on freshwater in ways that contribute to the well-being of the oceans.
Join the event to learn about experiences from the Asia-Pacific region on how to instigate action among upstream actors to reduce land-based impacts on coastal and marine environments, drawing upon experiences of S2S Platform members and other key actors in the Asia-Pacific region. The outcomes from the session will be brought to a high-level panel on source-to-sea management at the World Water Forum in Brazil, in 2018 and from there towards the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) review of SDG 6.
