How can we promote sustainable water management (quantity, quality, sharing) in the face of climate change?

The UN Water Conference, the first in 50 years, which started on 22 March 2023 in New York, has drawn up 
a particularly alarming report: multiple droughts, fires, water pollution, water as a source of conflict, etc. In France, the effects of climate change on water are already visible and will become increasingly so. 

The ESEC has been addressing this issue extensively for many years. In September 2022, it issued a warning in a Statement on Water and recently focused on water management in the Overseas Territories. At a time when the 
situation regarding this precious resource is still strained due to the impacts of climate change with hydrological 
consequences, anthropic pressures, conflicts of use, pollution of the resource etc., the ESEC has decided to extend its thinking on the quality, quantity and sharing of water, in order to sustainably manage this resource, a common heritage.

It welcomes the fact that this subject is now on the political agenda at the highest level, as shown by the announcement of the Water Plan by the President of the Republic on 30 March. The aim of the opinion is to provide specific recommendations on this multi-faceted problem and to provide input for political decisions by going even further on the management of water quantity and quality.