Message from Dharwad to Morocco: Climate change summit - act or perish

I
In my view
ANALYSIS
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9,2016
Published in Kuwait Times
http://news.kuwaittimes.net/pdf/2016/nov/09/p14.pdf

Message from Dharwad to Morocco: Climate change summit - act or perishBy Deepak Parvatiyar



As world leaders sit to discuss climate change at the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP-22) to the United Nations Framework Convention (UNFCC) on Climate Change in Morocco from Nov 7 to Nov 17, water gets the prominence that it deserves at the summit level for the first time. The hard fact though remains that water could get included as an issue only in COP-21 in Paris last year after a sustained movement by water activists from across the globe. In Paris Agreement, water was included in the middle and now in Morocco there will be a separate dialogue on water which experts feel will have a large impact on our lives. Euphemistically Paris was among the earliest places where commercialization of water was allowed. And it says it all at a time when campaign for community driven water conservation is gaining ground.  At COP 21 in Paris, Parties to the UNFCC reached a landmark agreement to combat climate change. They charted a new course in the global climate effort and served as a driver for collective global actions.  COP 22 in Morocco would be historic in the sense that here water, climate adaptation and community action with agrarian perspectives would be brought to the centre stage of global climate change debate. It is in this light a special mention of the recommendations of the Global Water Meet 2016 at the precincts of University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad, India, is important.  Scientists, researchers, academics, policy makers, social activists, NGOs and farmers from across 20 countries representing five continents attended the important meet to provide focused recommendation on water and agriculture. The Dharwad Declaration of Climate Change, Water and Agriculture, shows ways and means for execution of Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and emphasizes that climate change negotiations should put people first - that each and every inhabitant of the planet has equal rights to common goods and natural resources. It recommends: a) A comprehensive review of policy and holistic plan related to water use efficiency, conservation, rejuvenation of rivers, and value added services (demand driven rationing) b) Urgent attention to identify and recommend location specific and ecologically sustainable water saving crops that helps bridge the yield gap currently existing in farmers’ fields compared to results from research and demonstration programs. Experts are already concerned how climate change is impacting rainfall patterns, food production, bio diversity, fish availability, water resources. A UN report states that as many as 3.4 billion people will live in water-scarce countries, by 2025. This is a scary situation considering this directly impacts agricultural productivity since agriculture is by far the largest consumer of water globally, accounting for about 70% of water withdrawals worldwide.
Scarce commodity There is no doubt that challenges in the water sector are aggravated by climate change impacts. In an agrarian country like India, where two-thirds of its cultivated land is rain-fed, the per capita availability of water, as per Indian government’s own admission, is “not very favorable”. According to Dr. David Bergvison, Director General of International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, per capita water availability in India had decreased from 5177 m3 in the 1950s to 1545 m3 in 2011. Water has already become a scarce commodity in the developing world of Asia and Africa. Agriculture, which provides a livelihood for about three-quarters of Africa’s population, is mainly rain-fed.  Severe and protracted droughts, flooding and loss of land due to desertification and soil erosion are reducing agricultural yields and causing crop failure and loss of livestock, which endangers rural and pastoralist populations. Already there are prolonged and intensified droughts in eastern Africa; depletion of rain forests in equatorial Africa; unprecedented floods in western Africa. Similarly, the Horn of Africa’s pastoralist areas (Ethiopia-Kenya-Somalia border) have been severely hit by recurrent droughts. “Livestock losses have plunged approximately 11 million people dependent on livestock for their livelihoods into a crisis and triggered mass migration of pastoralists out of droughtaffected areas,” points out Fischer Chiyanike, President of Zimbabwe United Nations Association. What sounds ominous that water scientists have been warning about is the mismatch between demand and supply of water which is creating more conflicts among countries and the regions within countries than ever before.
Sustainability There has been a large fluctuation in water balance. Already there are many water experts who believe that conflicts in the Middle East are because of the longest droughts in the region in the last 900 years. The war in Syria is another example how the issue of water is a key to understand the ongoing political struggle. Syria for the last four decades was among the countries leading in food sustainability alongside with Bothan and Cuba.

NOTE: Deepak Parvatiyar is a New Delhi-based journalist and filmmaker